jaysona

Here's how SE's, Special Snowflakes and others that feel they're so über important/special that there is no way the policies should apply to them.

I had a do with a bunch of AC people over the weekend, and one of the topics that came up were overly demanding customers - overly demanding in the sense that these special snow flakes just could not fathom why their request(s) were being refused due to AC policy.

This prompted me to ask what would it take for the call agent to ignore/violate AC policy and fulfill the customers requests that were clearly a violation of AC policy.

So, here's the inside scoop, be sure to save this message, it is guaranteed to get your request fulfilled by just about any agent.

You will need to have all of the following information available and criteria met before you call in.

Ready?

1. You will need to have proof that you can pay the agents salary for a period of 12 to 24 months. Some agents are cheaper than others I guess.
2. You will need to demonstrate that the payments for item #1 will be able to be made on a semi-monthly basis.
3. You will need to demonstrate that you will be able to provide health, dental and other social benefits for the agreed upon time period listed in item #1.
4. You will need to demonstrate that you can provide equivalent flight privileges for the period of time covered in item #1

If you can meet all of the four criteria listed above and have documented proof as such at the ready, then you stand a very good chance that the agent you speak with will be more than willing to violate company policy for your special snowflake request(s) - no HUCA required. ^

Speaking of HUCA, something else I learned is that agents have become more diligent at placing notes about the requests in the passengers file and then "lock" (whatever that means) the notes in the file. This is done so that the next agent that answers the HUCA call will have a historical record of what request(s) the passenger has made and which request(s) have been denied.

So, there you go, no more HUCA required.

Dorian

My only question is what ethanol was involved in this post?

jaysona

During the weekend there were copious amounts of a wheat based copper pot still derived ethanol involved during the discussions and this topic in particular.

No ethanol was involved in posting this thread however. I just waited for one of the people involved to email me the text and I posted it on their behalf.

Doc Savage

Posting from a coffee shop in AMS?

24left

Notes are nice, especially from people you like

I would have expected that since the calls are recorded, one can easily access a call and all the details are there in full glory, no notes required.

I find it efficient when speaking with some of the hotel chains regarding reservations, that they have notes too. Some of them relate to specific requests, like booking a client meeting or simple stuff like extra towels..

What is also interesting is that SDs were given iPads. I've heard different things about what they are supposed to have on them in terms of pax info. So, SDs take notes.

I would also think notes taken by AC agents - if accurately recorded - would be helpful, but an audio recording seems more "informative" than "notes.

Anyway, I'm happy if they take notes and the SPML shows up as ordered.

Signed,

.

jaysona

As much fun as that I imagine that would be, my various jobs and their associated requirements preclude me from being a patron of such shops. -_-

Ahhh, the myopia of FT.

While the calls are recorded, I believe the recordings are available to manage but not the individual agents. Even if agents could listen in on the calls, this would seem to be an imesnsely inefficient use of time.

I'm not sure about your calls, but some of mine have been quite long, and I definitely would not want an agent to spent several tens of minutes listening to previous calls when 30 - 60 seconds could be spent reading notes on the PNR instead - seems to be a much better use of time. ^ Wouldn't you agree?

As for the notes that the IC takes on the iPad, I believe those are AP profile based and not PNR based. The notes I mentioned - which are written down by individual call centre agents - are specific to a PNR.

quantumofforce

I must say that the second half of 2016 and 2017 so far, my special meal requests were 100% even on non-AC flights.

somedude3210

I thought HUCA was for situations of agents not knowing policy (or not knowing how to do something), rather than them refusing to violate policy? Eg. I work at an AC call centre and you're wrong.

jaysona

You would that that would be the case, but sadly it is not also so. There are many posts here where people have mentioned that they just HUCA until they get what they want. I have heard many stories from agents where the caller always states something along the lines of "well you did it for me the last time"

Some of the sharper agents ask for the previous PNR/ticket number, and some of the n000bish passengers actually provide that information, thereby giving the agent all the information needed to let the passenger know that a policy was previously violated.

True there are agents that really don't know much about the rules, but from what I hear, that tends to be the case less often than needy baby, greedy baby types calling in to get things done that are against policy - sadly.

canadiancow

<3

I did that recently on another airline. The policy I wanted to be adhered to was outlined on their website. The supervisor I ended up speaking with told me (s)he would reprimand the agent who had done what the website said was doable on my previous PNR.

Then refused to adhere to the rules on the website.

The last time I asked an agent to do something that isn't publicly listed as being "in policy" was when I was on an oversold flight and wanted to move to one that was J9...R9, and was told it would be $75.

How many times have I been told something isn't allowed when it is? I've been asked to pay for preferred seats numerous times in the past year. I've been told a YYC agent can't print a boarding pass for a flight originating in YEG (More attitude from YYC MLL staff) (okay that thread has a lot more than that one incident). And then there's the now infamous (as alluded to by somedude3210) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...-re-wrong.html.

Should you strong-arm employees? No. But it's not at all reasonable to assume they're always on the right side of the argument.

expert7700

Not just limited to AC. On US airlines I've gotten things approved with the agent or supervisor offering "one time" exception when I am within airline CoC and website/ticket policies. I thank them at the end of the call and tell them next time I run into the same issue I will call and insist on the same outcome. Often they encourage me to do so and explain they just called it a one time exception to not overrule their employees (wrong) judgment.


I have also had things denied, such as gate agents or FAs on a power trip making up rules. Armed with hard copy or digital copies of CoC, the supervisor usually agrees with my point but fully backs their employee, saying things like 'busy day/full flight so the Contract of Carriage is not going to apply today."

jaysona

You raise a good point here, I think a big part of the problem is that AC has piss-poor change management practices.

The call centre agents have to follow what is written in ACPedia, unfortunately ACPedia is updated much more frequently than the website (no surprise about the anemic website updates) and sadly the public has no access to the relavent ACPedia entries. -_-

flybit

its training AC does not want to spend any time training agents, and reality, upper management really does not care about the customer.

songsc

As long as AC agents follow the rules, I have no problem with whatever notes they are taking.

Or at least having some one with good knowledge to review these notes.

jc94

All AC call agents should be given access to FT and an hour per day to browse the latest threads. Their browser access (assuming they have such a thing) should be limited to this forum and website only. Cost will be recouped because users will no longer need to HUCA three times.

All cell phone towers providing alternate access to "the internet" should be blocked by use of lead lined walls, or whatever. Like Canadian superstore seems to do.