Miscellaneous

My adventures with Northwest/KLM/Delta

Here's the first part of the story.  I purchased a roundtrip ticket to Helsinki, Finland, to attend my brother's wedding.  I thought it was refundable, and I purchased trip insurance on top of that.  Short version: it wasn't refundable, and I ended up with a $1150 "credit" that I "might" be able to use someday on a NWA/KLM flight. 

Second part of the story: my grandmother died yesterday, and I am trying to figure out how to get to the funeral.  (Although the estate will reimburse me for my travel costs, I would like to save the estate money.  Plus, it's already a sunk cost on my end.)

I thought I could use the credit to purchase the three of us tickets to Jacksonville, FL and back.

WRONG! 

It can only be used for my ticket.  So, I thought, I could just pay the $700 for the tickets for Matthew and Peach and I would be able to use the credit to purchase my ticket.

WRONG! 

An international credit can only be used on a domestic flight if that domestic flight is as expensive or more expensive than the original international flight reservation.  The NWA reservation supervisor helpfully told me she would price a coach seat at $1200 for me so that I could use my credit.  Even though the seat was only $300 plus fees. 

How helpful. 

And did I mention I would have to pay a $250 penalty for re-using the credit?  And a $20 fee for making my reservation on the phone?  And that even though I'd be flying from Portland to Jacksonville, if I wanted a meal, I'd have to purchase one?  Oh, and there were no three seats together on any leg of the trip?

Riiiight.  This was not working. 

After much calling other airlines, internet searching, and discussions with Matthew, the plan is thus: I am going to the funeral alone, albeit in first class.  (Matthew should have been a travel agent - he was able to finess the search engines and found NWA flights that perfectly coincided with the Soutwest flight my brother and mother are arriving on.)   I managed to get the $250 penalty waived.   I'll have to drive up from Orlando (not a fun drive under any circumstances) instead of the quick drive from Jacksonville, and I will not have Matthew and Peach with me, but it'll get me there. 

I guess the next thing I need to figure out is what the fee is per checked bag. 

Full post as published by The Menagerie on November 24, 2008 (boomark / email).