Reward Booking Misery
 

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!

Doesn't help you, but for future reference, never transfer MR -> miles until you're holding the ticket. You can hold 24 hours online or something like 10 days by phone.

There currently is another thread addressing this issue: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697489

This is a common problem with co.com and has been going on for quite some time. For that reason, you should always call to verify availability and book reward tickets rather than rely on what is listed on the website. In addition, the first person with whom you spoke should have told you to have the elite line book the reservation rather than redeposit and try again on co.com. That would have made more sense, IMO.

It is unlikely that CO will open up reward space for you as a goodwill gesture, especially given that the flight is operated by NW. Good luck getting your issue resolved.

If you both searched for one seat initially and then this happened, it's very likely that there was only one WBC seat available. You may have scored the seat milliseconds before your partner, who was then left with a coach seat. I have seen this many times.

Every time I've had WBC or Delta BizElite segments in my CO account itineraries, it says "Coach", most of the time. You have to look up the fare class letter that corresponds to that airline, not to COs.

Likewise, I have a NW trip booked right now and it does show coach, but this was after I upgraded with miles. It also shows the length of the flight as being 41 hours . . .

It is semantics but nonetheless important - you really meant to say never transfer MR -> miles until you are holding "a confirmed reservation". You will never get a "ticket" (paper, electronic or otherwise) until the miles are deducted from your account.

I tried to use CO miles to upgrade my NW far to BUH. I was told on the phone all was in order, transfer the miles. I did the transfer, they appeared immediately in my CO account. Then CO came back and said "NW said no upgrades." By this time I had been back and forth on the phone for 2 hours and was not ready to keep pursuing it. So I had 20,000 miles in CO that I really didn't need to transfer there. I will eventually use them, but even with the best intentions, mistakes happen.

Yes, you're correct. Everything possible up to the point of, "payment" before transferring the miles.

Hi aeroman62, we are aware of this issue where we're intermittently showing some partner flights as available when they actually aren't. Based on our last assessment, we're seeing this happen with certain flights operated by Alaska Airlines (First Class rewards mostly) and to a much lesser extent Northwest and Gulfstream International. We are working to resolve this issue, which involves not only our own IT group, but also the IT groups of our partner carriers. As for why we weren't just able to confirm the space for you, unfortunately our options are limited when it comes to flights operated by our own partners. We can't overbook reward seats for flights we don't operate ourselves.

At a minimum, I'd like to offer to reverse the American Express Membership Rewards transfer that your partner made (sending the points back to his American Express Membership Rewards account). If you're interested, please send me a PM with his OnePass number and we'll take care of it.

Scott, is CO working on the faulty reward calender display problem as well?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=697489

That is very nice of you!!