remyontheroad

Hey y'all, admittedly not on the board so much these days so not sure what's normal anymore but this stood out.

I had a flight (Z fare bought well in advance) JFK-AMS-CDG, with an (optimistically) built-in intentional 6 hour layover is AMS to catch up with some friends.
When Netherlands announced full closure a couple days ago I called in to see about shortening the layover.
A very nice agent suggested just getting a non-stop and I said I'd be delighted - really anything she could do would be great.
We agreed on a non-stop JFK-CDG that I like and she priced it at... $5k+

So she said she had to speak to her international desk - presumably manual reissue - and said that it would be 30 mins and they could call me back.
She said hold for one more sec while I get that set up.
All good so far, but then the call disconnected.

I waited, thinking maybe she'd gotten the call back setup, but nope so I figured I'd have to call back in later, but went to run some errands.

Go back and dialed in to start again - got into the call queue, then started looking at mail... and I had a confirmation email for the flight we had discussed.
No extra charge, good seat. All done and issued. No extra charges. No intervention or confirmation needed on my part.

I've just never had that happen before, and I'm really pleased.
Anyone else have anything like that happen lately?
Also wondering if she broke rules to make it happen or if I should write in and praise her or if it will get her in trouble.

Zorak

Not exactly that, but I think I have maybe 2 occasions where the agent explicitly said they just needed to reissue the ticket, then after a while came back to say they were still waiting for the reissue desk and that it wasn't strictly necessary for me to stay on hold with them, so if I wanted I could hang up and I would eventually get a receipt email when they were done.

mr_hoff

Same, same. I've had the agent get to the point that the ticket needed to be reissued and allowed me to go a few times. Not an unusual occurrence, specially on international itin changes.

remyontheroad

Right - that's more what I've had in the past - it's gotten to the point of all done - just need someone to push a button vs. Whoa that's expensive - let me see if I can get someone to take a look at that.

I really appreciate the initiative, but feels like it was one step short of the point it's been in the past.

MSPeconomist

I've learned to always check that everything has been done (such as reissuing the ticket if needed for a schedule change or an upgrade) and done properly. On some previous ticket reissues, I've had to call back several times. Panic when attempting OLCI or at the airport would not be good.

mikebor

Yesterday I called Delta and after waiting for a long while I got a new reservation agent who said she just finished her training and is working out of her home. We chatted for a few minutes but then I decided not to go through with what I wanted and quickly thanked her and hung up. 30 seconds later my cell rings and it was the same agent calling me back, thinking the call got disconnected. I guess I spoke too fast and she didn't hear me tell her I didn't need help anymore.

But I was blown away at her calling me right back and making sure I still needed help. I don't know if she did that because she is brand new and doesn't know any better yet lol or maybe this is Delta making their customer service much better. Regardless it was a surprise and a very nice touch.

remyontheroad

Yes!
I actually had another very helpful agent interaction a week earlier where she was very proactive about searching for alternatives for upgradeable flights.
The long waits are annoying, but the callbacks are efficient and some great agent interactions.
It's nice to have mostly nice things to say for the moment.

I still don't know whether what the agent in my OP did was kosher or not, so I'm hesitating to write in, but I'm glad she did it.

exwannabe

Well, I can beat that. Though it was in a universe far, far away.

Booking ATL<>HKT (Phuket Thailand) on miles via SQ over the water (that tells you how long ago this was).

ll was going well, but a bit slow aw she had to check various options. The agent was kind of informing me of segments in a James Joyce style, And I totally missed the problem. At the end she starts to summarize, and I realize the entire ITN was backwards!

She apologized and said she then realized what she had done. She said she would handle it offline and call me back. 30 minutes later I got the return call and the flight was booked.

I do not expect that in today's world.

gitismatty

I had an agent doing something that involved waiting on someone else, and the agent said to hang up and he'd call me back. I figured that was just lip service, but sure enough he actually called back to say it was completed

mykidissmarterthanyou

I had an amazing interaction earlier this week, it took me an hour but the agent went above and beyond to resolve my situation-they changed our initial flights to completely different flight times hours later, on the return it was actually a different day as they took the flights off their schedule. It wouldn't work for us so we were going to cancel the trip but I made a comment that I wish I hadn't cancelled a mileage trip I had to hawaii that was really cheap miles (45000) to book this one and she was able to restore it AND get us the fastest flights instead of the cheapest ones. I'm not usually a delta flyer but have been eyeballing here and there because I'm letting companion pass on SWA expire in 2023 and very pleased with how they handled this.