National Airlines, Worst Customer Service
Written: Feb 23 '00 (Updated Jun 12 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of legroom, cheap tickets
Cons: Worst customer service, they will lie to you, reneges on promises
The Bottom Line: National Airlines is the worst airline I've ever flown on. I do not recommend them to anyone.
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| CalvinChu's Full Review: National Airlines |
I'm a frequent traveler, and I have to say that National Airlines has the worst customer service of any airline I have ever flown on. Bar none. From my conversations with different people who work at National Airlines, I have come to the conclusion that they care very little for their customers and the bottom line $ is god for them. While most other airlines care about the bottom line, in the very least they have some semblance of customer service. While National Airlines might be cheap, they have cut corners in all the wrong places.
I should note that what National Airlines says about legroom is true. They do have more legroom, at least in the standard seating. The first class seating is horrible! There is no lumbar support to speak of, no in-flight phones, and a headrest that is tilted at an awkward angle accentuating bad back posture. You will definitely be in for a bad ride with National.
The following is my documented experience of what it is like to recover lost baggage with National Airlines.
I flew from San Francisco to Las Vegas (flight 412) connecting to JFK on flight 316 on 12/23. Somewhere along the way National Airlines lost my baggage. I filled out the necessary claim forms and spoke with Shari, and from there on out, all I got from National was trouble.
Shari says that the baggage will be on the next flight out. I was told to expect it by the afternoon. So I wait it out, and when it did not come, I called and they said they forgot the baggage and it will definitely be in at 10pm. After midnight came around and a day wasted, the baggage people went off duty and I could not locate a single National Airlines person to speak of.
Basically, National Airlines has unlimited numbers of people running reservations and taking sales but nobody at all working customer service, baggage or anything after a certain hour.
So in the morning, I was told it will arrive at 2pm on that day (24th). If it did not, I was told I was entitled to $25. Not much consolation, but I waited this one out. And as far as I can tell, everybody at National went home for the holidays because I couldn't reach anyone for the next day. All their voice mail boxes would response "voice mailbox full" and hang up on me. I was able to reach National Airlines people at (888) 757-5387 but apparently people in different departments DO NOT EVER SPEAK TO EACH OTHER. THey are not only physically isolated, but they speak to each other using the same phone numbers the customers do, so that means they have to wait on hold and have no ability what so ever to help.
Later I was told that even the baggage departments (and I quote!!) "the hand does not know where the foot is" and the miscommunication rings all throughout national airlines. This is not the way to run an airline!! Scary!!! But the thing that bugs me is every time I speak to someone, they will promise to call me back. They never ever call back. If you are ever dealing with National Airlines, if you want to get anything done at all, you need to stay on the phone and never let them hang up. If you do you will never hear from them for days.
Anyway, my last day in New York was the morning of the 26th, and National Airlines thoroughly ruined my trip.... they delivered my baggage a few hours before my exit flight. I was told the baggage was shipped all over the country, and even sat for a night or two in Las Vegas out in the open where it probably could have been stolen. There was a tag on it that said "Rush" on it. Ha ha ha!!
So now I write a letter to National by certified mail to their customer relations department. I have the signed receipt slip so after I know they got the letter I call them back and they said they never got it. (Lie!!) And so I spoke with Melonie S. in Customer Relations on the 2/8/2000 and I relayed the situation. She certainly acted very nice, and pretended to understand and promised to start an investigation, and promised to call me back on 2/9/2000. She said she will not let this one slip through the cracks. I told her I did not believe her, but she promised to high heaven that she will get this resolved.
Guess what??? She didn't call back. So anyway I give them a few weeks, and still no response.
I called them back today, and spoke with Melonie S. and she says she remembers, and she completely forgot about the investigation. Obviously I have already paid for the ticket, why does anyone at National care about me? So, at this point she goes rifling through the files and could not find anything. She says she has no jurisdiction to help me at all. (She is in Customer Relations) and offers to transfer me to baggage, and asks me to fax a letter to baggage. She promises to speak to Larry W. the baggage manager personally. (I do not believe her).
So it seems that National Airlines is quite good at passing the buck around, but they are better at lying to the consumers. If they lie this much, I would not be surprised if other corners are cut all around. I have documented just about all conversations I had with anyone at National and my rule of them is if you try to be cordial and nice they will push you right over and step all over you. They will lie to you every time.
So I have here my list of Pros:
1) They have lots of legroom
2) First class drinks are served in glass cups
3) They give out warm cookies
My list of cons:
1) Seats are not ergonomic in first class. They are better in regular class.
2) The employees will definitely lie to you, every single time.
3) They will always renege on promises.
4) They like to pass the buck.
5) The whole company does not know what any other part of itself is up to.
6) They have a terrible voice mail system.
7) God help you if you lose your bag, you will probably never see it again.
2/23 -- I fax over everything on their request to Ivan L. Ivan L promised to call me back upon receipt of the fax. I have a fax confirmation printout.
2/24 -- I hear back from Ivan L, and he says he never got the fax. Sending fax again.
2/28 -- The issue has now been completely resolved and addressed with help from Karen M. from Corporate Baggage.
3/20 -- Almost 3 weeks has passed since Karen M has promised reconciliation. She has stated she will get back to me in 2 weeks and I have not heard from National since then. I have verified all my contact information on 2/28 and was rather cordial and respectful. Unfortunately it looks like they have now shoved me under the carpet and forgotten about me AGAIN. It looks like National does not deserve respect, and I need to go and complain at the top of my lungs and treat them like complete idiots before I get anything to happen. I will not make the mistake to treat anyone at National respectfully ever again.
4/3 -- issue completely resolved. for real.
Here is an update:
National Airlines issued a travel voucher to me to help resolve this issue. A number months later, I decide that I'll try to USE the travel voucher. The travel voucher is a system wide available seating travel voucher. When Larry Walters issued the travel voucher, included is a letter that says it may be transfered to anyone. Karen says it may be extended after a year.
I call them, and attempt to extend it. They tell me that Larry and Karen has left the company and no longer work in Customer Relations. It seems to me that they let go the people who resolve the issues. ?? In any case, they tell me they discontinued the policy of voucher extensions, and that there are NO AVAILBLE DATES for travel. So I keep playing around with getting seating in L Class.
Every time I make a reservation, I call them back and all I get is an answering machine. No one ever actually answers. I usually leave around 3 messages per day, and on the 5th day someone would respond. The first time, I was told to go to the airport and work it out at the counter.
I drove out over 1 hour to the airport and the supervisor had left early and all the employees there just looked at me and could not do a thing. They said I should call the number, and calling the number 4 or 5 times standing at the airport yielded nothing.
Days later, I get a response, and I'm told just get the reservation code to them, and they will take care of it.
I make a reservation that expires in 24 hours, and 5 days later, they call back to tell me it has expired. The nice lady at extension 3223 said she'll make me another reservation since she knows i've gone through a lot of trouble. So then she says she needs to call me back the next day.
THe next day, she called back (!) and says that I need to make the reservations with reservations and then call back. She said All I had to do was call back (877) 625-7378 extension 3223 to get back to her. So I make the reservation, which expires in 48 hours this time. And I call the number and there is no way to get to extension 3223.
First I try connecting to reservations and asking for extension 3223, no good. I try every department and they are basically left hand has no idea where the right hand is. No ability to talk to any other department.
So now today (6/12) my travel voucher is going to expire soon, i've been calling 3 times a day for months to resolve this, and my existing travel reservation is about to expire. These people are playing the game of waiting until the voucher has expired to laugh at me.
This tells you a LOT about National Airlines. DO NOT FLY ON THEM!!
The voucher took almost 2 months from start to finish to execute. So if you ever get a voucher from them, start working on it early. Ok, issue is finally resolved, again.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
CalvinChu
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Location: Mountain View, CA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 1 member
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