When HUCA doesn't work
 

A good agent gave me the details on an itinerary a few days ago. I am ready to book and I called the 1K desk. The agent didn't want the details of what I wanted. She told me that she would look for the available alternatives. I told her that I knew what I wanted and she said she could not do this. I asked for a supervisor and she told me that the supervisor would listen to the recording to see who is right. After waiting 10 minutes I hung up, called again but as another agent was booking my flight my phone went dead. So I used another line and another agent would not book anything without giving me a full set of alternatives. I told her that I knew what I wanted and she refused to listen to me. I hung up. I called again and asked for a supervisor and after 15 minutes on hold I hung up yet again.

Is there a reason why 1K agents have become so rude?

HUCA some more

is there a reason you are booking over the phone?

Not sure we have the full story.

I'm around 75% with quality service from the 1K line this year. At least three agents have been exceptionally helpful lately.

i'd recommend always booking when you find the itinerary you want, it may not be there tomorrow

Not sure of the entire story...

But once a call get handed to a sup, notes get added to the record. (The note might say: "pax wants to do xxx and has been told this isn't allowed.")

This makes it nearly impossible to find a subsequent agent who will override the note.

Can they do this if there isn't a locator yet?

I am booking over the phone because the web site won't always give me the itinerary I want esp. when it involves a flight from LH. I could not book at first because someone else is paying for the trip and I needed their consent. I am more than happy to have a supervisor see the notes and I would welcome them listening to the recording.

And I wrote that an agent was booking the itinerary I wanted until my phone died. I just don't understand why any agent, much less 2 on the 1K line, could not book me what I asked for.

But I was sufficiently frustrated that I did use united.com and this time it worked. Gave me the flights I wanted at the price originally quoted (actually 10 cents more). Still doesn't exonerate the agents who had to assert their superior knowledge.

Perhaps tell the agent that you need to book specific flights because you want to be on the same flights as your friend/colleague/...

TADA?

(Try A Different Airline)

Same here. In the last two months agents have been fantastic. So much so that I emailed 1KVoice about them after getting their name in order to try and get them some recognition. I highly advise that to anybody who gets good service because it helps to change the culture, if anything one person at a time.

Unless I'm interpreting your writing wrong, it appears you're 'hanging up' on the agents because you can't wait more than 10-15 minutes?

They have said they're getting a supervisor. Sometimes these things take time, especially when the weather in EWR is a real hot mess.

You're not going to get what you want by hanging up the phone. How about just staying on the line until the supervisor gets back to you...if it was hours, I would say yea maybe you should hang up, but really, 10 minutes?

Glad you got it resolved.

But what was the itinerary? :confused:

I was in touch with someone higher up at United. The problem is more than solved.

I have never had a problem booking a ticket over the phone which could not be booked online by simply feeding the agent the exact itinerary, along with dates and flight numbers, so long as what I want to do is "legal."

I have had agents point out that what I want is doable, but appears to add vastly to the ticket cost and then ask whether I am certain that I want to do what I've asked for.

There has to be more to this story than what OP has said.

This.

Threw in a Polaris bear?

Strange that happened. I nearly always find an itinerary I want online, feed it to the agent who then sometimes finds a better alternative. Never once had a problem.

The only time I called to make a booking was for a complex, multi-city, multi-carrier itinerary involving UA, NH, and AC that showed up for me on ITA Matrix and Google Flights but did not appear on UA's website. I simply called and provided the dates, flight numbers, and class of service I wanted and there was no issue. The UA website actually gives you very limited options for complex itineraries like these, compared to what UA can actually ticket.

This. last week I wanted to upgrade a ticketed TATL on line, but as usual, .bomb wouldn't let me complete the transaction. Called the premier desk and it took 20 minutes, but the very nice CSR was able to pull it off.

Have some patience, and you will probably get what you want. @:-)

I've never had an issue telling an agent exactly what I wanted to fly. Sometimes the agent will ask me my origin and final destination versus putting it in leg by leg. However, the agent allows me to give the exact routing I want. If the agent can't find the routing and price, I may have to wait a while because the agent has to call the rate desk.
I've never had an issue with this other than having to wait a while.

ill add to this - the website actually gives very limited options for very simple connecting itineraries as well - it frequently doesn't show standard, connections (under 4 hours connection time, etc.). These are flights I know exist on my more frequent routes, so I'm sure on routes I'm not as familiar with, I'm sure they don't show either. One example, there's a ~4:30pm CVG-ORD departure, and a ~5:50pm. It will often show me these flights connecting to flights departing ORD with 40-55 minute connection times, but will never allow the earlier flight connecting to the later with a 2 hour connection. I know there are times where some departing flights simply don't show up at all.

If Im connecting, which is most of the time, I use Google flights (which sometimes even gives lower prices than on UA.com for the same flights that do show up on both), or look as multicity - origin-hub, hub-destination. It takes more time, but is the only way sometimes to find the flights I need.

Also, I'll second that agents have always been able to look up itineraries for me if I feed them the info.