berenike

Has anyhon been able to book an award on Swiss when no award seats were available (HON award guarantee when there are still sellable seats in same service class like C,D,Z...)?


Regards

Christian

roundtheworld

Yes and it works fine

flyer01

Christian,

Most of the times it works. - Sometimes there is a systems bug. Ask the HON Circle Service to call Swiss Capacity Control, and they will open the seat for you (in case there are sellable seats in that service class).

Roland

Hardy

One of the privileges of the HON Circle is that award reservations are guaranteed as long as any seats in the corresponding service class are available. This also applies to persons (family) travelling with the HON in the same service class.

Now, I have a paid ticket (Thanks OS ;-) and need award tickets for the family. On those flights there were no regular award seats available. The initial reaction of the HON service was that the guarantee mentioned above only applies if I am also on an award ticket, but then they called back and it was OK.

Unfortunately the dates did not fit, so the old reservation has expired and I need that reservation with different dates.

And now I am told that it is not possible Even the supervisor cannot help.

Now, does anyone know if they are right (guarantee only if all fly on miles, including the HON) or if my interpretation is right (applies also to persons flying all the way in the same class of service as the HON)?

Thanks...

SleepOverGreenland

The booking guarantee for awards is for the HON plus for up to 3 companions, valid for BIZ and ECO only.

If you are on a paid flight, there is no booking guarantee for your family.

The reason it worked the first time was probably, that HON service succesfully tried to let things happen aside the rules. But you can't count on that.

2035

Unfortuneately, my understanding is that it only applies if the HON is travelling on award. HOWEVER, if you put it on waitlist with your HON number in the booking, chances are very high that it will clear almost immediately.

2035

Forgot to mention that I'm pretty sure you can use the SEN/HON premium award in this case, for 1.5 times the miles. I think that this was one of the recent changes.

tcswede

You were really lucky or more so HON service did the little extra thing which makes the programme great.

That is unfortunately the way it has been since the inception and since 2004 the people on the HON line in Kassel have agreed that this rule really irks a lot of HON would like to bring along family on a flight they have to take but there is no award availability.

Of course it is our interest as per LH interpretation as we otherwise would drag along collegues / employees on miles instead of buying expensive tix.

All for our own best ....

Cheers

Thomas

skywalkerLAX

What about if you just book yourself a second time, this time an award, together with your family.

Then in a few days you call and tell you cant fly anymore and they should cancel your ticket. Any success in this ?

Hardy

Actually I think this is how the HON service did it the first time. At least the agent told me that that reservation was for four persons initially... On the other hand, when I suggested just this, the agent said that this may lead to a complete cancellation if detected.

Thanks for all the feedback, I will try the waitlist first.

Hardy

Yes, I was offered that. Would cost me less though to just book the award for me too, since then Mrs Hardy goes for 50% and the kids still for only 75%. That´s way better than 3x150%....

Only the additional fees ("taxes") really bug me, since I would still also use the paid ticket to secure my status.

skywalkerLAX

The system that detects doublebooking runs not daily through each flight, just periodically. Also then it comes on the screen of a human to follow up. They wont just cancel a HON's reservation immediately without asking which booking you like to keep.

And all you need is a day to get the other tickets ticketed

Hardy

I totally agree and fully appreciate this unparalelled level of service.

This is why I thought this is a great feature indeed.

Agreed, I would not mind at all to have this limited to close family, to avoid this.

roundtheworld

Won't work -system checks if it was booked through guarantee --

SleepOverGreenland

Which is good IMHO. I think rules are rules and there should be no backdoor entries with some dirty tricks.