Canadian Airlines Plus - Cdn Plus Hang-Up!!!

I called Cdn Plus on Thursday night to redeem some points. I placed my call at 12:10am (ET). I got an automated greeting, stating that all lines were busy, but an agent would be with me shortly. Five minutes later (12:15am ET), another automated greeting: Our lines are presently closed (as of 10pm PT). Then, a dial tone! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif

Why on earth would they tell me someone would be with me shortly, even though (unknown to me at the time) my call was placed after their reservation offices were supposed to be closed???

Frustrated ...

Somewhat related, but once you got a CPPlus ticket, you could use it on a standbye basis, anytime, as long as they had space. I understand this has gone down the tube.
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Plus, if you wanted a CPPlus ticket and there was initially no space, they would look at it the loading and for goldies, they "had a very good attitude". This has also gone down the tube!

I am not too sure if this is true...I used the 'buckets of Gold' perk with an agent just last week and all requests came back approved within 5 minutes. This benefit is only available on CP-operated aircraft though.

[This message has been edited by PointWeasel (edited 06-27-2000).]

PW: Excuse me, but what is the "buckets of Gold" perk you refer to? Never heard of it before, and I've been Gold since the program introduced tiers. Can you please explain for the benefit of the rest of us.

I was told by the EP desk that the procedure that they go through if an award seat is not available is they have a funciton in the system that allow them to "ask" for it and if the flight is not full and if it is ahead far enough, they will usually release a Y seat to you.

However, it is a different story if you are loking for a J seat and none are available for award, the request will have to go to an analyst and they are the one that decide whether one will be release. I don't know whether they will go that far for GLD.

I had experience at this last month when claiming a J class ticket for my dad. I wasn't travelling so I didn't have the "guarantee" award benefit. U class (award class for J) wasn't available, the EP agent send in a request for it, the next day it came back cleared.

Somewhat similar to what Empress has already explained, however, I tend to have better luck with short-notice award bookings - from 7 - 2 days in advance of travel. There used to be a 'desk' where a person would actually review things manually and check the flight loads and history - with all the changes of late, there have also been some changes with 'buckets of Gold' policy...the Gold member must be travelling so unless you're going with your mother-in-law to Charlotte, NC you can't send her away and they will rarely (only once for me) release J seats - only Y.

[This message has been edited by PointWeasel (edited 06-27-2000).]