I booked for pleasure (what I thought was the cheapest) economical fare from Ottawa to Glasgow, via YUL and LHR (I do not want the YYZ - Glasgow routing - I want to be able to upgrade, to full business class) - stopover for a week (at a timeshare), then going to Malaga from Glasgow, stopover at the Spanish Riviera (for another week), then going to YOW, via 2 intermediate European stops.

The initial agent over 5 days ago, entered my itinerary request, and stated that it would be sent to the ratings department. They must be extremely busy - as of today, still had not been rated. Even if it was rated, I suspect I might need to modify the itinerary - eg the first agent entered "Y" , when I asked him to enter the cheapest available booking code (although he did add a comment at the end of the file, for cheapest available fare) - I will have to get a cheaper quote, either rating it as a whole, or re-rating it on the transatlantic portion, and then rating with Star Alliance Europe airpasses. I may change the routing between Glasgow and Malaga, and Malaga and the airport in Europe that I go on the return transatlantic flight - which might mean that the for the final itinerary may take a long time.

One of the agents had put in the file for the rates dept to call me, after hours at home, once they are ready. How often does that happen? Can a passenger call the rates dept directly?

I guess since I have, because of my profession, not been able to speak to a SE agent, until after hours - the agent can not call the rates dept at that time.

The SE agent a few minutes ago suggested that I call an agent on Sat - the rates dept is open on Sat. I will do so.

I wondered if anyone had comments, on my predicament - anybody had similar experiences?