MarkXS
Jun 16, 06, 12:58 am
I booked a US Airways ticket yesterday through American Express' online travel site. Largely because the flights I wanted (a BOS-DEN departure connecting anywhere US would go but after 4pm) were totally invisible on the new USAirways.com site - but that's a different thread.
Anyway Amex' site had no way for me to put in my United 1P/Star Alliance Gold number. (Neither does the new USAirways.com site unlike the old one, but that's yet another different thread...) So I call up Amex's travel line, and get a rep to add it. She tells me that she cannot add it to the US Airways legs, only to the one leg that was a UA metal codeshare. "You're flying on US Airways, not United on the other flights so you can't use a United FF number." I tell her "of course I can, US and UA are partners on many routes and also are both in Star Alliance." She continues to say she can't. I inisist she get a supervisor.
She puts me on hold, then comes back on and says "I talked to my manager and we called US Airways. They said they don't take United numbers. And by the way, you keep mentioning Star Alliance. US Airways told American Express that they aren't in Star Alliance anymore because of the merger."
After I finished snorting with laughter I told her "of course they are, in fact if you go to their website you'll see the *A logo right on the bottom of the page." But she was insistent: "What American Express has been told about this is that US Airways left Star Alliance."
Morons. As I mentioned, I booked through a non-USAirways site because I couldn't get the flights on the airline's own site. I used Amex travel because it was $2 cheaper than Orbitz (lower fee?) and gave me double Membership Rewards. But how can a travel company like Amex be so clueless? I'm sorry, if you're a phone rep for a major online (and real-world) travel agency, how can you not know which domestic airlines are in which alliance? Wouldn't having that minimal knowledge of the industry be considered part of your job?
I finally gave up, called US Airways, and got a very helpful fellow who put in the UA number in the US legs, and gave me the actual United locator# for their leg. He also was very apologetic about the US Airways system making it impossible for him to give me seats in their elite zone even though I showed as Premier Exec/Star Gold right on his screen.
Anyway Amex' site had no way for me to put in my United 1P/Star Alliance Gold number. (Neither does the new USAirways.com site unlike the old one, but that's yet another different thread...) So I call up Amex's travel line, and get a rep to add it. She tells me that she cannot add it to the US Airways legs, only to the one leg that was a UA metal codeshare. "You're flying on US Airways, not United on the other flights so you can't use a United FF number." I tell her "of course I can, US and UA are partners on many routes and also are both in Star Alliance." She continues to say she can't. I inisist she get a supervisor.
She puts me on hold, then comes back on and says "I talked to my manager and we called US Airways. They said they don't take United numbers. And by the way, you keep mentioning Star Alliance. US Airways told American Express that they aren't in Star Alliance anymore because of the merger."
After I finished snorting with laughter I told her "of course they are, in fact if you go to their website you'll see the *A logo right on the bottom of the page." But she was insistent: "What American Express has been told about this is that US Airways left Star Alliance."
Morons. As I mentioned, I booked through a non-USAirways site because I couldn't get the flights on the airline's own site. I used Amex travel because it was $2 cheaper than Orbitz (lower fee?) and gave me double Membership Rewards. But how can a travel company like Amex be so clueless? I'm sorry, if you're a phone rep for a major online (and real-world) travel agency, how can you not know which domestic airlines are in which alliance? Wouldn't having that minimal knowledge of the industry be considered part of your job?
I finally gave up, called US Airways, and got a very helpful fellow who put in the UA number in the US legs, and gave me the actual United locator# for their leg. He also was very apologetic about the US Airways system making it impossible for him to give me seats in their elite zone even though I showed as Premier Exec/Star Gold right on his screen.