pacheco18

Earilier this year I booked a low mileage Business Class award LAX to SYD on CHina Southern because there was no availability on DL or V Australia. My return is on Korean Air. I have been calling regularly, hoping to avoid flying to Australia via CHina and finally, yesterday, I found low mileage direct flights on V Australia.

The rep -- who was great -- needed help with reticketing so she put me on hold and contacted the reticketing desk. She returned to me and said the reticketing rep said the computers won't allow a V Australia/Korean Air combination. To the rep's credit, she did not beleve it could not be done and asked to me to hold so she could contact a different reticketing rep. And, yes, the second reticketing rep entered the information manually and I am booked in V AUstralia.

This was a great rep. But it just goes to show, it all depends who answers the phone -- not just for us but for the Delta reps as well.

socrates

sounds like you spoke with Chisholm

sfozrhfco

I had a similar issue yesterday. An employee had travelled from Kenya to the US with a combination of AF/KQ/DL and was in Europe ready for his last leg back to Kenya. He wanted to delay the trip by one day. AF said the fee was $120 to change which is what the fares rules said. The couldn't change it however as the say the ticket was cancelled by DL yesterday morning. You call AF in the US and you get a DL rep who says they did not cancel the ticket but they could process the change. 1st she said it was $100. I said Ok, fine. Gave her the CC info and she says the computer now tells me it is $200 as the passenger is breaking the fare in Paris. Well he had already stopped over in Paris for 5 days on his original ticket. She calls the rate desk again. Ok, it will be $220 now. I say could you call again. She calls back and now it is $170. I ask, "is this your final answer?"

I finally ended up calling KQ in Kenya and had them change the flight and had the passenger pay the $120 which was the actual fee at CDG.

Two hours of my time wasted due to completely clueless DL agents.

mtkeller

Glad it worked out! Just to be a pedant (I am a mathematician, and that's what we're best at), but V Australia doesn't exist any more. Long-haul and domestic Australian operations are all branded Virgin Australia now, although they still use a hodgepodge of VA and DJ flight codes. There used to be some issues combining VA/DJ short flights with the longhaul sectors being on a different carrier, but it seems like that's been remedied now. In any case, your ticket clearly shows that you can use VA one direction and KE the other.

MR_MAMA

I have had my best DM line experiences from reps that were not in Chilsom, its the person that you are on the phone with, not what office they work out of.

rwoman

+1 - I've had outstanding service from some individuals and not so much from others.

NWA/Deltaflygirl

Thank you Mr_mama and Rwoman - I have to say although IRC has some great agents (a lot of them are hold overs from the Elite service lines, and former GRC agents before we went to the 'instant issue' system so they have many years of experience as such and know the ropes) there are a LOT of us out here all over the system who honestly DO want to give the honestly best service we can - we want you to be our choice of repeated and referred business because we're the ones who will 'git 'er done', and do it right...

MSPeconomist

Maybe the problem was you were talking to Chilsom; the good agents are in Chisholm and would not appreciate being confused with folks in Chilsom.

itsaboutthejourney

I generally agree, but why all this calling back and forth? When we used to have access to Chisholm those agents did everything (reticketing, redeposits, you name it), DL's system sounds very inefficient let alone a cause of confusion such as the OP's.

We should care because the higher cost in all this back-and-forth costs not use us higher prices, but DL in profits.

MSPeconomist

It's not only the costs, but the inconvenience for us and the increased chances of errors along the way, including omitting to reissue tickets.

cpinstein

Be careful. I just discovered by accident that my VA flight had been downgraded to Coach from Business. It just shows up as a schedule change, with no changes in times. F is not business class, neither is X. you have to be booked in Z class. The Delta agents don't get it. So be vigilent.

mnredfox

And my best experience with any DL/PMNW rep was Chisholm.

1. Knowledgeable
2. Willing to do what they can to make great CS

socrates

you are correct...from my experiences it appears the majority of those folks are located in MN however I do agree there are others located in other offices.....but with that said I'd rate the TX res office higher than SLC or CVG in terms of their ability to service the pax

Even though I didn't grow up in MN nor do I live there (too cold) I do believe in MN Nice and MN's strong work ethics (Yes I have had business experience in 'the cities")