US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - discounted mileage awards "not something we solicit"??

just called to book my first ever award on USAir to the caribbean in November...I saw the other day on the website that for off peak travel the discounted award is 25,000 miles (reduced from 30 for off peak) I put the award on hold and I ask the rep its 25,000 miles right? I only have 26K in my acct. She tells me No, its 30K...I say are you sure? I thought it was 25, she insists its 30 and tells me I will need to purchase $120 worth of miles for my award. I say ok, and put it on a 7 day hold. I sign online, thinking at this point, I must be crazy and go back to the US website and sure enough the discount award code is listed for the 25K. I call back and speak to another rep asking her why I was told there was no reduced mileage award and she tells me oh, there is, its just not something we solicit! Well then why is it on your website if you dont want anyone to know about it? Perhaps I am making too much of this but it is a big deal to me when US tries to get additional money out of me when they know very well that I have enough miles for the ticket. She told me when I am ready to ticket to have the discount code and it wouldnt be a problem. Just beware that you have the right codes or they may try and get you to use /pay for more miles.

------------------
Dena

I had a similar experience when trying to book the 25,000 mile award to go to the Caribbean. And also when I tried to book one of the 15,000 discount e-statement promo awards... The agent had no clue as to either of these promotions and responded in disbelief that such awards existed.. and I was speaking with the CP desk - who I would think would be the most knowledgeable. Makes the booking process frustrating!!

Are you sure you were talking to the CP desk...they typically bounce you to intl. reservations for ANY flight that is not in the continental US/Canada.

That's my biggest pet peeve with the CP program - skilled agents who can help, and go to great lengths for you, on any itenerary as long as it's a trip in the 48 contiguous states or Canada.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:
That's my biggest pet peeve with the CP program - skilled agents who can help, and go to great lengths for you, on any itenerary as long as it's a trip in the 48 contiguous states or Canada.</font>Don't worry... it's not just US. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PHL:
Are you sure you were talking to the CP desk...they typically bounce you to intl. reservations for ANY flight that is not in the continental US/Canada.

That's my biggest pet peeve with the CP program - skilled agents who can help, and go to great lengths for you, on any itenerary as long as it's a trip in the 48 contiguous states or Canada.</font>

well, for the 15,000 award promo, it was domestic so I was speaking with a CP agent then. With the Caribbean award, I assume I spoke with a regular International Award rep.. which I think is even worse b/c their specialty is awards!!!

I booked a 15k award last week. Just gave the Chairman's Preferred agent the code, he looked it up (read off the T&Cs to me) and booked it. Checked right afterwards and 30k miles (two tickets) were out of my account and I received the itin today.

So at least for me it worked exactly to plan -- just have the promotion code. Don't say 'statement of the month' offer or anything because most of them know nothing about that.

I booked a 15K award a few weeks ago and had no trouble. The agent did have to spend a few minutes checking the E-statement award code I gave her as she wasn't familiar with it, but everything went fine.

The only info provided to us in (domestic) Res was a little blurb in the daily briefing last week on Tues/Wed did say not to solicit. It's similar to the esaver program...we don't solicit those bookings either.