Just wanted to rant for a second about flying EWR - PEK tomorrow on a NON lie-flat plane. I know the revenue generated on the London runs is why they are stocked there, but sheesh... a 14+ hour flight deserves something better than what Frankfurt gets!
:mad:

There have been stories of them shutting down the T-mobile service at RCCs in airports with free WiFi. If they did so in PHL this weekend, she may have been telling the truth.

This happens to me every time I hit the Sen Lounge at IAD.

Yes, I finally gave up at about the 70th minute and moved on to other things. That was just nuts.

PClub wifi won't give me an IP. :rolleyes:

No more "I'll sleep in teh aeroport" trips...

I'll be sleeping in Miami (Bienvenidos a Miami :rolleyes:)

How long did you end up sleeping there?

May the :-: be with you.

Trip was seriously worth it, though. The North Slope is some of the most bizarre, inhospitable terrain I have ever laid eyes on. It's hard to tell where the land ends and the Arctic Ocean begins. The "land" is mostly loose gravel, with tundra covering it in some places, with tons of crater-like freshwater lagoons as far as the eye can see. Eight hours was definitely enough, though, to see all that needed to be seen.

Couple hours on a bench in ANC on Friday night, stayed awake through all of flights to BRW and back down to ANC, few hours on a bench Saturday night before the 01:30am to PDX, then was comatose on all flights today, as well as in the PDX RCC.

Turns out AA could not get the beeyotch out of here - got hit with the cAAncelator. Yay. Fortunately I had myself protected on a Taca flight that leaves at 9 pm - gets into MIA at 1:30 or so. Doubful that I will take a hotel voucher just due to the hour.

Good news is (for now) I still can haz AA 777 F. And I'm going to do my damnedst to have AA cancel the LAX-SFO leg and just send me home from LAX.

So - anyone have experience with Taca C class? Tried to find out what kind of plane it was but the GA did not understand me.

Warning, long story to follow...


It appears the three-call rule works with CO customer service.

The reason for me needing to be in OKC on Tues and Wed morning just went away, so decided to check into heading home on Monday afternoon. Pulled up the fare rules for my ticket (trip home is on UA) and sure enough after departure just the 150 change fee if the same fare bucket, all original fare rules other than advanced purchase met, same first flight coupon, etc. Looking good.

Pulled up availability and there is same fare bucket availability for the Monday version of my Wed. flights. Good again.

Called TA, and I hate it when these things are booked through TAs rather than directly with the airline, and get "it looks like CO has control of your ticket now...call them." Okay.

Call #1 to CO. Nice agent says, "we have flights through IAH on CO." I say, "no, I need to be on UA so that I don't have to re-fare the ticket, just pay the change fee." She says, "okay, I see the availability, I need to talk to a special desk for UA stuff, hold on." Ten seconds pass. Agent comes back, "It looks like your ticket was booked as two one-ways and so it will cost {string of numbers none of which resembles either the 150 change fee or any fare currently in the the market} for a total of {huge amount} to change." I reply :rolleyes:, "thanks, I guess I'll just keep my Wednesday flights then, please don't change anything."

Now I'm confused. I suppose it's possible that the TA booked two completely separate tickets, one each way. Except of course that I could see the complete itin on .bomb under the UA PNR and the CO agent was able to pull up the UA flights using the CO record locator. But maybe there was something I was missing so....

Call into the 1K line. "Hello Mr. DbDCA, how can I help you?" Me, "well, I need to change this flight I have." Nice 1K agent, "okay, let me see....hmmm, it looks as though that is ticketed on CO stock, so you'll have to call them." Me, "okay, I had a strange answer from them, can you just look and confirm for me that it is issued as a round trip with the outbound on CO using a CO fare and the return on UA using a UA fare?" Her, "Yep." Me, "and is the fare basis XXXXX?" Her, "yep." Me, "oooookay, guess it's time for round two." Her ::laughter::

As an aside, say what you will about the agents at UA, but I've always enjoyed the fact that they seem to have a good sense of humor about the :rolleyes: that is the reality of the airline business.

So....now it's time to talk to CO again. First I get to fence with the IVR system for a while. After I gave it my record locator, date of travel, last name, origin city, destination city, and told it what kind of tree I would be if I were a tree, it decided it couldn't find my reservation and sent me to an agent :rolleyes:. Friendly agent #2 "How can I help you." Me, "I have a flight on UA that is ticketed on CO ticket stock and need to change the date." Her, "Okay, let me see, yes I see your flight and yes it is on CO stock, what can I do for you?" Me, "I need to just take the same flight number but on Monday instead of Wednesday." Her, "You can fly CO through IAH that leaves at 1PM and gets in at {something or another}." Me, "no, I need to stay on UA so that I just pay the change fee instead of having to pay a higher fare. Just grab flights XXX and YYY for me on Monday." Her, "okay, I have it here and see the availability, I need to talk to my rate desk, hold on please." Me....:confused: thinking: rate desk, it's not a re-fare, I say, "okay."

Five minutes....ten minutes....15 minutes....::click::.

In COs defense, I was on a cell, so maybe I dropped the call. But still.

::deep breath:: :: pace for a while to build courage for try number three::

Try #3. CO IVR picks up. "Please say your record locator." "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand you, please say your six letter record locator." "I'm sorry, I'm a piss poor piece of technology that doesn't seem to actually transfer any data to our reservations agents anyhow, please say your six letter record locator again. "What is the airspeed velocity of a fully laden swallow?"

Finally the IVR gives up and dumps me to an agent.

Agent "How can I help you?" Me, "I have a UA return flight as part of a reservation that was ticketed on CO stock and I need to change the date." Him, "Okay let me see {asks for and received record locator...helpful IVR and all}. So you're travelling to Oakland?" Me :confused::confused: "No, I traveled to OKC on Friday, now I'm returning from OKC." Him, "Okay, and when did you want to change your return to." Me, "Monday afternoon." Him, "Okay, I see a flight to IAH at 1 and that will connect to...." Me, "No, I need to fly UA, the same flights I was booked on, just two days earlier." Him, "Okay so UA from Oakland." Me, "Oklahoma City." Him, "right."

At this point I'm looking up one-way award tickets to get home on Monday and just get out of this mess. It would be 12.5k miles instead of a reimbursable change fee, but there is a limit and I would have bet good money this guy wasn't going to come through.

Agent, "Okay so I have you on UA XXXX connecting to UA YYY, hold on for a moment please, I need to talk to another desk to get this done." Me, "okay," ::clicks to select award flights, mouse hovers over the button to book::

Time passes....

Agent, "okay, you're all set, I just need a credit card for the $150 change fee." Me, :eek: he actually got it right, "okay, let me grab my card, can you read back the new flights?" Agent ::reads back correct flights::. Me, "and the cost is just the $150 change fee?" Agent, "correct." Me ::gives credit card number::.

Checked .bomb a moment later and the new flights are confirmed. Guess the same rule applies to CO as on UA...if you don't like the answer you get, especially when you know you're right, hang up and call back.

Time to power down and go get a few more drinks before wandering over to the gate in about an hour.

That seems to happen on every MR you take.:p

Did you speak loudly? That usually helps with the language barrier.;)

My sleep on an ANC bench got interrupted on Friday night due to teh cAAncelator. AA canceled either ANC-DFW or ANC-ORD due to MX. Suddenly, the quiet area of the airport that I had chosen to sleep in turned into a zoo, as angry pAAtrons were shouting at AA rez agents on their crackberries.

Hmmm, apparently today's PDX-IAH was lifetime flight No. 850.

That's rough, but it sounds like it was worth it.