Originally Posted by
Zorak
A while back I called in because cert-based search wasn't returning results that even the DL site said were available when searching for 2 pax without the cert. The agent immediately confirmed the same availability I was seeing, which was a good sign, but was puzzled that they couldn't get it to book either. "Let me try this another way..." nope, that didn't work either. Put me on hold for a few minutes, then came back and said "ok you're all good to go." As this agent seemed like the outgoing/chatty sort (you know how you can kinda tell) I asked what the magic sauce was, and they told me that although I and Z were clearly available, when applying the companion cert the computer wanted to force it into a higher fare bucket for no apparent reason. The way they got it to work was to go into Delta Term "which is like an older DOS interface" and force it to accept I/Z and then it was able to be ticketed.
The challenge now I guess is how to reliably get an agent who knows how to use the CLI interface...
This pretty much sums my experience of using the DL Res certificate over the last few years. Every time this is what it's taken. Clearly, it's designed to not let you book what minuscule availability there is. Also, online cert bookings never work for domestic Delta One flights (which of course are the only ones I'm interesting in booking, otherwise it's a waste of certificate).
A frontline agent will likely need to escalate this to "international manual reissue," though it's neither international nor a reissue, as those are the people who have access to book it manually and bypass the GUI systems which are built to purposefully block customers and res. agents from using these certificates even when availability is there. Good luck finding an agent who will actually escalate it so, or at least call their "internal helpdesk," who in turn will still have to call "manual reissue" or "Global Ticketing Support" to actually get it done.