CPMaverick

I recently found flights on all-VA... MEL-SYD, and SYD-APW (Samoa) showing available individually online on DL.com, but DL.com would not show any options from MEL-APW.

I called and the first agent priced it out right away, no issue. But I didn't want to book yet. Later I called to book, and the second agent couldn't see any availability. HUCA, and the third agent contacted the 'support desk' and got it ticketed. She was from Hawaii and she was real excited to talk about Samoa so that helped my cause. She said that they had to look up the flights individually by flight number. Had a name for it, but unfortunately I forget.

My only advice is HUCA, and find someone that doesn't easily give up.

FlyTheFriendlyMonkey

HUCA worked, after six times. I'm dreading the day they keep track of how many times you've called about an issue.

Zorak

The glass-half-full view of that would be that it would help pinpoint agents who are in need of retraining. I admit that's kinda reaching though

RealHJ

Most Delta agents aren't trained properly (on purpose, as it is Dullta's intention to have pax be purposefully overcharged) and don't care. You have to keep calling back until you get someone who knows what they are doing.

Kacee

Long sell.

FlyTheFriendlyMonkey

From my experience only 10% of agents can handle uncommon cases. I wish they would give proper training or have agents specialize more.

CPMaverick

That wasn't what she said, as I remember reading that here before. It might be the same thing, but her term had something about 'individual segments'. In any case, there is more than one method...

nichojo

Doubt it. Long sell forces inventory where it doesn't exist. This sounds like the inventory existed but wasn't shown in the way the agent searched.

RealHJ

It doesn't do that at all. It simply sends a manual request to the operating airline to confirm the inventory, and then it takes some time (minutes, hours, days or weeks) for it to come back as HK (hold confirmed), or not. DL agents are forbidden from using long sell as a rule, as that would let you get around the DL blocking. There is NO way to "force inventory where it doesn't exist", other than having the operating airline revenue management go in and open up inventory.

CI connections can be priced correctly two ways: using a special search that forces a TPE connection (normally DL won't show it), or segment by segment (but then not sure if global ticketing support needs to fix the pricing so it prices correctly vs. additively).

mills1090

I'm having a similar issue for a US-BKK award flight that I am trying to book. Not a huge deal right now since I have seats going via PVG, but I'd like to avoid transiting China if possible. I have tried a few different agents and none seem to be able to piece the itinerary together. Any ideas on what to do? Would it be because the US-TPE segment is priced out at 85k or should that not matter if the TPE-BKK segement is available?

RealHJ

That doesn't matter. You are just getting lazy or incompetent agents. Try and try again. As long as connection is under 24h, it is valid and should price as a normal through fare. Of course, it's a "feature" and an "enhancement" of the DL res system that it doesn't and tries to over-bill you additively, but a good res agent will be able to get past that and put it through at the right through fare.

exwannabe

Though I also would slightly prefer CI and TPE, I have used MU via PVG numerous times and it has always been quite efficient. Typically about 15-20 minutes from brakes on to sitting in the club (and the new club is nice). This assumes you are up front, if in the back it would take longer.

The biggest issues are the intra-Asia / domestic connections are often running late, and many report that if you are IROP'd it can be a pain.

mills1090

For me the times work out a bit better on the CI and via PVG-BKK is in economy where as via tpe would be all J.

Tried calling earlier to get it straightened out, agent tried to put it together both segment to segment, and origin to destination and she wasn't able to put it together. I was then transferred to the online help desk (not sure why), they were able to manually put it together but then had to transfer me to the "manual issue desk" and they were able to put it together but we're pricing it higher than it should've been... So I guess try again tomorrow.

Kacee

I got BKK-SFO ticketed a couple months ago for 95k. The agent couldn't see it at first. I asked if she had a tool that allowed her to specify the carrier (CI) and connection (TPE) and that worked like a charm.

RealHJ

Yes. Most Delta agents aren't trained (or just haven't paid attention during training or have conveniently "forgotten" it) and don't know that they BEFORE they start the search, they need to go to some advanced options tab and select the connecting airport and carrier(s), in order to get the most direct and logical routing output - or else it is suppressed (by design, I suspect). That's what I've been told and that works - has worked several times, since I've kept the instructions and have had to tell Delta agents how to use their own res system UI.

Other agents have done it segment by segment and swear by that, which is a direct contradiction to the above method. So I guess there's two ways to do it, segment by segment and force it to price right (I suspect that is for more seasoned agents who know what they are doing and have access to price things right), or advanced options tab and selecting connecting airport(s) and carrier(s) and get it O-D to get it to be automatically priced right vs. additive.

Here's what the agent needs to do. As sadly too many Delta res agents appear to be untrained or poorly trained, walk them through it step by step.
1. Go to the award shopping tab and enter both origin and destination and also connection airport (required or else it won't work).
2. Click more options and select skymiles/direct access (if they omit this step, again it won't work - most agents usually omit this crucial part). Once done the agent needs to click on find and NOT on award (if they click on award, it will not work; they need to click on find; this is another common mistake, clicking on award instead of find).
3. With everything done correctly, still the flight results price returned may be incorrect. The agent should know the normal pricing and should not read the pricing given on the screen (it'll may incorrect and too high: additive) but rather give you the real and correct price as per the award chart pricing. Regardless of the price shown (correct or not), if the routing and connection is valid, they should go and ticket it. If the price quoted was displayed incorrect (too high), at time of ticketing the correct miles amount will be debited and priced, despite the earlier quoted price being incorrect.

These are the three key steps. Skip one, or do both #1 and #2 but then trust the possibly incorrect pricing displayed at #3 , and the customer doesn't get the award they want at the correct price.

I hope this helps.