Problems with int'l upgrade using miles
 

I'm sorry to vent here, but I just had a very frustrating experience booking a flight through the MP reservations line.

I live in So. Cal and my fiancee is currently visiting from Australia. A last minute business trip to DC came up and I'm taking her along. As a whim we thought since we're already on the East Coast, why not take a small jaunt to London while we're there?

I looked online & found a pretty good flight on CO that I could book with dollars & miles and put it on 24 hr. hold. Later I called the MP reservations line to see if they could book us on a IAD > LHR > LAX flight...we'd like the outbound E+ and the longer return on business using miles to upgrade. While speaking with the agent I was put on hold several times for a total of about 20 min while she was working on the flight. Eventually she came back with an outstanding itinerary, $427 + 30K mi each with the E+, biz combination. Sold! I had a record locator, confirmed seats, and a very happy sweetie.

The next morning I checked my email for the confirmation. They had two small errors...my first name was shortened (i.e. Bob for Robert) and they misspelled one letter in her last name. I immediately called back to have them make the corrections -- was put on hold for about ten minutes and was told by an unsympathetic agent that the original agent screwed up and booked us on a non-upgradeable fare code. I asked what could be done and was told that I could get a refund since it was in the first 24 hr time frame or pay $754 each for an upgradable fare and to basically take it or leave it. It would have helped if she was at least minisculely apologetic but no matter -- asked for a supervisor.

While on hold, I surfed online to see if I could still book the CO fare, but the hold had expired & the prices had gone up considerably. When the supervisor came on she gave the the same story & to console me she said "I'm going to have a good talking to the original agent & we'll make sure that doesn't happen again. We're always making improvements here." boy, that sure helped :mad:

Explained that I had lost another good fare due to my booking at UA and asked that they at least book is into E+ and maybe offer some token mileage (dunno 5-10K?) as goodwill for the problems they caused us. She finally relented to the E+ but would not offer any miles...the take it or leave it mentality set in again. She further explained that I should be happy to have such a low fare and that it was not refundable, changeable, or creditable, a fact not mentioned by the original agent.

I relented, but am still sitting here unhappy -- don't mean to whine & I dislike posts which go "they didn't have a tomato on my salads and now the @#$%s won't give my a free ticket!" but do feel we have a few valid points of contention.

1. The flight was booked over the phone with UA's agent.

2. If they originally offered the higher price we would have gone with the held reservation.

3. Unsympathetic attitude (wouldn't have cost them anything to at least pretend to care).

Anyway thank for listening FTers, it does help.

Also forgot to mention... I asked what would have happened it we travelled on the original itinerary and not said anything. Was told that we would have been downgraded at the airport at the return since they would have caught it and have final say. Lovely.

Hmmm.

First of all, sorry about the frustrating experience. Not fun at all, and I feel your pain.

It seems to me that if UA sold you a ticket, charged your credit card, took your miles and gave you the inbound upgrades, then it's too late for them to reneg on the deal. They made you an offer, you took the offer, and if a mistake was made, it's their problem not yours. Might be too late, but I'd escalate this one up the ladder until you find a sympathetic CSR. (Do you have status?)

I was once in a similar, but slightly different situation (you can PM me if you'd like the details). Basically, UA sold me something, later claimed a mistake was made, and wanted to undo the entire thing. My argument, carried through two levels of CS supervisors was (a) I was offered a certain ticket at a certain price, (b) I paid that price, and (c) if mistakes were made, it was their problem, not mine. I was firm but persistent, and eventually prevailed (with some minor concessions on my part).

Good luck!

Of course that's what they say. :rolleyes: If you had made a proper stink at the airport (i.e., calmly but firmly pressed your point, moving up the chain of command as necessary), you may very well have prevailed. Assuming space was still available in C, that is.