Upgrade Flight Switch???
 

I just returned from London and had an interesting occurence at LGW check in. Back in Oct I purchased an upgradable ticket EWR-LGW on flights CO 28- 2/15 outbound on CO 29-2/19. My tickets showed the correct dates and times. About 3 weeks ago (within the prescribed 30 day rule), I received a call from CO telling me I was upgraded on both segments & given my seat assignments. All went as planned until I went to check in on my return to EWR yesterday where the desk agent in LGW asked if I had changed my ticket? I said 'no', and gave her my certificate for the upgrade. She then handed me back my confirmed seat 3K and pointed the way to the CO Presidents Club. Upon arrival at the Club, the staff looked at me strangely and asked why was I there so early. (CO Flight 29 leaves at 11 am-- it was now 9 am). I told her I didn't think it was too early. She then had me look at my actual ticket, which showed I was on CO 19-- on the 19th, leaving at 3 pm! in BF!!! I was then told that there was no way I could leave on the earlier flight in BF, as even though there were plenty of BF seats available (about 20!!), no upgrades were allowed after 72 hrs. Obviously there was a mistake made by OnePass. I did not want to wait the extra 6 hours, so I called OP service and was told, sorry, nothing we can do--we somehow booked you on CO 19 in BF, so my alternative was to fly coach on CO 29 or wait the 6 long hours. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif
Luckily for me a sympathetic rep at the PC, took me down to the ticket desk (through customs again) and explained the situation. At first they were adament that while I could 'stand by' for coach on CO 29, no way could I get upgraded to BF. I finally convinced them that I never received any written or verbal confirmation of the change on my original ticket, and therefore someone on their end had made the error. They then said they would 'fully investigate who at OP in Housron was responsible' and gave me my original upgraded 3K seat on CO29 leaving at 11am.
In the end, it was explained to me that what probably happened was all upgrade seats on my original flight were sold out (very, very hard to belive--as of that AM it was still showing Z9), and thus they put me on a different flight in BF.

PS-- the good part of this story (aside from the finally being upgraded on my original flight), was that on my outbound, at the Virgin Club in EWR, no one took my upgrade coupon- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif!!
PSS--It was great meeting up with WorldBanker at the PC club at LGW.




[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 02-20-2001).]

Well this time it won't be NJDavid saying, this is another example of why one might want to:
Deny Continental The Freddie

While you did eventually get what you should have, the agents (club and Onepass) should have given it to you without any trouble. Instead they are more focused on the rule book, and less focused on providing quality customer service.

Strict attention to the "Rulebook" is one of the cultural problems that Gordon claimed to have been facing and later fixed when he took over CO.

Looks like Gordon and his staff need to read his book again.

mauld:

Sorry about the hassle. A disappointing response from CO. Glad the PClub person went to bat for you. It's always nice to have someone in your corner.

cameraguy:

A good point. Anyone with any perception and concern for the customer's situation (a top customer) would see that the rule need not be absolute.

Also, this no upgrade rule is poor on the customer service side; I bet that it was largely done away with because of agent complaints.

JL2

Don't get too exicted about them not taking the coupon. I have had that happen... AND every time one pass caught it and electronically deducted the miles. Sorry to pass on bad news... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

mauld wrote:

I've been meaning to ask about this new 72 hour BF upgrade policy. I find 3 references to it in the 2001 Elite Member's Guide, all on page 8 (all paraphrased here):

1. Waitlists are not permitted within 72 hours of departure. Waitlisted segments that don't clear by then are cancelled.

2. Standby for Int'l Rewards: "All Elite members who have redeemed an int'l reward ... in BusinessFirst ... but can confirm only in Coach, may stand by at the airport within 2 hours of departure."

3. BusinessFirst mileage upgrade rewards are not valid for standby.

These items say a lot, but they are silent on what I think is a very important issue: *confirmed* upgrades within 72 hours of departure. Mauld mentioned that the agent at LGW said that no upgrades were allowed after 72 hours. This clearly is not the case, per rule 2 above.

But more importantly, I think it is also true in the situation that I mentioned: having an upgradeable coach ticket, not clearing the waitlist by the 72-hour cutoff, but then having seats open up between then and departure time. In this case, you should be able to confirm a mileage upgrade over the phone. This violates neither rule 1, because you're not using the waitlist, nor rule 3 because you're confirming the upgrade, not standing by at the airport.

I called CO reservations, and asked about this situation. At least as far as the agent I spoke to was concerned, I am correct in my interpretation. She said that the computer won't allow them to place you on the upgrade waitlist within 72 hours, and that's why the wording was added to the Elite member's guide. However, if an upgrade became available (and us FlyerTalk folks would see this on itn of course :-)), you could call in to CO res and confirm it. If you had a paper ticket, you'd need to already have the certificate in hand. With an e-ticket, they can now reportedly do an electronic debit of your OnePass account and upgrade it for all e-tickets, regardless of who issued them. I remember at one time they could do these only for ones issued by CO reservations. But, they now apparently can do it also for e-tickets issued by eService Online, Travelocity, or any other travel agent.

So, although those of us with certificates in hand will no longer be able to stand by for an upgrade at the airport for flights that are J0 Z0 in hopes of a no-show, it looks as if we'll at least be able to get upgrades when inventory is not released into Z until after the 72-hour waitlist cutoff.

The only thing that worries me is that I can't see the rationale behind disallowing standby mileage upgrades at the airport for those that already have certificates. I know that if you don't have a certificate, and if CO res could not revalidate the ticket themselves (perhaps because you have a paper ticket), it used to be a big rigmarole to complete the paperwork at the airport (taking at least 15 minutes, at the ticket counter only, and not done at all at stations without CO personnel). Perhaps this is all they are trying to eliminate.

Does anyone have a different interpretation?