Rant: Agents unaware of SDC change rules
 

<<Rant on>>

I posted a qu about this yesterday, so you might already know the background. I was on a ~7AM flight tomorrow and wanted the 5PM or 7PM flight today instead. I tried to do it online, but CO.com didn't give me the options I wanted (It gave me 10AM or 1PM today). I called CO and said that I "had a reservation to tomorrow that I wanted to change to this evening using the same day confirmed change option." I was told by agent #1 that this was only available at the airport. I said that the CO.com said it's available online, on the phone or at the airport. She said, "let me transfer you to a preferred agent who might be able to help."

Agent #2 takes the phone with no background of why she got my call: I give her my information and ask for the same thing as above. She said that "Same day confirmed only available for same-day flights. [I] cannot fly a day earlier." She was VERY rude & was gave an extreme attitude when she emphasized "Same day". I stated that "CO.com says the changes are allowed within 24 hours of the original flight, as long as it's within 12 hours of the desired flight." She told me that I was wrong and there was nothing that she could do. I asked for a manager to help with the situation and got another rude response of "hold on" and then 'click.' I like to give agents the benefit of the doubt and assume she accidentally hung up on me, but with her attitude, I really don't think that's the situation here.

I figure hang-up & try again. Agent #3 takes the phone and I said that I wanted to do the "Confirmed change to an earlier flight" and intentionally left out the "Same day" part. She took my info and said there's nothing I could change to. I asked about flight ### at 7PM today and she said that "it's full." CO.com was still selling seats on the flight and seatcounter.com said there was still 1 open in H/Y. I told her that "CO.com was selling at least 1 seat and as far as I could tell, 1 seat was still for sale". She said (as rude as agent #2), "You can't trust the seat maps." I went along with her & asked for flight ### at 1PM today and she said "The new flight must be within 12 hours of my original flight." I hung up & just did it online.

<<Rand over.>>

My only question from this: Does anyone know what the limitations are for selling the last seat for same-day changes? Do they only do it if X seats remain open or something?

And my request is: CO train their agents to know what the policies are! This has been in effect for over 6 months now, so they should be aware of it and know the rules, or find someone who does. Oh yeah... and I also request that they don't give 'tude and hang up when a manager is requested.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

If they are only selling one seat they are unlikely to allow confirmed SDC. I haven't read one way or another about the actual number of seats that need to be available for them to allow SDC, but it makes sense to me that they wouldn't at just one.

As for the comment about seat maps, they are right, even if done with "attitude."

true but the OP was saying that based on seatcounter (they dont rely on seatmaps I imagine?)

forget seatcounter can the flight be purchased on CO or by phone, if not then no way to SDC.

Even if it can be bought on CO.com, it does not mean it can be used for SDC. If seatcounter or any other means shows Y/H 1 it probably means they are already oversold and are willing to oversell one more ticket (and hope for no-shows or deal with the oversold situation). Regardless of that, the fact that they are willing to sell one more seat, does not necessarily mean that there are seats available, and therefore room for SDC.

You would only have been able to SDC onto that flight if you had a ticket in Y or H class. The way SDC usually works for cheap fares is that somewhere within 24 hrs of the flight CO opens up all fare classes (even though pricing doesn't necessarily have fares that can sell them without advance purchase). If your fare class doesn't show up on Seatcounter (or whatever GDS tool you use) you won't be able to SDC onto that flight. the Y1 H1 probably meant that the flight was oversold, but at some point before departure seats for sale drop down to the capacity of the plane...they will no longer oversell. I think it's about 3 hours before, but don't remember.

The biggest caveat is that the same class of service must be available to do an SDC. If the same fare class is not available it goes back to an Add Collect AND $150 change fee. Looks like your only option was the airport standby list.

At T-12 if the flight isn't relatively fully booked (whatever that threshold is).

The OP's specific case has been pretty well covered here, so I won't re-hash that.

I will, however, second the OP's request that the CO reps get properly trained so that they could explain the situation to the OP instead of FTers having to do it.

Why do we know it better than they do? Because we have to live with it. Perhaps CO should have a three day training seminar for their reps someplace boring or with lame weather (summer in Midland, perhaps) for which the reps are provided a certain amount of money for travel and are allowed to keep whatever's left, giving them an opportunity to experience booking a flight. Then the seminar should wrap up early at the end of day two, leaving the agents figuring out how to change flights to go home early while not spending too much more money.

I've offered to train CO reps in award bookings. I'd be happy to add this to the curriculum. :D

Yeah, I know not to trust the seat maps... for the 7PM flight, there were at least a dozen seats shown as open there, all in the premium section. That just means that non-elites are confirmed, just haven't checked-in to get a seat yet.

I was on an O fare and when I called/tried online, the 1PM flight was showing 3 in Y/H (according to seatcounter.com), which it allowed me to change to. I thought your description was how it was supposed to work, but it didn't in this case, unless seatcounter.com was wrong. I don't know how reliable it is.

^^

i vote yes for this... this would be a customer service bonanza for coa.
(then what would we gripe about on ft)

WHAT "airport standby list"??? I've seen several occasions where the person must go to the service center (or counter) and give a CC# to pay the SDC fee, and if cleared, (same class or not), the card is charged. A person whose flight gets in earlier or gets through Customs early cannot go on an earlier flight, and must wait. Only if one's flight is delayed does it seem that one may grudgingly get an agent to allow a change without a fee. There really is no such thing as an airport standby list anymore in the minds of most gate agents. I've even heard them tell elite passengers that. I hope they weren't Plats, who do have some benefit in that matter! It's pay-to-change only, it appears.

On a similar vein, the old "two hour standby rule" if one misses a flight, even mentioned in the SDC page on continental.com, has been vehemently denied by gate agents. I've seen them demand the full $150 change fee, or the $25 SDC fee from the passenger, and if the next flight is the next morning / next day, even tell the passenger to go buy a whole new ticket -- no 12 hours grace overnight! And if they confirm them, "as there is no domestic standby, sir", then the fee is charged. Bad PR!

If one tries to cancel a last-minute flight booked within 24 hours (should be fully refundable by the 24-hour ticketing cancellation policy...72 international) and rebook to the flight one wantsso so as to not have to pay the SDC or something like a $150 change fee if "non-refundable", and get blank stares or silence from the agent. You'll have to do it online.

IMHO, CO has an agent consistency and education issue, both on the phone and at the airports. Or is it just we who are confused? I've seen several folks request clarification at the HOU DO IV, and I hope it gets addressed.

(dupe deleted)

That is what the airport standby list is.

There is no more free standby, but it is always possible to standby at the airport for a flight, even if you cannot be confirmed on that flight in advance via SDC. You give your CC # and are only charged if the standby clears.