Originally Posted by
gpb_croppers63
I'm not sure if this has been discussed previously in the thread so feel free to ignore (or mods can delete this post) if I'm repeating common knowledge but I had a very interesting experience last week with upgrading married segments. As I think this could be useful to know, I'll try to list a simple breakdown of what happened:
- Booked BER-ATH-RHO for 3 passengers with 3 I class seats available on BER-ATH
- Rang up to upgrade and was told the BER-ATH and ATH-RHO segments were married so had to be waitlisted and revenue management had to "unmarry" the segments first
- The next day, the 3 I class seats disappeared from BER-ATH but the segment was still waitlisted (cue a very grumpy reaction from me
)
- Decided to change the dates anyway, as new dates worked better for us. Had to split my daughter off the reservation due to a typo in her name and this was the cheapest way to do it.
- 3 I class available on BER-ATH, upgrade for my partner and me could be confirmed immediately but my daughter's segments were married so needed to be waitlisted (nobody including A3 knows why!). Agent recommended not upgrading the parents' tickets in case the daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- 2 days later, one I class seat disappeared from the inventory (cue more grumpiness from me!) so I decided to confirm the other 2 upgrades and to sit in Y on my own if my daughter's upgrade didn't clear.
- Spoke to the agent who dealt with the whole mess in the beginning and she said that the reason the 1 I class seat disappeared was that the segments had been unmarried and the I class seat allocated to her reservation despite it still showing as waitlisted. All 3 upgrades were confirmed within minutes.
- Checked back for the original date I had booked just out of interest and the 3 I class seats had reappeared.
The moral of the story is: if you're waitlisted for 1 segment due to married segments and the I class availability miraculously disappears, don't just silently fume like I did, ring A3 and see whether the segments have been unmarried and your upgrade can be cleared.
I found this whole process very interesting and a steep learning curve for me, as I had never experienced the married segment situation before. I hope it helps some of you too.
Just to update this information once again, I can now confirm that this is indeed how the process works due to having had to change these flights again (don't ask!). I therefore saw the process in action and am able to add the following details:
- When your flight is waitlisted for an upgrade due to married segments despite there being I class seats available, your reservation won't change initially (i.e. there won't be a waitlisted I class segment added).
- Once the segments have been unmarried, the "waitlisted" segment will appear on the reservation and the I class inventory will "disappear" from general view, as it has now been allocated to your reservation.
- At this point, you can ring up A3 to have the reservation cleaned up and the new tickets issued in I class.
I monitored the process very carefully from the time I changed the flights to when the upgrade was cleared, as I found the whole thing very interesting. It happened exactly as I expected but this time, I did not panic when the 3 I class seats disappeared. I simply rang the agent who had been dealing with the ticket back and she sorted everything out.
I hope this further information helps clarify the process better. I'll update the wiki accordingly too.
On a side note, I love that A3 will put you through to the original agent you dealt with as long as you have their name. That saves so much time compared to having to explain the situation over and over again to different agents.