Yesterday, after much research and patience, both my partner (who is CO Gold) and I (Plantinum) found 120,000 mile World Business Class seats on NW for a departure on 12/25, returning 1/8, SFO/NRT/SFO. He transferred AmEx miles into his account, I had plenty, and we both simultaneously (me on my lap top, him on the home PC) booked tickets, the system confirmed the transaction, however when the emails arrived, it showed him as being booked in coach.

We called CO, talked to several people, who's best explanation was that they were having IT issues, and they suggested he cancel his coach ticket and try to rebook it. We again found availability for the same reward, same dates, but now when we went to confirm the transaction, we got some message about how CO.com couldn't calculate the fare, and to call an 800 number for help. We did this, and again were told that it was an IT issue, and that in fact they saw no availability for this reward seat in the system, even while I was again finding it online at the very moment we were talking to the CO rep.

We were irrate, to say the least, and the second rep we talked to finally told me that she was recording our call - when I asked why, she fumbled around and said that it was to document for the IT department what problems we were having.

In any event, this morning my partner logged on, found our original flights were sold out, but found availability through a connection (AS/NW) in Portland on these dates, but when he went to book it, it again gave us the "can't calculate the fare message". Clearly CO's system isn't sync'd up with NW's, and if it can't work right, they ought not to be showing the inventory through the online booking tool - this is misleading.

So now I'm holding one ticket for the trip, and am still left with no plausible explanation as to how this could have happened. In my company, if we experienced an "IT" problem, we would do right by the customer, and would not need to record a phone conversation.

Any suggestions from members of this board of what we should do next? Has anyone else run into this with booking NW flights online? I'd send an email to CO, but I'd likely get someone in the call center who would send me some routine response with the same explanation. I will say that after my partner cancelled his reservation, and I asked, the lady on the phone (the one recording our conversation) refunded his redeposit fee, and the miles did repost to his account within 12 hours, which is nice, but still doesn't solve the inconsistencies on their website, and the fact that our vacation plans are up in the air, or in this case not!