ticket price back. Stewardesses simply made out refund slips and gave them to late-flight passengers as they deplaned. Rebates applied to all domestic flights all seasons of the year. The Civil Aeronautics Board approved the idea.
Northwest’s company newsletter, the Northwest Passage “News” , called the idea unprecedented in the history of aviation. Criticism by the public of airline delays, it chortled, is being met head-on by Northwest Airlines in announcing it is not only going to do something about the problem, but lay money on the line to show it means what it says.
Calling a spade a spade Northwest President and General Manager Croil Hunter admitted that much of the public criticism, on balance, was justified. “Flying our planes on time all the time,” he said, “has become a major objective of Northwest Airlines.” In offering rebates, NWA becomes the first airline to take such a step,” Hunter continued. “The Company is prepared to pay up when it can’t deliver. These rebates could run into thousands of dollars but the public pays for fast service and it is entitled to such service.”
“There has been comparatively little criticism of the performance of our planes when they are in their element, the air,” he continued, “most of the troubles have been on the ground.”
Twin Cities newspapers praised the idea. “This idea will have wholesome effect on air travel in several ways,” said one. “It will make air travelers more careful about getting to their planes on time, it will place a greater obligation on airlines to maintain their schedules and it will improve connection service between airlines.”
“Rightly, passengers have been critical of delays they have sometimes suffered in traveling by air, said another editorial. “All airlines have been guilty but Northwest is the first to propose an all out campaign to keep its planes running pretty much on schedule. Too often their planes don’t start on time because, through lack of proper organization, they haven’t been fueled or checked in time and there are delays at airports along the route because operation personnel is inefficient or disrespectful of schedules.”
On June 18, 1948, the Northwest Passage “News” headlined – “NWA’S ON-TIME PLAN SPEEDS ITS FLIGHTS, WINS MUCH GOODWILL”. That the plan has been appreciated by passengers, the “News” continued, “has been shown by hundreds of letters and comments and by the reluctance on the part of some passengers to accept the refund when they felt the delay was not the airline’s fault.”
From March 15 through June 9, Northwest flew 4,845 flights with a total of 26,684 scheduled arrivals. Of these, only 1,400 or 8.4% did not make the 30-minute deadline. Of the 1,400 instances where rebates were paid, 923 were late arrivals at intermediate stops and 297 at terminal airports, which indicated how often lost time was made up. The remainder of the rebates were paid off for 108 occasions when no stop could be made at a scheduled airport and for 72 flight cancellations.
Long-time Northwest Flight Dispatcher Bob Gibson, now a volunteer at the History Centre, recalls the “Ticket Rebate” days vividly.
“It’s hard for people today to realize what a flux things were in then,” he says. It was really a major transition period for the industry. A good part of the problem was that traffic at major airports simply exceeded their ability to handle it. There were long holding times, ramp space shortages and often diversions to alternate airports. DC-3s burned about 90-gallons an hour, they couldn’t stay upstairs forever.
To alleviate the problem somewhat Northwest, “might have fudged a little bit on flight schedules,” Bob says, “depending upon the airport involved. Some of our schedules were fairly loose. For instance, we might have added maybe ten minutes to Chicago and maybe fifteen minutes into New York. This is all unofficial, of course, but what the heck, we paid off regardless of the reason we were late. I don’t think it was out of line.” Bob saw many major changes in commercial aviation and at Northwest during his 46-year
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