Please help me change/cancel my NWA reservation without paying service fees.

October 24, 2006 3:47 PM

I bought a non-refundable plane ticket on Sunday night from Northwest Airlines. It's now Tuesday afternoon and I need to make a change to my reservation. I know I can easily do this by paying their $100 service fee, but I'm trying to avoid this. Any help is appreciated.

Can I cancel my reservation and get a credit that I can use to re-book this flight?

I read their "Customer's First" policy and it states that full refunds are available until midnight on the day after a reservation has been made. Anyone have experience with NWA agents bending this policy to include more than one day?

My flight is not until mid-November so it's not like it's a last minute booking.

posted by charlesroper to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

The experts will be in the Northwest forum of Flyertalk. I imagine you are wasting your time though. I doubt you will be able to get an extra day on the one-day refund. If you can get credit by cancelling the flight, you will probably still be assessed a penalty.
posted by grouse at 3:58 PM on October 24, 2006 [1 favorite]

Why the change? Are you a frequent flier? You might try calling them, on your frequent flier number, bonus points for elite status. If you do not get the answer you want the first time call back. A different person might give you a different answer, especially if you find someone who warms to your special reasons for changing. I've done it before, you might be able to as well.
posted by caddis at 4:03 PM on October 24, 2006

Response by poster: I do plan on calling NWA, I just wanted to hear some opinions before doing so. The only change I need to make is my departure location on my return flight.

Grouse: I'll check out Flyertalk and see what I can find. Thanks for the reference.
posted by charlesroper at 4:06 PM on October 24, 2006

Are you changing to another co-terminal in the same metro area (e.g. LGA -> JFK)?
posted by grouse at 4:16 PM on October 24, 2006

Response by poster: @grouse: I'm changing my return trip from Portland, OR to Spokane, WA. i.e. instead of flying out of Portland, I need to fly out of Spokane.
posted by charlesroper at 5:33 PM on October 24, 2006

You'll still get dinged for the $100 fee if you cancel and use the credit for another flight. It will be deducted from the credit.
posted by cabingirl at 7:38 PM on October 24, 2006

I don't know if Northwest has a similar policy, but on Air Canada there is only a service charge to change a booking before the trip begins - that is, once you have flown the outgoing flight, you can make any number of changes to the return flight with no fee (except the difference in fares, if any).
posted by Urban Hermit at 7:41 PM on October 24, 2006

Urban is probably pretty close on this one, I had a similar situation with United and they said you must complete one leg of the trip, however, I think there is still a fee for the change. I ended up having to let my empty seat fly and buy a new ticket because it would cost me more to do anything else than to repurchase the ticket ($150 to change a $137 ticket). The empty seat flight was out of spite.
posted by occidental at 9:02 PM on October 24, 2006

I'd be really careful about thinking you can make this change once you're in the middle of your trip. Some airlines are cool with it, some not. Flyertalk shall be your guide here, but make SURE you get confirmation that you can pull that off before you get your hopes up.
posted by incessant at 12:45 AM on October 25, 2006