.com Desk Agent Theories
 

Late last night, I booked flights for a much-needed vacation in July on Continental.com. I must have accidentally checked the paper tickets option button - because when my reciept came back it showed an extra $100 paper ticket charge. I caled the .com support desk and within minutes the very friendly agent cancelled my transaction and re-issued the tickets as electronic - no hassle at all.

I've had several good experiences with this phone line (and several bad on the "elite" line), and it got me thinking ... does Continental put its best trained agents on this line because it's the one most direclty tied to revenue? I suspect that most callers are trying to complete a purchase - or at the very least have the intention of purchasing a ticket. Where general agents get a lot of calls checking prices for an annual trip to visit Grandma in FLL or changing seats, the .com callers would more likely have their credit cards in hand when dialing...

I believe that they give more latitude to the .com desk agents. It's not about "best trained". It's all about having the authority to correct a "mistake". Hopefully, if we don't complain too much, they will continue to have excellent service at the .com desk.