US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - web negotiated (WN) fare upgrades

This may have been discussed before but seeing as I spent a good portion of today dealing with it, I'll throw it out for discussion because I think we are going to be seeing more of this in the future. Earlier this week I saw the labor day fare promotion on the US web site and thought it might be a great opportunity to take my seven year old to one the greatest institutions in this country "The Minnesota State Fair". Here are the steps I had to go through to finally get an upgrade.

1. Went on web site and found flights and a decent fare.
2. Called gold preferred to make sure flights were available for upgrade after I purchased ticket.
3. Held flights for 24 hours through web site.
4. Reconfirmed with gold preferred that I could I could upgrade the flights I was holding.
5.Went to purchase ticket over web, ran into a glitch and had to call web customer service to purchase ticket. When the web CS rep asked me what seats I wanted I said it didn't matter because I was upgrading. She said the fare was non-upgradable. I said "it's not an e-saver". She said it didn't matter, that it was a web negotiated fare class wn, and as such was not upgradable. I purchased the ticket anyway.
6. Called gold preferred again and got a really great rep. She said that it was her understanding that if it wasn't an e-saver it was upgradeable. She tried to upgrade me but couldn't due to the fact the ticket hadn't cleared the usair.com computer. She put a note in my record that I was to be upgraded no matter what.
7. I never got a purchase confirmation from usair.com, so 5 hours later I call back gold preferred who said the fare had just been ticketed and finally upgrades me without a hitch.

Does anybody have an idea of what's going on here? Can we expect more of this sort of thing to happen when we purchase sale (not e-saver) tickets from usair.com? Is US trying to limit access to upgrades as it drives more and more of it's business to its web site?

The simplest solution, and the one I have taken: Book directly with the airline. I don't think it's worth 1,000 miles for the work that's involved. I'm sure some will disagree. But I've encountered the same troubles you have. If I don't care about using a systemwide, or if I'm waiting for my 3-day advance upgrade, then ok...it may be worth it to use the dot-com. Otherwise, I'll forego the extra miles.

By the way, only esavers are not upgradeable. Just because it has the 'wn' indicator doesn't mean it's not upgradeable. You just ran into a misinformed CSR.

Unfortunately upgrading through res. is not always an option because the web fares can be and usually are hundreds of dollars cheaper...

I had the same experience with aWest Coast flight, but in the end the silver reps came through.

By the way I wrote a letter to consumer affairs about her....she was outstanding. If you come across a great rep. write the name down and shoot off an email to USairways consumer affairs from their web page. Too often it seems we only voice the negative in life....

These issues are probably addressed by the fare rules. If they are silent as to upgrade restrictions, then you may upgrade. I just purchased 2 "WN" fares and was upgraded without a problem.

usairways.com is simply an expedia run travel agency with employees that do not know too much about USAirways procedures. Book with them and don't ask them questions about policy that they may be eager to give misinformation on. This is my opionion based on many experiences with them. Have .com ticket, and call US for all other things. Good Luck!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JaC:
Unfortunately upgrading through res. is not always an option because the web fares can be and usually are hundreds of dollars cheaper...
</font>

Hmmm..I've seen web fares that were sometimes cheaper..but never by "hundreds" of dollars. Usually, these are sale fares. For example, on a Europe itinerary, I got a fare $10 more than the web fare by calling in; and the fare for an LAX ticket I bought was the same price as the web fare. Certainly, for "hundreds" of dollars its worth it; I just haven't had that experience.

There are two primary issues you raised (though you only briefly mentioned one):

1) WN fares - They are upgradeable. Period. The USAirways.com agent was wrong.

2) 5 hours later the fare wasn't ticketed: I don't ever recall seeing a thread specifically on this topic, but I've had reservations take up to 12 hours to ticket, so this is nothing unusual, and you're right that you can't upgrade until it's ticketed.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Beckles:


5 hours later the fare wasn't ticketed </font>

I found that part the most frustrating in this whole process. Can anyone explain why the whole ticketing process isn't totally and instantly computerized? It sounds like the on-line bill paying process where in the end the bank sends a check to the vendor and your bill remains unpaid until the check clears.

My worry was that the ticketing would go past
the 24 hour hold time. What happens in that case?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TopTier:
usairways.com is simply an expedia run travel agency with employees that do not know too much about USAirways procedures.</font>

Correction to that--it's Travelocity-run. Continental is the one that uses Expedia.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by shinbal:
Hmmm..I've seen web fares that were sometimes cheaper..but never by "hundreds" of dollars. Usually, these are sale fares. For example, on a Europe itinerary, I got a fare $10 more than the web fare by calling in; and the fare for an LAX ticket I bought was the same price as the web fare. Certainly, for "hundreds" of dollars its worth it; I just haven't had that experience.</font>

Check out the Labor Day fare sales on multiple airlines' web sites. The availability is fairly limited, but a transcontinental round trip could be had leaving on Saturday for about $300, at least on United. I know US was advertising their own sale but I didn't investigate details as closely. In this case, the savings is over $1000 off the normal 3-day advance fares. Now this is unusual, but I've seen online only fares over $100 less than over the phone before.

"Hmmm..I've seen web fares that were sometimes cheaper..but never by "hundreds" of dollars. Usually, these are sale fares. For example, on a Europe itinerary, I got a fare $10 more than the web fare by calling in; and the fare for an LAX ticket I bought was the same price as the web fare. Certainly, for "hundreds" of dollars its worth it; I just haven't had that experience."

That West coast trip I spoke of...$220 cheaper on the web! Must just be my bad luck but it happens all of the time thus keeping me from using those vouchers etc. that I have. Now there is a rule I would like to see changed....find a way to allow us to use vouchers, etc. on web fares!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by shinbal:
Hmmm..I've seen web fares that were sometimes cheaper..but never by "hundreds" of dollars. Usually, these are sale fares. For example, on a Europe itinerary, I got a fare $10 more than the web fare by calling in; and the fare for an LAX ticket I bought was the same price as the web fare. Certainly, for "hundreds" of dollars its worth it; I just haven't had that experience.</font>

Well, another example of "hundreds cheaper" is a business trip to Orlando I jut got back from. At the time of booking, I could have booked web site fare for $191 - no Saturday stay required. The telephone fare was $892. But as it was likely I'd have to change the return, depending on how the project went - had to suck it up and pay the $892 (well, actually, the client did - and yes, the other fare is changable, but I didn't want to have to pay the difference at time of change - plus, easier to get a seat off of the 892 fare, since the flight was oversold).

So, there's a number of really cheap fares out there only on the site.

And off topic - Could the MCO flights have been just a little more packed. Thank God for the upgraades.



[This message has been edited by CLTFlyer (edited 08-31-2001).]