1) How to accurately look up fares
2) What cities their airlines serves
3) What cities they serve through codeshares
4) They should have access to the airline's Contract of Carriage
5) How to take advantage of overnight connections (last flight in, first flight out).
6) How to "think outside the box" without compromising any policies.

Yes but realize that after 800 calls looking for a NY-LA flight with no Saturday stay and people insisting that they pay no more than $100 round trip, the agents might not always be at 100%.

Bravo DLSIZE!!! Well said!

Just one that would really be nice which is during a delay to make an honest effort to keep us informed even if nothing has changed. Even the appearance of an honest effort would make most pax feel better. Its when they just stand there and stare at the screen or talk to each other and don't give any announcements that are annoying.

Even on delays, the res agents are not always 100% in the know. FLIFO listings (where I worked) on delays came from dispatch and we were at their mercy to provide accurate information. Often the only info in the system was what was last entered by the GAs, typically the OUT time. However if the flight was stuck on the ground, we would know nothing. And heaven forbid if you should call dispatch to ask what was going on. Only in extreme circumstances would they help out - like if there was a UMNR on board and it was four hours late. However, each time you would provide all the info that was available and the people calling in would argue with you. It felt like they would never take you at your word. Sometimes I felt like saying, "you know....it's not like we have a chase plane up there following these planes with a camera fixated on them to tell exactly where they are located." I do however remember directing people to places on the net that would track flights from ATC data - those that were computer literate were quite thankful for the info.


This also reminds me when I was a youngun working in a convience store. Sunday paper would sell out at like 2-3 in the afternoon. Without fail, some stooge would wander in at 9pm looking to buy a copy. "Sorry sir, we're all out." "Well do you have any extras in the back." "Of course, see, being a for profit store, we like to keep extras of out of stock items in the back so we can't sell them. We would rather spend an hour tearing of the front page, putting them in piles, bundling them with twine, hauling the 20 lb. loads out to the corner, then come back and spend 10 minutes washing the imbedded newsprint off of our hands. Let me go back and get you one." Similar things would happen when we ran out of milk too.


The big thing I think most FF passengers must realize is that most of the people that call into res centers are your once a year travellers looking for a deal. They don't know how the system works. Most FF pax work through TAs because it is dictated by their corporate policy. If I sold one Y26 fare a month, it was a lot. They were all LWEROBUNR tickets.

[This message has been edited by DLSIZE (edited 05-11-2002).]

Are you willing to pay for this service? Most people aren't. They'd rather put up with a lot of crap and pay less money. Rez agents make about $15 - $25k a year -- an entry level job. The job would have to pay twice that amount to attact people who can provide the consistant quality you desire. Frankly, anyone who knows this buisness inside & out and makes less than $40k a year ought to find a different job.

I couldn't have put it better. Actually, I would be willing to pay extra to an airline (and many other organizations) to have my calls answered by someone that really knows what they're doing.

Unfortunately, I realize that the reality is that so many people are chasing the cheapest solution to a problem, and service providers are responding to this market reality.

I'm a stooge who frequently wanders into my neighborhood convenience store at 9PM or later to purchase the Sunday paper. Thankfully, the store stocks enough copies and there are usually a dozen left to choose from. Unsold copies left over on Monday morning are credited to the store's account by the newspaper publisher.

This reliable stream of inventory is part of why they call it a convenience store! I'm glad your old store isn't in my neighborhood .

[This message has been edited by TransWorldOne (edited 05-11-2002).]

Well, they do, eventually...

An airline agent has a very complex job that literally takes years to learn. The initial training for an agent is usually longer than the initial training the airline gives a new pilot. The best, most experienced agents are usually moved to the FF desks or become supervisors/manager as those jobs pay more.

If the agent you're talking to isn't up to the task at hand then try another agent.

The training for me was a joke. It was 6 weeks, 5 nights a week, 4 hours per day. I could have slept throguh 75% of the training and would have been fine. The problem is, this was not the case for everyone else. I took the job more for fun to fill in the free time when I had it. Everyone else jumped all over the barely minimum wage job as a way to help survive. Those that didn't were just looking for the flight bennies.

The version of SABRE we used was so easy it wasn't funny. The sad thing though is that they didn't teach native SABRE and those that wanted to learn it had to ask for a manual and learn it on their own.

The way to really learn how to do that job well (aside from the human interaction part which is hard to learn) is to play around with the system when not busy. Look to see what execs are flying away for the weekend with their family in first with + space res. Then have fun force booking a RTW fare with a bogus 90% discount for your friend. Most people when not busy would be off chit chatting with people having fun. I would be off pulling 80 seats of inventory from an MCO flight when someone next to me was trying to meal list themselves for that flight then get all p'ed off saying "the flight was wide open 10 minutes ago!".

Of course all those fond memories of fighting with SABRE can not be beat by memories of the early days on Compuserve doing:

/air,ewr,nrt,12jun,7a,dfw,f

I wish we had eAAsy back!

Based on my experience with a couple of hotel reservations agents (both from the same large chain):

Budapest is not in the US.

When "DM" appears in their computer beside the rate it means deutschemarks.