Customers unsatisfied with Northwest's service

Northwest Airlines and its industry peers received their lowest overall rating for customer satisfaction since 2001, reflecting labor turmoil, service cuts, bankruptcies and other woes, according to a closely watched University of Michigan survey released Tuesday.

The labor woes continued for Northwest, as it warned flight attendants that they won't get a better deal if they reject the wage-cutting pact they're voting on now.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index looked at customer satisfaction at seven major U.S. airlines . Southwest Airlines finished atop the pack; Northwest landed on the bottom.

The carriers' latest composite score was 65 on a scale of 0 to 100. The average score across all industries is 74. A score reflects the total customer experience.

Scores in the low 60s indicate you're in trouble with customers, said Claes Fornell, who oversees the ACSI. Of the seven airlines given individual ACSI scores, only one did pretty well. That was Southwest with a 74. Continental received a 67; Delta, 64; United, 63, American and US Airways, 62 each, and Northwest, 61.

A difference of two or three points is not significant, given the survey's margin of error, Fornell said. But many travelers clearly aren't happy with the legacy airlines, the nation's oldest carriers, which include Northwest, and which are struggling to respond to low-fare competitors such as Southwest and market forces threatening their survival.

Labor woes and the airlines' shedding of more than 100,000 employees in recent years has been a big factor in their falling rankings, Fornell said.

'It is not easy to improve customer service when you have fewer resources,' he said. '... And if you get rid of people, you have to make sure the people you retain are at least reasonably happy.'

Customer satisfaction is generally a good predictor of a firm's viability.

Northwest's flight attendants are voting through June 6 on whether to accept a tentative agreement that would cut their pay 21 percent and require them to work longer hours. It would save Northwest $195 million a year.

Baggage handlers and ramp workers rejected their pay-cut offer from Northwest, forcing the Eagan, Minn .-based airline back to the bargaining table. And flight attendants will vote later this summer on whether to switch unions.

Northwest 'does not have the luxury of returning to the bargaining table' if the contract is rejected, the airline wrote in a letter to flight attendants on Friday. 'The implementation of labor cost reductions must begin immediately.'

If flight attendants reject the contract, Northwest said it would assign 30 percent of international flying to foreigners -- an idea that enraged flight attendants when Northwest proposed it last year.

But Guy Meek, president of the Professional Flight Attendants Association, wrote his own letter, blasting Northwest's letter as 'a blatant scare tactic meant to intimidate our members.'

PFAA leaders have made no recommendation on how members should vote.