Yaatri

Well, the agent didn't say it in these words, but this is the logical conclusion of her words, not to mention the fact that she could not fulfil one function of her job description.


I needed to make an award booking to a destination halfway around the world in business class for memorial service for a very close family member for travel from WAS area to DEL India. It's not an easy route.

First Call
The call w as made yesterday. I gave the dates with as much flexibility as is possible. Any day before Oct 31. Any day between Nov 15 and a couple of days before Thanksgiving for return.
The agent came back with came back within a couple of minutes claiming that she has checked for three days out from Oct 29 and absolutely nothing was available. I knew, there is no way she could have exhausted all possibilities in under two minutes. I asked her if she tried airlines other than DL/AF/KL, such as Aeroflot, (there are other possibilities too on some Asian airlines). The response was sit, you cannot buy tickets using SkyMiles on Aeroflot. WRONG
I told her I have flown on Aeroflot. Her response was that in the past, it was possible, but now it cannot be done. I asked her when the rule changed. She said, it was changed over a year ago. I told her I have booked and travelled on a rt award ticket on Aeroflot within the last year.
She was unconvinced. I knew she wasn;t going to be helpful. Thanked her and made another call.
Second call
The second agent found an award ticket using DL/KL for 100 thousand miles. Although she did not know,. it was business class one way and economy the other way. That was an improvement. I suggested that she try Aeroflot. "Sir, we can not get it for 100 thousand miles if we book on another airline. It cost a lot more." I said, I know, it would cost more, since the low award is 120,000 for biz both ways. But she repeated the same line. "I cannot get you a ticket for 100,00 miles. We cannot mic classes......." At this time, I decided that since she did find some seats, as incompetent as she was, may be a supervisor,with experience could finish it up. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, she said:
"Sir, there is nothing a supervisor can do that I cannot"

When I insisted that I did want to speak to a supervisor, she reluctantly agreed to transfer me. But guess what. She ended up hanging up.

Third call.
Got a very knowledgable, helpful and patient agent. He listent to what I was saying. Looked for itineraries, where domestic segments were in economy while the international segments were in biz. He was able to piece something together.

Many DM agents are very poorly trained. Good agents are creative. They look for most direct routings first and the look for alternatives.
Some bad agents also have a notion that they cannot mix and match airlines or classes. Sure you can, mixing airlines can change the price though. You can even mix classes without changing the price. It depends on how what you mix with what and how.

Right now, I am in economy on the domestic sector. but it's OK. I don;t mind paying business class mileage for the trip. As a diamond, I could get upgraded. If not, it's not the most important segment.

SamuelS

Sorry to hear of your hassle.

Sadly, many of the Medallion Desk agents are just not appropriately trained or up-to-speed on current program and partners.

I went through FOUR phone calls checking award space with CI, KE, China Southern and others before the FIFTH agent (when we finally found space) finally discovered that ALL the Asian partner airlines had blackout on 5th January. Total waste of time and energy.

I've also had agents insist that I cannot combine DL outbound and AF/KL on the inbound unless it's booked as a DL flight number.

Yaatri

Do CI, MU CZ provide Skymiles with adequate inventory?
The third agent, who was excellent, tried amny options on his own inititative, even with non-skyteam partners.

NWA/Deltaflygirl

*sigh*

Seriously, I really do.

A GOOD agent will use our internal knowledge base to find out who our current partners are (and yes, sometimes I have to double check as sometimes OA's do drop/ limit the use of SM, or as in very recently, change the COS we need, even though I HAVE been doing this for a long time!) and be honest if they have to tell you 'let me check on that' - heck, we're not all knowing (even though we can sure pretend to be!)

Just wow... *shakes head*

And yes, this is HONEST frustration as by the time you guys get to ME, you're not happy, and unhappy callers make for long work days.

Oh well guys, all I can say is what I've been saying all along. I am one agent, and I will do all I can to make your experience with us a good one.

traveller99

Happy to hear that someone really does care! Keep up the good work and smile.

Yaatri

I know there were several excellent NW agents. I am wondering if you are the one my wife never stops talking about. Whenever she had problems, I mean real problems, she would say, "I hope I get Angel (made up name, but she really is one) this time". It was as if she was listening. Often my wife would get this agent on her call. She did miracles. Of course, sometimes she would put us on hold to go and check, or get an OK from a supervisor. But she always delivered. She was able reconstruct a reservation for 4 people in my family, all PLAT towards the last days of NW, when our reservation had miraculously disappeared and every one else threw their hands up in the air, some insinuating that we must have called to cancel.

To be honest, I am finding my way around DL and have come across some nice agents. One had our tickets issued in a different zone to meet promotion requirements.

How I miss Chisholm! I know I will get flamed for this. Some people here don't like to hear anything that has anything to do with NW.

DLdweeb

And your direct number would be?????

Yaatri

Oh yes. she does. SHE DOES. And She does it well. ^

TTT

Deleted

adam1080

I have had mostly good luck with calling into the Gold desk. I hate our travel agency so I book all my own travel(and the people that travel with me). I call in for every trip I take and book multiple tickets per call. I would think that 80% of the time i get a very knowledgeable, personable and helpful person. It's one of the best customer service experiences you can have. (i have gotten some stubborn, ignorant individuals, but the good far out weigh the bad.) IMHO

NWA/Deltaflygirl

To be fair, I work in a 'mixed' office of both old NW agents and for the last year 'Original DL' agents, and although our 'work rules' are different, we ARE 'OUR' res office, and the great majority of us have a very good 'pass on the knowledge, take pride in your calls' outlook. (and FWIW, it's not Chisholm!)

mdb

As others have said - we do appreciate your, and some of your peer's efforts. This seems to be a training issue - the DM should have the best and most knowledgable agents...

Well, we will do as we do and hang up and call back and hopefully we get you(ok or others like you!)

mendel k

I canceled a flight a few hours after booking it. For some reason, instead of refunding me, they gave me a voucher but took off $150 for cancellation fee. When I found out, I called to get the $150 back. They said they couldn't, so i asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor said he couldn't give me the refund, he'll just put in the notes not to charge me the $150. Of course, when trying to book the ticket, they couldn't find it. Really helpful rep though, she put me on hold, found the notes buried deep somewhere on my account, and contacted a supervisor to allow her to give me the $150. She said that the previous rep really messed it up and made it complicated. Really grateful to her for being able to fix it.

mdb

Seattle - afternoon shift? Had great agents in SEA help me too.

If you are a supervisor - maybe you helped me find a very very lost piece of luggage while on vacation.... Lost all its tags and you(or whoever) reached out to DTW baggage and talked someone into looking through the pile and found the suitcase....

Anyway - please pass on to your co-workers that we do really appreciate your efforts.....

brkandjfk

The irony is that they cost/benefit analysis is off... The (apparent) lack of (effective) continuous training and improvement programs causes a disconnect from agent to agent on how things can and cannot happen.

The OP in this thread just detailed one example of something many of us experience regularly - if you know the answer and the agent doesn't, call back, and keep calling back again and again until you find an agent that either does know or is willing to look it up.

Now from a cost / benefit standpoint, those three calls cost Delta $x, so the real cost of inferior service and training is the two (extra) calls. There's no such thing as a bad agent, there's only a bad supervisor/manager. It's the department manager's responsibility to ensure everyone on his or her team is "on the bus."