Originally Posted by
jrl767
one more time:
(a) yet another instance of Newton's Law of the Online Forum: For every self-proclaimed "expert" opinion, there's at least one equal and opposite self-proclaimed "expert" opinion
(b) policy isn't what's written, policy is what's practiced
(c) context matters ... "a lot of FT instances" =/= "usually" (and btw FTers who understand (b) and context don't often post about "tried and failed")
all of which can be neatly summed up in FT-speak as "YMMV"
Not so long ago, it was easier to get what you wanted by simply utilizing "HUCA" even if you didn't get what you wanted the first time. HUCA was an okay strategy for those with status when you could get through to an agent in 5 minutes or less in most cases. This probably resulted in more FTers have a bit more "consistency" in getting what they wanted since it may have taken 2-3 calls but you could eventually get an agent to process the change you wanted, be it within policy or not (those who required a "HUCA" probably noted that it took a HUCA to get what they wanted). However, with wait times now one has seen since the start of COVID of 1-2 hours even for high-level elites, "HUCA" is a less effective strategy. You're almost "stuck" with the "policy" as defined by the first agent you get, unless you want to go through the whole call process again. It becomes "luck of the draw" and probably has led to a wider variation in what FTers are experiencing as "policy" (again regardless of what policy actually is since as you note, "policy is what's practiced, not what's written."