Read the fine print
 

I will complete two around the world trips, three trans-Atlantic round trips, and numerous domestic flights - all on Continental or Sky Team carriers this year. In each and every flight I booked, I received 100% elite credit, and in some cases 150%.

Unfortunately I leave today on a round trip to France and Switzerland, and was rudely surprised to see I would get only 50%. The problem? I needed the assistance of a telephone Continetnal booking agent to book the connection from CDG to Basil. And, the agent did not tell me that class (L) would result in 50% mileage credit.

I made three calls to Continental, first to One Pass, then to Customer Care, and another. In all cases the agents seemed to be uncaring, and stonewalled, all saying it was not the responsibility of the agent on the telephone to tell me of the reduced elite credit. I should have booked the travel on line. And so on. One agent even hung up on me after refusing to give me her name.

Part of my confusion was that my around the world tickets were booked on the telephone via the Around The World desk. And I received 100% flight credit (hmm. that wasn't mentioned in the fine print either).

I do not understand why airline Customer "Care" agents are chosen to be brusque, rude, and not empowered to tweak the system in order to maintain good relations with solid, paying long term customers.

I would think airlines would encourage their frequent fliers to travel more, rather than upset them and be somewhat deceptive about the fine print of restrictions on elite mileage.

I'm a little confused, since I do not fly CO very often. Is it the fact that you booked L that gives you 50% EQM, or the fact that you had to talk to an agent. If it's the former, I agree with CO.

As for the Customer Care agents, I only have this forum to go on, but I have heard that they aren't particularly warm and fuzzy.

Mike

It's because he/she booked a 'cheap' fare (W, E, S, T, N, L) not on co.com, which up until October 27, 2009, will only give 50% EQM.

The trick is to book most of the flight on co.com (US-CDG, and CDG-US) and call to add the last legs.

To the OP - welcome to FT! Quick question and maybe I'm misunderstanding your post. If you've done all of the trips above in this year, at 100% credit, will it actually make a difference in your status this year? Just curious. Good luck and hopefully someone around here has a better answer for you than mine. ^

While hanging up on you is not appropriate a colleague I work with also complains on the 50%, but for the conntection CD-Basil I would just shrug it off and live with it.

Good news though, CO recently announced changes to the 50% rules.....see this LINKhttps://www.continental.com/web/en-U...romoCode=A6108

Wow, that sucks... might I suggest, if the EQM is the difference in status levels, to call them 3 or 4 more times(many times different agents will do different things), and if that doesn't work, send CO Insider a message explainign the situation and asking him to fix it.

I think the point is that the entire flight will earn 50% because he/she called in for the CDG-Basel part.

And I might suggest not to. The rules are quite clear and it isn't "fine print." It is actually pretty big print - the same size as everything else on the page - where the earning rules are defined. That rule is one that CO has stuck to quite rigidly. And while it is changing in 5 weeks, until then it still applies.

On top of that, if the OP actually has done 2x RTW and 3x TATL at 100% or 150% each time then they have nothing to worry about in terms of hitting Platinum for this year. So they'll be a couple miles lower on their MMer run and now they know the rule (that is going away).

I just don't understand demanding a benefit to which one is not entitled. If the rules are written one way and the company is not honoring them then I'd raise a fit until they did. But when they are following their (well published) rules I see it as a waste of everyone's time to demand to be "made whole" when you actually are asking for more than you deserve.

+1. Well said.

Originally posted by sbm12

I just don't understand demanding a benefit to which one is not entitled. If the rules are written one way and the company is not honoring them then I'd raise a fit until they did. But when they are following their (well published) rules I see it as a waste of everyone's time to demand to be "made whole" when you actually are asking for more than you deserve.[/

Excellent ^^

Any part of a transaction which cannot be done online is a huge red flag for not getting full 100% EQM's. I'm sorry that you had to find this out the hard way. I agree with the other posters above that you don't really have any recourse with respect to earning 100% EQM's.

My only suggestion if the additional EQM's are that important to you would be to call CO and find out how much it would cost to upgrade the itinerary to a fare that would enable you to earn full EQM's -- or at least enough EQM's to hit that next level of status, if that is your goal.

You also mentioned SkyTeam partners, but you did not specify the dates which you are flying. Are you flying prior to October 24? You will not be able to earn any CO EQM's on SkyTeam partners after October 24.

Regarding CO customer care, in the two cases that I've had to resort to them, they were very responsive and fixed my problems. I think that for most negative experiences you see written about here, the person is asking for a rule to be waived for some other exception to be made, as was the case in the OP's situation. CO doesn't see Customer Service (800-WE-CARE2) to be a place that just waives rules whenever the customer is upset or didn't know or understand the rules.

Back off, buckaroos!
 

Agree that one should not expect to get something in violation of stated rules, BUT....
There is one other aspect that needs to be considered - the OP could not book the L segment online. If it is not possible to book online, thus requiring a phone reservation, the pax can still get 100% credit BUT the agent has to note that in the record - and may not if the pax does not specifically ask for it.
If the original rez was made online, followed by a call to CO to add the CDG-Basel leg, the record will indicate that it was originally an online booking and tech support can fix it so that 100% credit accrues.
If the entire itinerary was booked over the phone it may be more difficult, but it may be worth a call to tech support anyway, since it sounds like the 50% rate is being applied to the entire trip.

The OP called it in because one leg (CDG-BSL) could not be booked online. Had the OP called the co.com support desk they would have received 100% EQMs on the CO segments since it would have still been an online reservation. Instead they called the normal reservations line so it is not. Is that a completely random and arbitrary distinction on CO's part? Perhaps. But it is also the rule, as documented on the website.

There are ways the OP could have received the 100% EQM credit. They didn't pursue those paths and now is here complaining that they are due the 100% EQMs anyways. Why? The rules are very clear on this topic on co.com.

yeah, BUT
 

Agree, to a point - but if a segment is not bookable online, then it does not seem fair to penalize the customer for not booking online.
If the pax tries and gets the "can't complete, call support desk" message and pax calls somewhere else, I'd be more inclined to agree.
If, on the other hand, the message was "neither CO nor its partners serves your destination" when pax knows that is not the case (as has happened to me more than once) that's a different situation.
OP, if you are still reading, what was he sequence of events that led to your making a phone rez?