Originally Posted by
jackal
Interesting to see it put like that. I'll say that's one BIG positive about the Alaska Airlines Partner Desk--they will literally spend an hour with you on the phone to find and book your perfect flights. Friendliest and most competent travel industry phone reps I've ever dealt with.
Two reasons to call them: a) they do have access to view inventory across larger periods of time than the AS website allows, and b) for most of AS's partners, online booking isn't available, so you kinda have to call them.
AS partner agents can look for any inventory across an entire month in a matter of seconds (although they won't often by default see some of the more creative routings possible); do UA agents have the same ability? If not, that would explain why it's not all that helpful to call.
The last several times I had pmCO phone folks really spend the time looking up inventory and alternate routings was when we CO frequent flyers were able to use miles on QF. Those folks were essentially dedicated to just working with a couple of airlines that CO had agreements with, QF being one of them. UA phone reps now have to essentially view the entire *A network to research an itinerary. That is why I feel people should go online to a number of the *A airlines websites and try to come up with an itinerary, then call UA and see what can be done with it. You may get an extremely helpful agaent on the other end or you may get someone doing the minimum. But by doing one's homework first, you have a much better chance of getting the itineray you want.