Originally Posted by dmunz

Going on 30 minutes on this call so I thought I'd write it up to kill time.

I called the 1K line to try and use an RPU to upgrade my sister in law who is traveling with us on vacation. The opening voice response asked if I was calling about the reservation I had just looked at on-line, I said "yes" and the person who answered said their name and "web services." I said that I was sorry, I wanted the 1K desk but they asked what I wanted to do and away we went.

I got them to understand that I wanted to use an RPU for a return flight for my sister in law (outbound is on an RJ). It all seems to go "ok" until they said "for verification, I have to ask you a few security questions, if you answer wrong your account will be locked." I'm used to the please provide your PIN bit but not an issue as I know the answers. Again, all seemed good but I was put on hold for a minute and the rep came back and told me something went wrong and they used a GPU instead of an RPU. For the last 36 minutes (as of right now...) I've been listening to the pleasant United on hold music.

As far as I can tell, there is nothing special about this trip. Myrtle Beach to Newark to Houston.

Am I wrong to think that a 1K rep would have this all sorted out in minutes? I have no idea who "web services" are or their level of expertise but this seems way out of balance. (And, this is the one call I chose NOT to participate in the feedback survey.)

Ok - 47 minutes and all done. They had to escalate to a supervisor who had to call Mileage Plus (aren't they all Mileage Plus?) for some reason to redeposit the GPU and pull the RPU.

Like I said, just killing time on hold so this is not really a rant. But I am curious if anyone else has had experience with calls passing through or over the 1K rep and going off the rails.

FWIW
DLM