<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Steve Fenton:
Mike
Here is something I did the other week. I could not get a straight answer from them, so I got my agent to book me 2 tickets in WBC. She then booked me another 2 tickets in economy. I then got the number and told the help desk you will see I already have my seats in WBC and I want the ticket for economy upgraded as whilst we were talking my agent cancelled the WBC reservation.
Confused the hell out of him at the helpdesk, but did the job</font>
You were lucky this time, but generally this is not possible.Even if there are seats in WBC, FD Award inventory is certanly not always available....
As posted a couple of times before, the award inventory for Platinum elites and Gold elites comes right out of the "C" bucket, if you buy two tix out of the J bucket, there is still no way a get an award, even if you cancel your WBC seats !!
As you posted, you were able to get a full refund, so I guess they came at least out of the C or J bucket, probadly not out of the "Z" bucket....
Therefore it is relatively easy to check award availabilty for KLM metal, as long as there is availability in the "C" bucket you will get a seat, if "C" is sold out, you are out of luck, but I would recommend to check availabilty daily, because basicly all airlines sell flights up to a special point. but release seats some days ( or weeks ) in advance....
Happenend to me just some weeks ago....
The FD desk does not need the Ticket number at all, it comes simply down to the level of laziness of the FD agent.They can certainly find your booking with your name and flight number.Beside that let me recommend to ask your TA for a trip summary.All booking engines have these pages, for example
www.checkmytrip.com lists all your segments plus the ticket number, plus the KLM code, plus the NW code.....