Originally Posted by
gldwebs
Exactly - was told you get treated as if you have the airline's equivalent of basic economy (which even UA doesn't do if you book a saver award...yet). No advance seat assignments, I would get 1 bag for star gold, but the family would get zero. Since I am traveling with my wife and kids, I figure I would get hit with at least $400 in bag fees (or more - depending on how much the wine weighs). Instead, I am paying an extra $150+ to take a train to Milan to stay on UA.
Like most people here, I would always take what a phone agent says with a huge pinch of salt.
A lot of the time they really don't know the answer and just guess. I had an Alaska agent who booked me a CX operated award from HKG to SFO but insisted that I could not add on a connecting Alaska domestic flight to LAX even though this is definitely allowed by their rules. I had to really push her to check with someone else and then she came back after 20mins and said sheepishly that it was allowed. More often than I would like, the agents don't even know their own rules.