Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
But in both of these instances it seems you are relying on the Meeting Services phone rep to tell you what is or isn't available and what can or can't be booked. Instead of relying on the agents (mis)information about award rules and such, if you just put it on hold beforehand it takes this guesswork out of the equation. As soon as the Meeting Services agent tries to book it, it will of course go through with no problem, even if they are under the (wrong)assumption that a domestic connection can't exceed 4 hrs, for example.
And it can't be stressed enough that Meeting Services agents are no different than the normal phone reps, HUCA is king.
In the immediate instance that writing about, I
did put a reservation on hold (using Aadvantage miles). I was told that the hold is not helpful for BE awards because there are restrictions on BE awards that do not apply to Aadvantage awards. For example, I was able to book a MileSaaver Business Award that had three segments, but was told that because the middle segment was between two domestic cities, connecting to the international flight, that it was invalid as a BE redemption.