In order to make a change in her outbound flight (LGA-DFW) schedule- from 6/30 to 7/3, my wife wanted to use her MCOs which she had gotten as a fare difference for this same flight to pay the 100 dollar change fees and the new fare difference.
THe first customer service rep she spoke to refused to do that. No reason provided.
I spoke to a second one who put me on hold for a bit, came back and said it could be done but only at the airport or the city ticketing office, which was fine.
Just to make sure that it would really be done before I made the trek to the NYC office in the middle of the work day only to be disappointed, I called again. THis time the agent refused to use the MCOs towards the change fees again. The reason being that MCOs can only be used towards the purchase of a NEW ticket. Then I told her that I wanted to cancel my previous ticket (with the hundred dollar change fees) and buy a new one using the MCOs. Her reply was that if my intention to use the refund from the previous ticket for the same itinerary that I had purchased before, then that would not be possible ??

Since it didn't make much sense to me, I tried to explain the situation again, that the new ticket I would purchase would not be the same itinerary since it will start on a different date. Her reply, "sir I'm trying to communicate with you here,..." A bit rude, in my opinion.

If anyone of you out there know what this rule really is about then I'd be extremely grateful for some sort of an explanation because I am totally stumped.

thanks in advance

When I get a "yes" to things like that, I usually have the reservations agent put it into my PNR, so when any other agent pulls it up, they can see what previously happened and I have some leg to stand on. I'm also "taking names" ALOT more, and doing the "so, hows the weather where you are" so if a problem occurrs, NWA can track that "Nancy" in the MSP office wouldnt accept what agreed upon and was put in my PNR by "Mary" from DTW. Just more food for thought....

UPDATE:
my wife spoke to another agent last night. This agent could not understand why my wife's record indicated that she may not be allowed to use the MCOs towards cancellation and a new ticket. After a long period of being kept on hold the agent came back and told her that there was no seemingly appropriate cause for my wife to not be able to use her MCOs, and issued her a new ticket, with the instructions to mail her vouchers as soon as possible.

Whats up with these folks. Do they really have any rules or they just make them up on their own and just spread the word around?

the zipper,
i too have been using names lately in order to seem amicable in the hope of being reciprocated. But the idea of making talk about the weather in order to locate the agent is ingenius!! Should definitely be helpful to track down the agent at a later time. Thanks for the suggestion.



[This message has been edited by knit-in (edited 06-08-2001).]

knit-in
You have been having so much trouble with this tix it almost seems you should have bought a Y tix
Hope everything works out eventually - I for one can not wait it to be over

magic111,
thanks for making me laugh out loud about this .
With regards to the tix, I can only hope that the worst is over. My wife has a new reservation number. THe one scary bit is that her record under 'my itineraries' on nwa.com, still show her 6/30 itinerary instead of the 7/3 departure. Lets see now. Will keep you posted (if you can bear with some more of it )

I guess my major concern on this thread was regarding the rules for using the MCOs. I wonder how people might have fared with this issue on other airlines. Maybe it is a topic for General Travel Talk.

By the way, the ticket was a steal at $185 when we had bought it for a LGA-DFW roundtrip. Now of course, it is $345.
Still cheaper than a Y fare, I think.



[This message has been edited by knit-in (edited 06-08-2001).]