How to talk to call center in order to book reward?
 

Hi,

I've found 2 J class seats for a flight from DUS to CUN and would love to add additional leg to this flight, so I can start journey in GDN (in fact, I need to add two flights: GDN-TXL and TXL-DUS, both the day before the main flight). AB's website shows availability only for DUS-CUN flight, but according to AA.com, also GDN-TXL-DUS-CUN is available in J. In such case, I need to try to book this flight by the phone. What's your experience regarding such conversations? What should I say to agent in order to reach my goal? I've already tried once, but they told me that no such flight was available and that their system showed only the same flights as AB's website.
Should I indicate step by step each flight, with numbers and dates, and inform the consultant that according to AA.com they are available? I told once something about AA.com to the agent and he or she explained shortly that I called AB and not AA, which are different airlines :rolleyes:
Should I ask the agent to consult this case with supervisor?
Any other ideas?

Thanks a lot, Bartek

The best thing is to indicate flight numbers and dates. When you ask for a J flight GDN-CUN I can almost guarantee that they will not find. When you see availability on every single flight and indicate this flight to the agent he should find the seats. Telling them about AA.com does not help because they will say that AA might have other inventories, however in my experience, every flight which was available as a reward on AA.com was available for a reward at AB also (however there might be also exceptions).

Be aware that there is only Y on AB´s intra-european flights.

thanks a lot :-)

I'll contact them this week and will let you know if I'm successful...

You know that AB European call center (or at least one of the call centers) is in GDN:D In the worst case tell them you can pay them a visit to discuss options:D

http://www.yourccc.com/pl/kariera/gdansk/

http://www.yourccc.com/FileRepositor...rberlin_PL.pdf

Yes, I know that (I even know someone who worked there), but I think this call center operates only for AB and not for topbonus. At least, I have never talked to any Polish when I called topbonus (only Germans and Romanians, as far as I remember). However, if I find out that I speak to someone located in Gdansk, I'll surely try to use this argument :-)

I'd like to let you know that my problem is solved. Someone else was faster and booked both 2 seats which were available. They disappeared both from AB and AA website, so I have nothing to talk about with TopBonus call center any more :(

Hi,

I'd like to add short update.

I've just redeemed 90.000 miles for CUN-DUS-TXL-GDN for 2 pax in J (I don't know why, but companion ticket was not available, so both tickets costed the same amount of miles). I did exactly what you suggested, i.e. indicated the flights in which AA showed availability of J seats and agent booked those flights very smoothly. The lady was extremely nice, so it was a pleasure to spend 30 minutes on the phone :-)

Well, I still don't know why I didn't act quickly enough to book 2 seats in J for our onward journey, when they were available... I don't expect they will appear once again for my dates, so I guess I'll book 2 tickets in economy (perhaps in XL seats) and will wait for possibility to do the upgrade (if such appears).

Bye, Bartek

congrats for the 2 J seats!
for your information: companion awards are only possible in Eco.

the day flight is somehow managable in Eco, the return flight is really a pleasure in J, also because it is one of the longest flights in AB´s network.
you can try to request an upgrade about 8 weeks before the flight - that´s the time they sometimes release more seats - at least to their Tier members. Otherwise, you can go for an ad hoc upgrade, however be aware that a higher amount of miles is required for an ad hoc upgrade at the airport (likely only possible in DUS, eventually in TXL)

nevertheless, if we decide to buy AB tickets, I'll surely book XL seats (for money or for 10K miles per person), as regular ones are awful.

thanks a lot for this helpful information :-)

I keep calling this number: 866-266-5588, and following the directions for booking with miles... but every time I get sent to a random department. Can someone help me?

Can anyone give any advice on how to reach a real person at the TopBonus call center, in my case to modify a ticket? The money I've wasted on it so far is going to end up approaching the cost of a new ticket in the cheapest tariff! The way I've been going through the call center so far s 1 - 1 - 3. Previously I went through it 1 - 2, but that led me to the airberlin call center for normal, paid flights.

EDIT While I was writing this somebody actually picked up the phone and the change was completed in 5 minutes!

Call this number for the English department: 917-2613165