DoggyDaddy

We (Mrs. DoggyDaddy, Miss DoggyDaddy, and I) are taking a cruise-tour this July, starting in Fairbanks and ending in Vancouver. I tried to book some reward tickets, and the Continental site showed outbound SaverPass flights from Newark, thru Chicago (ORD) on CO metal, kto Anchorage (ANC) on Air Alaska (AS) metal, and to Fairbanks (FAI) on AS metal, and coming back from Vancouver Canada. When I tried to book them, it showed that the EWR to ORD segment was coach, but that was OK, as the majority of the flying was in First (for 25,000miles). After booking, there was a statement that said that I would have to wait up to 24 hours for the AS booking to become final. When I got the confirmation from CO, it said the same thing, but only seemed to have me flying to ORD, and coming back from Vancouver. I called the CO 800 number, and spoke to a very nice lady who said that normally, the AS segments come back within a minute or so, and she could not see them as being available. I asked if she could talk to a supervisor to override the system, but it turns out she was a supervisor. She tried all different routes, and after about one hour of trying, the best she could do was to fly me coach from EWR to SEA, and then First to ANC and on to FAI. The problem was a 6 hour layover at SEA. She really tried, but there was not much she could do with the AS segments, as CO does not control them. Needless to say, the family did not like this.
I tried later that night and the original routing was still there, and I tried again, with a different booking coming home. Same result - could not confirm.
This morning, the First routes were gone - no decent way to FAI, and I started to panic. Can we get to our vacation with the miles we have?
Tonight, the First route popped up again, and I tried to book it again, with another return route. Same message - can not confirm

Has anyone else had this happen to them? What recourse do I have, if any with CO? The flights are available on the CO site, but they cannot honor them.


DD

sfogate

I once booked a reward tkt on Alaska using CO miles through CO.com. I had the same message about waiting for AS to confirm. I called CO Res and that woman actually called AS to get the tkt confirmed. Call again and ask them to contact AS directly to confirm your routing.

channa

CO's viewing of AS inventory has been flaky at best. Agents often can't see any inventory even when it's there.

Here's what I'd do. Use alaskaair.com and look for the saver awards there. Once you find what you want, call those into CO.

If the agent gives you anything about them not seeing them, ask for them to do a manual sell to sell those flights in. Alaska flights don't always show up in CO's system even though they are available -- this is a known issue.

Note that some agents don't know how to do this and/or will get very defensive when you tell them how to do their job. If you get one of these, explain to them that AS doesn't always show up on their system, and they have to manual sell them. Of course, you run the risk of alienating the agent, in which case you just hang up and hit redial.

Expect to go through about 3 agents before you can get this done (that's been my CO average to book a reward ticket lately).

Bottom line, if you see the space at alaskaair.com, you should be able to get it at CO. And chances are if it shows up at co.com, it really is available.

channa

Unfortuately as customers, we don't have the same employee secret handshake or password or whatever it takes to get phone agents to work with us.

Some are very helpful, while many are not. Getting a canned, yet incorrect response like, "If it doesn't show on my screen it's not available" is quite common in this situation, and there's not much a customer can do when dealing with such an ornery agent.

Though I have offered to train them on reward bookings.

davidash

Go a day early to ANC and take the train to Fairbanks --- much nicer way to see Alaska and much more relaxing.

DoggyDaddy

I tried again last night, and the agent still couldn't get the AS flights. The flights were there, but AS wouldn't give them to CO. This nice lady was also a supervisor, and she tried everything she could, but could not get any F SuperSaver flights for us. Finally, she got us on a CO flight from EWR to MSP, and then a NW flight from MSP to FAI, but on SleezyPass for 25K miles. Not as good as the First Class flilghts, but a reasonable alternative, and gets us into FAI at a reasonable time.
The agent said that this happens with AS a lot, and there is nothing they can do to get around it. She spent almost an hour with me to try to get something that would be reasonable, and it seemed that she knew what she was doing.
Davidash, we will be taking the train to Anchorage as part of the cruise-tour, so we will be seeing all of the sites.
Hopefully we will see Mt. McKinley when we are there - I understand only about 40% of the people see it. I did see it once from a plane - the portion above the clouds - and it was awesome.
Thanks everyone for their comments.


DD

channa

Did you ask the agent to manually sell in the flights you saw available at alaskaair.com?

sfogate

I didn't use any secret handshake or password, I just asked the agent to confirm the seat I booked on AS via CO.com. She put me on hold and then I was good to go. The seat was available on CO.com so maybe that made a difference in her ability to confirm it with AS.