Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
AFAIK DL phone agents (and airport agents, etc.) don't have internet access except for DL websites. Also, unless they're very familiar with FT, why would they believe that the official DL representative here really works for DL (just because you say so)?
We're not litigating in court here - the point is simply that OP should feel comfortable escalating if they get an incorrect answer from a front line agent and asking them to double-check their information through their own internal sources. I imagine the conversation going something like:
"Can you double check that policy? The terms and conditions on the web site say it should be possible to upgrade from economy to Delta One with a single certificate."
and if the agent responds with some variant of "the policy has changed and that's out of date, sorry":
"Do you mind verifying that with a supervisor? In a social media discussion I follow, a Delta representative confirmed just this week that the global upgrade policy hasn't changed, so I think there may be some confusion here that they may be able to resolve. I'm happy to provide a link to that discussion if it helps."
Even if the agent isn't able to browse to FlyerTalk (although I imagine many of the work-from-home SLC agents would be able to, at least), the goal is really to get the agent or supervisor to follow up internally and figure out where the discrepancy is occurring. And if they still refuse, OP can then follow up with SkyMilesTeam or the customer service process to get assistance.
My experience has been that most agents aren't adversarial - they want to help and would be more than happy to look into a policy clarification that allows a positive outcome.