I asked to be "protected" on another flight. she said she couldn't do that, as my original flight was not showing any problems.
I ran into that little jackpot in early December when the snowstorms hit Chicago, but with a happier ending. I was flying into Chicago late on a Sunday night MCO-DFW-ORD, to fly out again the next morning on two different tickets ORD-LAS and LAS-LAX-OAK. First, I tried getting booked DFW-LAS or DFW-SFO to avoid the entire mess. No, you can't do that... Then, I tried explaining to the agent on the airplane phone that I was certain that my 8:30am ORD-LAS flight would get cancelled and could I please get put on the 6:30am ORD-LAX flight as a backup.
I spent 35 minutes on the phone and they (she and her supervisors) couldn't figure it out if their life depended on it. Since the flight wasn't cancelled, they couldn't protect me, and even if they did, they could only protect me on non-stops to LAS.... They thought I was just trying to cheat my way onto the ORD-LAX nonstop which would have cost much more money.
When I got to O'Hare at 6:15 the next morning, I went straight to the Platinum Service Desk. The agent was appalled that they hadn't just sent me MCO-LAX or at least MCO-DFW-LAS the night before. As she put it "rules don't matter during a snowstorm... they should have just kept you out of here." She then told me that my Vegas flight would certainly be cancelled (it eventually was, but not until 9:30), and the 6:30 ORD-LAX was already cancelled. She confirmed me on the next three ORD-LAX flghts as well as the next ORD-LAS flight, and I managed to get out of there only 90 minutes late.
The morale of the stories is that the people make all the difference, and it sounds like the people at LHR need a little refresher course about what it means to be an elite customer. I've also found the LHR staff, especially the Admirals' Club staff, to be rather abrupt even during regular operations.
I know there are "Special Services Staff", but is there a job title like a "Elite Members Supervisor" at the larger airports that don't have a Platinum Services Desk? If not, there should be...
[This message has been edited by ElmhurstNick (edited 01-04-2001).]