What is a 'long sell' when redeeming DL miles on AZ?
Oct 18, 2012, 8:11 pm
#1
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What is a 'long sell' when redeeming DL miles on AZ?
Can someone help me understand what the term ' long sell' means when trying to redeem DL miles for Alitalia? I was told that there is usually some difficulty when trying to do this. I wanted to know what this term means if I need to explain it to a phone rep. I appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks.
Oct 18, 2012, 8:13 pm
#2
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If the phone rep doesn't know what a long sell is, just hang up and try again. You won't be able to explain to them what they need to do.
What's going on is that for some partners, DL agents can't see if they have award inventory or not. Thus, they have to put in a request for the space and wait for someone at AZ to confirm the space for them.
What's going on is that for some partners, DL agents can't see if they have award inventory or not. Thus, they have to put in a request for the space and wait for someone at AZ to confirm the space for them.
Oct 18, 2012, 8:25 pm
#3
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Long sell is pretty much what it says....you sell a space the long way! Doing a long sell you can do a variety of things such as putting one on a waitlist (HL) or simply just selling a seat (NN). See this article: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...know-they-are/ Long sells are generally a practice for older or agents out of habit or just the need to do something you can't do the short way.
Oct 18, 2012, 10:20 pm
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Long sell is pretty much what it says....you sell a space the long way! Doing a long sell you can do a variety of things such as putting one on a waitlist (HL) or simply just selling a seat (NN). See this article: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...know-they-are/ Long sells are generally a practice for older or agents out of habit or just the need to do something you can't do the short way.
Oct 18, 2012, 11:01 pm
#5
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Long sell is lingo referring to how an agent "sells" a segment. I worked in Sabre so I'll give you that example.
If I wanted to "sell" a seat on a flight, I could do it the "short way" by typing:
1JFKLAX
This pulled up that day's availability for that city pair. To sell, I'd have to type:
01Y1
(0=sell, 1=#of seats, Y=class I wanted to sell, 1=line number from the availability display)
Alternatively, I could just long sell it by typing:
0XX123Y19OCTJFKLAXNN1
Here's the break down: (0=sell, XX=airline code, 123=flight number, Y=class of service, 19OCT=date, JFKLAX=city pairs, NN1=needs one seat)
Each did the same thing
Hope that helps
If I wanted to "sell" a seat on a flight, I could do it the "short way" by typing:
1JFKLAX
This pulled up that day's availability for that city pair. To sell, I'd have to type:
01Y1
(0=sell, 1=#of seats, Y=class I wanted to sell, 1=line number from the availability display)
Alternatively, I could just long sell it by typing:
0XX123Y19OCTJFKLAXNN1
Here's the break down: (0=sell, XX=airline code, 123=flight number, Y=class of service, 19OCT=date, JFKLAX=city pairs, NN1=needs one seat)
Each did the same thing
Hope that helps
Oct 19, 2012, 3:24 am
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Oct 19, 2012, 7:14 am
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In addition, a long sell ignores availability and requests space from the carrier directly. Depending on the access agreement the airline then has anywhere from 12-48 hours to confirm or deny the sell. This is why long sell is frowned upon with award classes, it's either available or not and agents are not 'supposed' to circumvent that logic.
Oct 19, 2012, 10:56 am
#9
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In addition, a long sell ignores availability and requests space from the carrier directly. Depending on the access agreement the airline then has anywhere from 12-48 hours to confirm or deny the sell. This is why long sell is frowned upon with award classes, it's either available or not and agents are not 'supposed' to circumvent that logic.
Oct 19, 2012, 11:26 am
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Alternatively you can just ask them to check directly with AZ. They would still be doing a long sell but you don't have to use that lingo. If you know there are seats available and the DL agent tells you it isn't there, then ask them to check with AZ directly whil you hold. Tell them that you see the seats available throu Air France's site and they should be there. You'll be on hold 4-5 mins and they will come back with the availability.
I have done it both ways of asking and either way worked just fine. The thing you don't want to do is just have them arbitrarily search on random dates doing long sells. Make sure the availability is there before you ask them to check.
I have done it both ways of asking and either way worked just fine. The thing you don't want to do is just have them arbitrarily search on random dates doing long sells. Make sure the availability is there before you ask them to check.
Oct 19, 2012, 11:30 am
#11
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I have tried this with AF where DL wasnt showing AF seats but the AF site was showing availability. Asked agent to long sell and they basically came back and said it still didn't work. Did I just get a bad agent?
Oct 19, 2012, 11:34 am
#12
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+1 - Sometimes using what you think is industry terminology just makes it harder. My guess is that agents hired in the last 10-12 years have no idea what "long sell" means. What they do know is that they occasionally get calls from customers asking them to check availability with another carrier.
Oct 19, 2012, 11:42 am
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AFAIK long sells don't work with AF. See thread linked above.
Oct 19, 2012, 12:04 pm
#14
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No, the AF/KL inventory visible on the AF site is not matching what is available to partners at the moment. If it shows as O inventory in ExpertFlyer, however, it should be available to DL.
Oct 19, 2012, 12:05 pm
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Except there are instances where DL's agents have systems that simply cannot display the availability for partners. We can see the inventory in ExpertFlyer or other tools, so the agents do a long sell. There are a number of instances where their documentation on how to book awards explicitly tells them they need to do a long sell.