Elite Agent says cannot split a record.
 

My wife called to split the record into 4 for our family trip next week, to increases chances that we all get upgraded (we are all Plats). The agent said they cannot split the record as the ticket was issued using an e-cert. MY wife hung up and called again. The agent this time was very friendly and knew, without my wife's explanation why we anated to split the record. She said, usually two plats in a record should be OK but she would do it 4 ways if that's what we wanted. Within seconds, it was done.

Why do some agents just want to waste their time and ours? Do they not value their jobs? HAve they no respct for themselves or the customers?

Maybe they didn't get any punch and pie today, and are grumpy! :)

I'd guess that they the agent was told that by another agent or supervisor, and has spoken it as gospel ever since. Or, as a more dark side option, they just don't want to do anything hard? Should be simple, though.

Do it online and not even bother them?

http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/elite/upgradetips.shtml

How do you do this online? I dont see an option.:confused:

Open the itn via https://www.nwa.com/cgi-bin/res_info.pro
You have four pull down boxes to select from at the top
Top left box is "Change or Upgrade Reservation"
Select "Worldperk miles upgrade"
Click Go

Sometimes it doesn't retrieve the itn because of mulitple issues. Some of which can be cleaned up by nwa.com support.

Now from memory. Select only the individuals you want to split off the existing res and proceed to available flights. At that point the itn is split and simply cancel the remaining transactions.

Nice find Oliver2002. Never knew that nwa had docs that layed it out.

We are not talking about companions here. All 4 pax in the record are plats.

That's a really big leap to make those statements, Yaatri. I could just as easily make a leaping statement to say why do all Plats have to be so demanding and demeaning like Yaatri is? Have they no sense of respect for the agents or the people trying to help them out? And worse, it was your wife who made the call, not you, so it's at least second hand reporting.

Just chill out a bit. You called back, got what you wanted, end of story. Really no need for a thread at all, although one gem came out from oliver2002, so that made the thread meaningful, IMO.

Elite status has no effect on whether or not you are a "companion". If you have 4 people on a reservation, you're all companions of each other. You need to split it just as you would if you were a Plat with two or more non-elites in your reservation...

Mark my words . The question I posed was "Why are some agents......". I did not make the leap that you claim I made. End of story. Hint: There is a difference between "some agents" (I used) and "all Plats" (you used) So, I think you need to re-read my post carefully and chill before you make claims that are not supported by my post. ;).
Agreed that Oliver found a gem.

Why should I have to call back? If I was asking for something that can be done, why should it not be done by the first agent. Isn't prompt service the entire point of the elite line? Should it take two calls, three calls, or 4 calls to have a record split?

Generaly speaking a companion upgrade applies to a non-elite companion. I understand one can interpret the other three plats in the record as travelling companions. But they are also plats in their own right entitled to EUA. A good EUA system should be able to able to tell the difference between a non-elite companion and an elite companion.
We agree on having to split the record, but it's still not clear if I must split the record because EUA cannot handle more than one companion, be they plats or non elites, or because of some other reason. In any case, we both agree that I must split the record. And that was the point of the call. If an elite agent can not even help with such a simple request, which helps 4 plats, in one call, utilise the benefit of upgrades, the hallmark of world Perks, then the behaviour of the agent becomes even more questionable.
You may not be upset by this I am. I expect prompt and correct reply the first time.
I happen to feel bad service should be commented. You cannot be the judge of what issues I may or may not post about. Moderators have that responsibility.

^ Well put.

Well, if that's what you expect, then you're going to go through life with a lot of stress. Face it, no one person, program, or response is going to always be correct the first time.

Look at it this way? Did your wife clearly articulate what she was trying to achieve the first time she called? (and before you jump and say yes, put yourself in the agents shoes). Perhaps you got a new agent who wasn't sure how to do it, or didn't understand why you wanted to do it. For you to jump to a hasty conclusion that the agent was unhelpful or unwilling to assist your wife, through her words, not yours, is shortsighted. You even said yourself you used an e-cert, which may have complicated things, so chill out, take a breath, and hope you get the upgrade. It isn't worth getting worked up over.

Amen to that. But some get personally offended when we rightfully point out the inadequacies of NW employees. I'm used to it. Shrug.

I've often thought NW has been less than clear on this. My wife and daughter travelled with me last week and I had split the PNR and the GA looked at me funny when I volunteered to bump at DTW alone. Just do what we ask, already, and don't make some kind of judgment about it.

Some of us expect competence. We (the customers) shouldn't know an airlines procedures and rules better than the employees, no matter how often we travel.

Some of us expect of our FT brethren competence (and respect) when dealing with airline employees, too. :rolleyes:

Knowing procedures and rules like we do doesn't mean anything about the agents' competence. We know a lot about the specifics of what affects us. Just as one person knows a lot about booking complicated award trips abroad with multiple partner airlines, they may know nothing about mileage running, fare rules, and fare class availability issues. So we've each become experts in our own little worlds, about our own travel routes, our own airports, etc.

The agents, on the other hand, need to try and be experts on everything. And that's difficult. Very difficult, at times. They don't always get everything right the first time. To expect them to do so is unreasonable, and one should be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and work with them to find the solution to whatever it is you have a problem with.

But then what happens when your plans go awry? You get upset at NWA because they allowed you to be put in a situation. Example, you take a bump, you get a MX or WX delay, now you and your family are split. Then, as much as you say you won't, you would be upset at NWA.

Remember, there are a lot of un-savvy travelers out there, and NWA's primary objective is to watch out for the best interest of all of their pax, not just me me me.

[Reference to previous, deleted, post deleted]

I don't think it should be a given that we may need to call back to get a better agent just to get things done, especially on the Elite line. I've only had to do it once, but it really annoyed me, especially since the first agent wouldn't really listen to me. Overall, though, my experiences have been good, and there was one really patient agent who I'd have commended, if only I'd remembered her name. But after about 25 minutes of figuring out interdependent multiple bookings, I had forgotten it. Next time I'll try to remember to ask at the end.