A Tale of Two Airlines - Part 1

Sit down children, this is a good one. This is a tale that involves happy journeys on one airline as well as some scary, frustrating pre-journey ticketing experiences on another. This promises to pique your interest!

Part 1 - "The Hold"

Monday, November 30, 2009:
8 or 9pm, Eastern Standard Time
'Twas the week before my departure from NYC, whilst sitting in the living room, that I realized I had some free moments to purchase my ticket for my residency interviews in January in NYC. I needed a round trip ticket from FAT to NYC, returning from BUF. I have airline miles for a free ticket so I started exploring what options were available. Continental Airlines, an airline I like very much, just joined the Star Alliance, so I looked on their website for award tickets because the US Airways website, where my points actually are, doesn't support the type of search I was trying to do. I found the perfect flights, with one exception - the trip to NYC was a 25,000 point ticket whilst the return trip was 12,500 point ticket. No big deal - I had 34,500 miles total, so I figured I could just buy the 4,000 more miles and still be cheaper than buying the whole ticket.

I called US Airways for the first time ever (the only reason I have points with them at all is because I used to have points with America West - when they joined US Airways, my points transferred, then when I have flown United I transfer the points to my US Airways account (I will give a little hint to the end of the story here: I USED to transfer my other points to the US Airways account - probably not ever again after this experience!)

The phone was answered pretty quickly and the lady sounded like she knew what she was talking about, so I got excited that this would be a good experience! Ha! I was upfront and said that what I needed to do what going to be complicated:

1. Build a round trip awards tickets - I already had the flight numbers I needed, since I searched and had it up on my computer screen; I would do it myself, but the US Airways website wouldn't let me.
2. Put the itinerary on hold so that my account had time for the purchased miles to clear.
3. Purchase 4000 miles to my account

I was put on hold for about 5 minutes so she could check her "resources". That should have put me on alert where this was going. But, I stayed patient. She came back on and now I picked up the accent as she asked me, AGAIN, what my Dividend Account number was. I told her. She put me on hold again. Next, she informed me, AGAIN, how many miles I had available. Thanks, can we get on with this please? HOLD. Now, what my city of origin was (again). I told her Fresno, CA. She put me on hold again. Came back to ask whether it was CHANDLER airport!! I said no, the airport code is FAT. Hold. What is the flight number? Hold. Hold. Hold. Comes back to tell me she can't find that flight number from FAT to NYC. Now, I'm slightly irritated. I point out that the flight goes through Vegas, not straight to NYC. She points out to me that I said I'm going to NYC and now I'm changing my plans. Now I'm REALLY irritated. No, I'm going to NYC, madam, but the flight goes through Vegas. HOLD.

SUCCESS - she found that flight. We are now at around 20 minutes in the conversation. I'm ready to dunk myself in cold water. Her next question - What is your return date? SERIOUSLY?! We haven't finished building the FIRST trip yet. Oh ya. Where are you going again?

NO YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!! This is when I finally say "Madam, you seem very nice, but it has taken almost 25 minutes just to do my FIRST flight and there are 4 more flights. So, please transfer me to a supervisor who can do this quicker." In my opinion, they must get asked this a lot because it was the ONE function she knew how to carry out pretty darn quickly.

Around 930pm: An agent who still has an accent, but understood everything I asked gets on the phone. With her, we build my whole itinerary with the flights I need within about 10 minutes. Great. I tell her I need to purchase 4,000 miles to have the total 37,500 miles needed to complete the reservation, so please put the reservation on hold until the miles that I purchase online clear. HOLD. She comes back and says her supervisor said that is OK, so she goes ahead and holds the reservation until December 3, she says, gives me a confirmation code, wishes me a happy holiday, and we call it a day.

This pre-Christmas tale of craziness could have ended here happily with me pointing out in one line that I called on December 3 to complete the reservation and all went well. But alas, that wouldn't really be a scary Christmas tale, now would it? So, stay tuned for Part 2 where we find out what exactly happens on December 3.

DISCLAIMER 1: Dear US Airways - Part 1 is scary, but what happened next (which I will detail in Part 2) is the truly embarrassing part (for you). And while I don't have a lot of readers on this blog, I do have a thing where I will keep writing letters to whoever needs to read it for things to be made right. So, if any of you read this, please know that I informed your agent in whatever countries I spoke with them (there were a total of 5 agents I had to go through to make this reservation - but the last one will know) that I intended to even write to US Senators until I received my money back that you stole - $80 total.

DISCLAIMER 2: Dear Continental Airlines - you came out looking like a beautiful rose in all this. Your ENGLISH speaking agent was extremely kind, understood my dilemma, and did the best she could to help. I will be contacting you about transferring the balance of my miles to a OnePass membership, if anything like that is allowed (which I really, really, REALLY hope it is!) And please know that I intend to do business only with airlines who keep their reservations agents in the USA - because in frustrating moments stuck in an airport or trying to book a complicated ticket, I want to know that the first person who answers the phone will be able to help me.