pl840502

Curious what you guys think of this.

Due to the viral outbreak in china we would like to change a trip exiting china on Feb 3 to an earlier date or from another city outside of china. We made 4 calls in total toward Alaska. As the routing is complex (one of those early SQ award fares) I knew changing would be difficult, so each time I was trying different ways to see how to maybe make it possible. And that included different traveling dates, different exiting cities, getting rid of one leg see if it facilitates the change. On the third call the agent did find a way to change the city whilst following all the rules but it triggered a reprice of 35000 additional miles. I told the agent I’ll think about it and call back later. She says she’ll note it down so that I can call back.

So on my last phone call I called back to see how that change would works. I got transferred to an agent at international partner desk. Right off she very bluntly told me I won’t be able change the ticket at all because there’s notation on the ticket by a manager saying that this is a system error ticket and cannot be changed, you either fly it or cancel it. Then she accused me of calling multiple times taking advantage of Alaska trying to get to different people to see if I can get a different answer. When I made clear that wasn’t my intention for my different calls and asked why with the third agent it was possible, she couldn’t give me an answer.

I want to make clear that throughout all my previous calls nobody has told me it’s forbidden to change. As almost a whole province in china of 50 million people on lockdown, my intention was simply trying to find any possible way to get out earlier as possible But still keep the original travel plan as situation is only getting worse. All previous agents were beyond polite and helpful, and I believe i was comprehending and cooperative as well. Really disappointed on last agent’s accusatory tone, especially after the possibility was found on the third call. It’s one thing that Alaska don’t want to help with people that’s stuck in china, it’s another thing of accusing them of taking advance of alaska when we are simply trying to get out of China. A big dent on my impression of Alaska.

At the end of the day it’s not even about money and miles. Obviously we can just find another ticket out. But as I’m a methodological person, I prefer to exhaust all possibility of one option first before moving on to the next. A new ticket with a new company and a new routing would change the original plan drastically.

The attitude that I felt from Alaska in the end on how to handle it was such a shock since I always felt Alaska had been very good on treating their customers right. That’s why I am and had been MVP Gold 75K for a couple of years now. Am I being too harsh and pushed too hard on a ticket that’s “system error routing”?