Hi all

I know the call team gets a bad rap sometimes, but I wanted to share this to see if others had had a similar experience.

I'm a US based flyer and was taking advantage of an AARP discount (this will be important later) to book a CW multi-city from MCO-LIS-LON-MCO for this December for my husband, myself, and our infant daughter. Picked my flights and priced it out using the general search pages vs the AARP discount (about $900 difference) so I went with the AARP obviously. I find a great flight with a short layover in Dublin and then add hotels to the mix and get all the way to the payment processing and I get an error- twice! Not wanting to lose this great fare I call the general number as its the middle of the night and the Gold line is closed. The agent explains that the AARP discount is not applicable when you add hotels at the same time, so he says I will keep getting the error unless I book them separately. I can't find that in the restrictions anywhere, so I wonder if he is correct? Anyway.

The agent asks what I've been quoted using the AARP code and asks if he can try to put something together. I'm feeling pretty good about my booking skills and not sure he can beat my price, but sure man...give it a shot. While he is putting together a quote I re-read the restrictions on the AARP discount and find that the problem is the Dublin connection as that flight is operated by Aer Lingus and the discount is only valid on BA codeshares operated by AA and IB. My mistake.

I'm all set to apologize for not reading the restrictions more carefully and wasting this poor guys time but lo and behold, the agent comes back with flights, and hotel for $1700 LESS than I was able to find. There was a $25 charge to book over the phone, but I'd say it was worth it!

Has anyone else found a much MUCH better price on the phone vs online, or was this a fluke?