US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - She says yes, she says no.

Typical airfare/rule confusion story -

Upcoming reservation this weekend. PHL-FLL, then PBI-PHL. The PBI-PHL flight is at 610pm, but we want to leave earlier on the 345pm from FLL-PHL. I call the CP Liason. She tells me that it would be no fare difference, but a $100 fee. I tell her I'll think on it and call back if I decide.

10 minutes later, decide to do it. Call back. Different agent. $735 fare difference, plus $100 fee. Explain to her that I was just told it would only be $100. She puts me on hold to check with the "rates" department. Comes back and stands firm with the rate. Should have gotten the first agent's name.

Keep going. You'll get one that will do it. One problem with those airports is that while they are as close as a couple of NYC airports, they aren't co-terminal. MIA and FLL are, but PBI is not. On the other hand, in NYC, White Plains and Newark are co-terminal. Comparitive distances, HPN to EWR is 60 miles, while PBI to FLL is 40. Go figure.

Aren't PBI and FLL co-terminals? If so, check the loads on that earlier flight out of FLL, and if it looks good, simply go to the airport and stand-by for it. Chances are that as a CP you'll clear the list right away.

I've never been CP, but it doesn't sound that much better than Gold. And the CP phone line, what, are just they more friendly in telling you they are going to wrip you off another $100-$800? Over at UA, if you are Prem Ex or 1K, you can make same day changes on reservations with no change fee, though you perhaps cannot usually change the city.

I would just go to the airport and try your luck. Next time, don't call them either, because especially if they tell you "no" they will document the conversation in your record and it will be more difficult for you to get what you want at the airport.

Finally, as you are a CP?, what you really should do (and I don't know why people don't??) is try to get to know somebody at an ATO or CTO and next time you need to make a change like that you just merely pick up your telephone, call your friend, and they make the change for you gratus. No more sweating it out on how strict some res agent who calls are monitored by corp is going to be. Remember, from what I have read, corporate threatens the res agents with sanctions for making unwarranted waivers. Like waiving all your fees, etc. Back when www.planebusiness.com (http://www.planebusiness.com) had a chat board, several US Airways reservations agents posted that management reviewed all waivers they made, etc. The fear was evident in the posts that if you made undocumented waivers you could get in to trouble. But airport agents have a lot more latitude, and it seems it is more difficult for corporate to police the airport environment. Lots of "wierd" things happen at the airport, and its not an environment they can as easily monitor, etc.

Does this repeat calling actually work? I wonder sometimes as every time you call, it is logged in the notes field in your reservation. Makes you wonder if they get a little perturbed if this is your third call for the same request in the same evening.

I would show up for the earlier flight. If you are gold or above, odds are you will get it without any charge at all.

I am CP and as long as there's a seat I get on the flight--it happened as a Gold also.

For the record, the CP people are absolutely great-they put out a big fire for me the other night on a misconnect at PHL.



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Regards,

Art from ISP

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Art234:
I would show up for the earlier flight. If you are gold or above, odds are you will get it without any charge at all.

I am CP and as long as there's a seat I get on the flight--it happened as a Gold also.
</font>

I'm not sure I agree with this since he's trying to fly out of a different airport than ticketed. It depends entirely on the check-in agent I would say, which is a big chance to take (especially if you've already turned in your rental car).

Personally, I wouldn't risk it, especially on a weekend reservation out of Florida (since there's a chance you might not even get on the flight anyway if you have to stand-by.

FYI.....that first agent you spoke to was correct...maybe. We have a waiver which allows a change in routing to depart a different florida city for change fee only if same booking code available and no date change. My guess is that the second CP rep was either new or never even looks at waiver
consistency.

In regards to the documentation of a record/PNR after we speak to you and deny something. It happens a lot.

Brenda / MCO pref/reissue rep

For me the 'call back and try again' thing is nerve racking because I have gotten the same agent sometimes after calling back. Then you got a lot of explaining to do and I'm sure some notes get into the record http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

"This will go on your PERMANENT record. No Harvard for you!"

heh

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BWI2MCO97:
FYI.....that first agent you spoke to was correct...maybe. We have a waiver which allows a change in routing to depart a different florida city for change fee only if same booking code available and no date change. My guess is that the second CP rep was either new or never even looks at waiver
consistency.

In regards to the documentation of a record/PNR after we speak to you and deny something. It happens a lot.

Brenda / MCO pref/reissue rep </font>

Brenda,

Welcome to the boards and please accept my appreciation for the great job you and your colleagues do!!




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Regards,

Art from ISP

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pitflyer:
For me the 'call back and try again' thing is nerve racking because I have gotten the same agent sometimes after calling back . . .</font>

Stagger your calling times.

2 PM in the afternoon one day.
10 PM at night.
6 AM the next day.

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Got points ? Got smiles !

I do the "call and call back again" thing by not letting the agent know that I'm just calling back to get another agent who will say what I want. I usually say that if there is a change fee, I need to discuss it with my wife, and call back later. That way they will almost never document in the PNR that I've already been told the change fee. In the unlikely event that I get the same agent (the gold desk probably has a bigger pool than CP desk), I can say that I "forgot" what the change fee and reconfirm before discussing it with my wife.

Well, I called a third time and asked the agent to check a waiver. She punched the keyboard for what seemed to be an etenerity(like the agent in "Meet the Parents"), came back and told me no go.

ITN shows at least 2 seats in each class of service on the flight I want, but she said the rules on my 21 day advance K-class purchase don't allow it.

I asked the agent about this "waiver". She told me that it is valid after the trip begins, AND in the event of an "unforseen event" like a family emergency that requires me to go home.

I'm not going to cut my day short to go to FLL in the *HOPES* of being upgraded, even though it's a 757 with F7 still showing. We'll head to PBI as planned, later in the day, and take our exit row seats on the 737(flight is verging on the oversell status).

Thanks Art !

The agent is correct, I failed to add that the waiver applies after origination only. Sorry for the error.