[Kudos] Partner Award Booking
Apr 27, 2010, 2:46 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: BER, SAT, AUS
Programs: Feels like FO (AA EXP)
Posts: 1,611
[Kudos] Partner Award Booking
Hello fellow FT'lers,
I'd like to share a little report concerning award booking and service on EK.
Ms. c_d had travel plans for Europe in December 2010 and took over all my available DL SkyMiles. Depsite the fact that a low award in J/I is only 100k, DL is doing a pretty good job of blocking the domestic feeder flights, while the TATL segments actually have wide open availability in award classes. And of course that happened ... wide availability on on four domestic segments and two TATL; however no availability on a 1:25h connecting flight. After trying to reason with DL it became clear that they won't move a bit.
One night I remembered that I still have a couple of EK miles available and also recalled their partners, namely CO and UA. I decided to give it a try and try to move the feeder flights on an EK award ticket operated by CO or UA. I am a lowly Blue with EK, so I had little hope in that actually working.
When I called the Manchester Service Center the first thing I was really suprised about was the fact, that CSR are available that actually speak my language. I quickly described the situation and the agent tried to locate flights. Obviously it's pretty challenging to align the DL TATL portion with feeder flights from other airlines and the agent needed quite some time to tackle that issue.
For the next day, I received a couple of calls from the agent, double checking the departure times and suggestion alternate routings, etc. to me. It took some time but finally Ms. c_d got a confirmed set of tickets meeting her needs. ^
In summary, I was absolutely overwhelmed on how EK is treating a super-low Blue member. It's making me sad and angry to compare the service level of EK (in-flight and ground) to the level received by my usual airline.
I'd like to share a little report concerning award booking and service on EK.
Ms. c_d had travel plans for Europe in December 2010 and took over all my available DL SkyMiles. Depsite the fact that a low award in J/I is only 100k, DL is doing a pretty good job of blocking the domestic feeder flights, while the TATL segments actually have wide open availability in award classes. And of course that happened ... wide availability on on four domestic segments and two TATL; however no availability on a 1:25h connecting flight. After trying to reason with DL it became clear that they won't move a bit.
One night I remembered that I still have a couple of EK miles available and also recalled their partners, namely CO and UA. I decided to give it a try and try to move the feeder flights on an EK award ticket operated by CO or UA. I am a lowly Blue with EK, so I had little hope in that actually working.
When I called the Manchester Service Center the first thing I was really suprised about was the fact, that CSR are available that actually speak my language. I quickly described the situation and the agent tried to locate flights. Obviously it's pretty challenging to align the DL TATL portion with feeder flights from other airlines and the agent needed quite some time to tackle that issue.
For the next day, I received a couple of calls from the agent, double checking the departure times and suggestion alternate routings, etc. to me. It took some time but finally Ms. c_d got a confirmed set of tickets meeting her needs. ^
In summary, I was absolutely overwhelmed on how EK is treating a super-low Blue member. It's making me sad and angry to compare the service level of EK (in-flight and ground) to the level received by my usual airline.
Apr 27, 2010, 5:30 am
#3
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Scotland, Angola, Thailand
Programs: Skywards Gold, Marriott Rewards Silver,Platinum Ambassador, BA Gold, Qatar Platinum, Hertz 5 Star
Posts: 97
Last year my parents flew to Thailand for my father's 60th. Neither had flown EK before but I joined them up just prior to booking. When I called Manchester CSR and explained I wanted to upgrade them she noticed his birthday was on the return leg.
She arranged a small cake and my parents were presented with this, along with a bottle of Moet and an announcement on the PA wishing hime a happy 60th.
My father hated the attention, but just goes to show they do go the extra mile even for infrequent customers.
She arranged a small cake and my parents were presented with this, along with a bottle of Moet and an announcement on the PA wishing hime a happy 60th.
My father hated the attention, but just goes to show they do go the extra mile even for infrequent customers.
Apr 27, 2010, 5:44 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: BER, SAT, AUS
Programs: Feels like FO (AA EXP)
Posts: 1,611
Last year my parents flew to Thailand for my father's 60th. Neither had flown EK before but I joined them up just prior to booking. When I called Manchester CSR and explained I wanted to upgrade them she noticed his birthday was on the return leg.
She arranged a small cake and my parents were presented with this, along with a bottle of Moet and an announcement on the PA wishing hime a happy 60th.
My father hated the attention, but just goes to show they do go the extra mile even for infrequent customers.
She arranged a small cake and my parents were presented with this, along with a bottle of Moet and an announcement on the PA wishing hime a happy 60th.
My father hated the attention, but just goes to show they do go the extra mile even for infrequent customers.
On a related b-day issue: DL was once writing me an e-Mail that any flight booked in my B-Day month will lead to double tier miles. After I had flown and got nothing, I received another e-Mail stating that I do not qualify for this promotion ...
