So, I finally found a price that is acceptable for a trip that I'm considering. I place the reservation on hold over continental.com so that I can firm up the rest of my plans and make a go-no go decision. The deadline for ticketing is midnight Wednesday. A couple of hours later, I get a call from a CO rep who identifies himself as being in a New Jersey city ticket office. He references the reservation I made and offers to ticket it immediately. I say thanks but no thanks and indicate that the reason that I put it on hold versus ticketing immediately on continental.com was so that I could firm up my plans. At that point, the agent thanked me for my business and the conversation was over.

Has anyone else received such a weird call? I just did not understand the point of his calling me. I've made hundreds of reservations and this is the first time this happens.

Anyway, thought I'd share...

Cheers,
Brooklynflyer

Scanning on-hold reservations looking for a quick commission? Just a thought.

CTO's get paid a commission??? I thought they were just CO employees.

The CTOs have sales targets that they must meet, and I think there is even some variable portion to their compensation that is pegged at their individual and location sales figures.

But, I do not believe they get paid a commission per se.

Did you tell him that by ticketing through him, you only get 50% EQM, so if he can cut the price by half, he's got a deal?

that happened to me twice with two BF reservations i had on hold. i guess they dont like to hold those seats. within an hour, someone from CO had called my office wanting to know if i was going to purchase and if not, could they be released.

This has only happened to me on BF holds. Was your ticket an international business class reservation?

The ticket is in coach (H on the way out and W on the way back). The flight looks like it may be oversold (showing Y3 outbound and Y0 on the return right now but BF still seems to have 9 seats open in both directions).

Yes, that's normal. My experience has been the same with high revenue fares.

My only complaint is a lack of time zone consideration. Calling me at 5:30am in LA and asking if I'm going to Atlanta once caused a brief panic in my sleeping, confused state -- I thought I was being told that I was going to miss my flight, or something. It was for the next day.