Originally Posted by
CGNC
It gets better!
First, glad to know I'm not alone on this. Second, here's another endorsement of HUCA.
So I realized after the ticket was reissued that the first leg of my return which had been a DL-codeshare was changed to a KL-coded flight in the agent's attempt to apply the GUC. I called back (now 24 hours after initial issue) and explained to an agent what had happened. Eleven minutes later, she had it all fixed and the GUC applied for the whole return trip back. As she said, lots of people just don't know how to use the Deltamatic system to get the GUCs confirmed. She was aghast when I told her I'd been on the phone for 2+ hours the day prior.
I suppose the moral of the story here is, we must persist in order to get the full value of GUCs!
Yeah, IME it's always been this way with DL. You need to know what your elite benefits are supposed to be, including the latest version of all the rules and you need to know how to look for signs that the transaction has or has not been done correctly. It helps to make things as easy as possible for the phone agent (and you will need to call!) by checking schedules before calling and gifuring out alternatives, including creative routing possibilities, in advance. Some agents aren't very willing to do lots of seemingly pointless checks for inventory, but if you give them a smaller number of alternatives to check, it can be easier for everyone.
In retrospect, my biggest mistakes in the process have been not following my gut and doing a HUCA when I've skeptical about an agent; at best, it's a waste of my time as the inventory I need might be rapidly disappearing. Also, if CVG answers, hang up ASAP and try again.