That was the most miserable travel experience I have ever had. We got stuck in f***ing Detroit on Sunday because of the weather in Chicago. We spent 3 hours on the tarmac trying to get a slot to take off that never came. They couldn't even tell us that we were cancelled on the plane. They made us get off of the plane, walk all of the way back from the terminal (which was all of the way on one end of the airport) and walk all of the to the ticket counter so that they could tell us we were stuck, and they had put us on the 3 pm Monday flight back to Chicago.
The kicker is they wouldn't let us get our bags back. So we were stuck with only the clothes on our back and whatever carryon we had. So no change of clothes, no personal supplies, my wifes medication was in our luggage, and no where to go. All they would give us was an 800 number to call for lodging for "distressed passengers". My wife held for almost a half an hour on that line only to have a recording come on and say that "all lines are busy and please call back in half an hour" and hung up on her. The only reason we found somewhere to stay is as I was asking the head of the taxi stand which hotels in my Entertainment book were close, he said he had a connection at a couple of places and called and got us a good rate. The hotel had a shuttle which took us there and even stopped at a speedway so that we could get a couple of personal items.
The next morning we got up and went back to the airport after we checked out. We went down to gate 23 where we were supposed to board. At one point I got up to go to the bathroom and looked at the board at our gate and all of the sudden it said Boston, so I asked at the counter what was going on and they said oh they moved that flight to gate 15 and delayed it an hour and half. So I got to be pissed off again, asking why the hell they couldn't make an announcement considering everyone for Chicago was still sitting there. That was the point where my wife dragged me away from the counter. We spent half an hour down there before they moved us again this time down to gate 55.
So 26 hours after landing in Detroit, we actually did get off the ground finally and landed in OHare. Then we went to claim our baggage. WE waited and waited and waited and it never came through, finally after about an hour my wife went in asked the agent what happened to our bags. Well it turns out that our bags were on two flights later than ours. So they couldn't give us our bags back originally, so that there wouldn't be any problems and they still ended up f***ing up our luggage. So I yelled at the baggage attendant for a while, and finally got drug away from there again by my wife. Finally after two hours of waiting for our bags we got them and got the hell out of OHare and went home.
The lesson being don't EVER, EVER fly Northwest Airlines, EVER! I understand bad weather and wasn't too upset about that because it can't be helped. But the fact that they never could tell us what was going on, kept getting short with people who asked questions, and did NOTHING to make things easier for us to cope is what pissed me off. How hard would it have been to give everyone back their bags and say bring them back to whatever flight you end up on. There were people who had babies who had nothing but a couple of diapers with them who were s*** out of luck. Instead we were just left to figure out what to do.
I am so glad to be home, and just one last time :fyou Northwest Airlines.