For Travellers on Northwest Airlines

[Doug]

From The Advocate:

"After gay Northwest Airlines employee Rob Anders won a pair of tickets at a company holiday party, he planned to use the tickets to fly himself and his partner of 15 years from California to Florida to visit his 89-year-old mother for a family reunion last month. But airline officials told him he could not use the other ticket for his partner because the two were not married. "I felt terrible," Anders said. "I thought what they were doing was unfair."

Link: http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid25366.asp

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Is the implication that we should not travel on NW because some queen couldn't take his boyfriend on a free plane trip?

I can think of about 100 reasons I wouldn't want to fly on NW, but this wouldn't be among them. Terrible service, dirty planes, poor food, and uncomfortable seats would be near the top.

I did several RTW trips in biz with NWA/Thai during the 1980s. I have been a FF (take that smirk off your face at the back) on both their programme and since returning to Europe, KLMs.

This is sufficient reason for me to decide not to fly them or KLM while NWA practise discrimination against gays in this ways.

Holland used to be the world's most liberal country wrt same-sex relationships. I don't think their national flag carrier should be "in bed with" companies that behave this way.

[Smiles]

. . . because I wonder whether this kerfuffle has more to do with bureaucratic rules, and bureaucrats sticking to the letter of their bureaucatic rules, rather than homophobia?

When the airline states ...

" ... Northwest Airlines told Anders that the airline would recognize only a spouse, another airline employee, or a dependent child as a companion. The representative specifically stated Northwest Airlines would not recognize a registered domestic partner as a spouse for the purpose of the tickets ..."

... it seems that their rules about this perk offer seats to couple who are legally married ... only.

Nothing in the article indicates being homo or hetero has/was a bearing on who or who doesn't receive the perk.

Mr Anders said ...

" ... I felt terrible. I thought what they were doing was unfair ..."

... personally I take whiny statements like this with a very large dash of salt. Sounds more like setting the stage for a possible law suit than aggrievment over being discriminated against for being gay.

I'm not suggesting this NWA policy is non-discriminatory ... it is definitely discriminatory, and quite the throwback to another time to boot.
But it doesn't sound like homophobia to me either: Just bloody bureacrats being bloody bureaucratically-minded. Too common.


Cheers ...

[Doug]

If an employee won who was not married, what would his options be? Only take another employee? Don't employees get free trips anyway? It seems very strange to me.

[Smiles]

If an employee won who was not married, what would his options be? Only take another employee? Don't employees get free trips anyway? It seems very strange to me.

" ... another airline employee, or a dependent child as a companion ... "


Seems clear to me, right there in black & white.

Doug, my point is not that it's necessarily fair or good policy, or that I agree or disagree with it ... only that it's not necessarily homophobia.
Neither does it seem necessarily strange to me ... just unthoughtful.

Cheers ...

Well, I don't think an airline should be judging whether a companion is "suitable" or not. One should be able to make his companion of choice. It sounds like a lousy deal to me and I will certainly consider this as a reason NOT to travel NW/KLM in the future.

...take a look at: http://www.independenttraveler.com/reso ... ategory=13

(I wish that link also included any reply from NWA to Mr. Hewitt.)

I have always flown NW across the Atlantic a few times a year, every year. It now uses new airbus A320. Each seat has personal TV with choices of films and music. Food in Economy class, I totally agree, has always been horrid. And because I know the food will always be horrid, I usually dine at a restaurant in the airport before boarding the flight.

Anyway, on one Christmas day my male companion and I traveled on NW from London to Miami. As we waited in the queue, an agent who came round and asked about security questions gave me a letter from NW. The letter was addressed to me personally, and said something like "As a gesture of goodwill to our loyal customers like yourself, we are happy to upgrade you and your companion on this flight...". We both were upgraded all the way from London to Miami. We were very impressed. I was a NW's platinum member, my companion was a KLM's silver member at that time.

Well whoopty fucking do!

I would take almost any airline transpacific over NW. Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Continental and Thai for god-damned sure, but also the likes of EVA, China Airlines, Korean, Malaysian. Even United inches it out by a nose in terms of awfulness. And I think you will find that just about every poll that's been taken agrees with me.