City Ticket Offices
 

I stopped by a city ticket office for Delta in Orlando last week. The facility is shared by Continental, Delta, and US.

Very nice, personable staff. They took care of a few special arrangements that I needed very quickly. It was quiet, but I think it gets crowded at lunchtime when everyone comes down to do their business.

I wish I could develop a relationship with a City ticket office agent. But with the Internet, I no longer need them to do personalable bookings, and special requests can usually be done by phone or at the airport club when on another trip.

But they would be great "angels" if you could stop in all the time, chat with them, and have them take care of you.

Does anyone have a relationship like this with a cto?

STEVEN

In this age of computers, sometimed it's nice to go talk to actual people to book your flights. I have developed quite a relationship with the DL CTO agents in AUS. I could only wish that most airline employees that I encounter are half as nice as they are.

NW City Ticket agents in Livonia, MI are awesome! (I was quite impressed.) They know their stuff and process things very quickly. One time, I booked something over the web and went into the CTO to pay for the ticket with a voucher, and the agent was nice enough to upgrade me to first class (domestic -- and without my asking). Apparently, they have a bunch of upgrade certs in their drawers.

OMG, yes! The ladies at my UA CTO in downtown PDX are many times worth their salt in foregone online booking bonuses. They really go the extra mile for me, and then this summer also for my mom who is an non-elite.

For example, I was able to book a split-fare itinerary to DUS that would allow me to upgrade on a W-class fare with a systemwide on the the outbound segs (otherwise completely UNupgradeable at all) and with miles on an M-class fare on the return legs. It a fair amount of fiddling on their end, but they did it without hassle. An exemplary customer service experience.

The CTO angels have also waived my $75 change fee a few times even when it wasn't warranted and have been great about return calls about specific info that I couldn't get from the usual channels.

This doesn't mean to say that they never say no to me or are sometimes unable to un-jam what I've screwed up. But even when they can't help me, they still try - really try. And they know my name and acknowledge me with a smile when I walk through the door even when it's just to pick up a new timetable and head back to the office. And I'm only a PremEx on 100% leisure tickets.

At the RCC in PDX, my angel Margie Dean remembers every place she's checked me into this past year. She once remembered that I treated my mom to surprise upgrades several months ago and in the next breath said she was treating me to an upgrade (not collecting my confirmed certs.)! Now that's Angelic!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif



[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 10-27-2000).]

The ladies at White Plains (UA) have been there for years. Even though I do biz online, they still issue other things for me. They always call me by name! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

And when I bought some crazy routing to max the miles, they laughed and laughed.

Love it
Dan

The UA CTO in Issaquah, Washington has the friendliest staff employed by United. They will go out of their way to make sure you leave satisfied. I always take them chocolates or flowers when I need a favor and they love it. The only problem is they are always chilled and keep the temperature around 90 degrees in their facility!

In Bellevue, Washington, there is a huge CTO (it's bigger than some rural airports I've been to) shared by AS, DL, AA, UA, Thomas Cook Foreign Exchange and NW. Regretfully, US and CO recently pulled out. Maggie at the NW counter is awesome. When it's not busy, we could chat for an hour or more.

Needless to say, thanks to CTO's, I've had my share of upgrades, free ticket changes, special favors, etc. They are the best and sometimes worth sacrificing the online booking bonuses.

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I book all hotels online - but I gave up booking airline tickets online and do it in person at the StarAlliance office in downtown Zurich (run by LH).

My angels there appreciate my (and Gisela's) business (and chocolates in winter, ice-creams in summer) and show it by going out of their way to accomodate me and to get my upgrade requests through. They notify me (and protect me some more days) if fares are going up (rtw-fares that is). I may have lost, may be 20'000 miles to be credited - I guess I won more than 100'000 miles (plus more than 10'000 SFr = 6'000 $ ticket discounts, grey market tickets through the airlines, safe back-to-back ticketing as it is done through the airline itself, advices of throwing away-the last-segment, etc. etc. etc.).

They also arranged and settled my request for payment (by LH) when Air NEW Zealand / Ansett never responded to my reports of stolen electronic things out of my late/missrouted luggage in Sydney in sep-99.

I miss my former UA angels (UA closed their Zurich office in summer 98, when they gave up their only direct flight IAD-ZRH).

... and I can't forget how SR did lay off all reservation agents in Switzerland older than 45 (salary reasons/ cost management) and closed 30 per cent of their reservation offices. One of the (laid off) ladies was Gisela's sister Inge, after haing been with SR for over 28 years - since then SR looses more than SFr 100'000/year in tickets from the not so small Martel clan and companies ...

Delta has a city ticket office near me and I know the guy working it pretty well. He does a great job. I think he knows most of the regulars by name which is pretty nice. In addition to getting tickets, upgrades and the like he has been a good source of info about the Skymiles program. Unfortunately, Delta has been closing down numerous city offices and this one may not last much longer.

Rudi...is it really a *A office? Where is it?

UA has no direct flights to ZRH?!?! That sounds terribly crazy! How can AC support one if UA can't!!??

Dorian

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Dorian's Star Alliance RTW Price Chart: http://www.informationlab.com/rtw.htm
Blondebomber's Star Alliance Comparison Chart: http://members.home.net/deercroft/starall00.html

Dorian: the office is not a 100% StarAlliance office. From all StarAlliance carriers that fly from/to ZRH they don't represent your AC (and neither TG, SQ).

But they have special desks for :[*]Lufthansa, also officially representing United Airlines, ask for MIss Daisy Hischier (and give her my regards, tf 01-286'72'22)[*]SAS[*]Austrian Airlines Group (Austrian Airlines, Lauda, Tyrolian)

location: in the building where Lufthansa (Switzerland) swiss-offices are at:

Gutenbergstrasse 10
CH-8027 Zürich
(2' walking minutes, from tram/railway station ENGE).

I love my United City Ticket Office. See:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/000545.html

May only wonderful things happen to Kelly at the CO ticket office at the (can you believe it?) Continental Airlines Arena.

I would suggest maybe surprising them with candy or cookies or Krispy kreames or a thank you card withyour business card in it. Stop in each once awhile.

(in My case I bring the latest pixs of the "children" because they are also cat and dog people.)

At the United City Ticket office, World Trade Center, NYC My main angels are Carol and June. It's funny that just over a year ago I posted I could not develop a personal relationship with my agents.

I finally did about six months ago. They did with one idiot traveler and another who screamed at them. Then I approached and they appaluded me becuase they said "oh Mr. Blanchard never screams, never gets upset and he makes life easier by having all his information together."

They never take anything from me, candy, cookies, even Krispy Kreames.

I tell them each time United better not ever close this office (they moved to another part of the World Trade center with Continental, United, etc.) Or I would start a picket.

When I get another angel, whether it's Roberta from Grand Central or my fellow Sam Adams buddy Jim (who also works at LGA RCC) I call United and tell them.

The city ticket offices are also convenient if you are pulling a surprise on a friend and cashing in miles to upgrade them or get them a free ticket. It saves a trip to the airport.

So keep them open and open some more.

We all should have angels at our City TIckets offices.

I, too, appreciate the service I've gotten at the AA City Ticket Office (now called "Travel Center"). I usually book my trip online to collect that bonus, then pick up the ticket (or e-ticket receipt) the next day at the Travel Center. While I could easily complete the whole transaction online with my credit card, I feel it's worth the extra stop there to maintain my relationship with them. I don't know if they really maintain a "bunch of upgrade certs in their drawer", but I sure intend to ask during my next visit!

My advice to you, Steven, is to cultivate and maintain such a relationship with CTO agents if you can. These are wonderful people to have on your side.