April 11, 2008...1:35 am
how to win the airline booking system
theory: call again and again until you talk to a customer service rep who gives you the answer you want.
I learned this trick a few months ago while planning my trip to South America through Continental. I noticed that every airline rep I talked to was following a different rule book. Each one had different black out dates, fees, and available seats. So called 10 times until I found someone who could get me on the right flight using frequent flier miles.
This theory was validated again today. Jeff is currently in London and wants to change his flight. When he called British Airways, they told him it would cost $1400 to change his flight. Ridiculous. So I called. And I called. And I called. The first person I spoke to said I wasn’t authorized to change his flight. The second person I spoke to said it would cost $220 plus the difference in tickets, or roughly $1600, and suggested I buy a new ticket. The last person I spoke to not only allowed me to change the ticket, but only charged a $220 change fee.
Airlines are inconsistent and poorly managed. They enforce silly rules that even employees don’t understand. This can either make you frustrated, or encourage you to work the system. I say, work the system.
1 Comment
April 21, 2008 at 10:27 am
It’s no wonder that most of them are failing. With so many different ways to book a flight, with wildly varying prices, any company that operates in that manner is destined for doom. Of course they whine to the government to bail them out, and when the gov’t does, they still do nothing to fix the errors that got them there in the first place. I can understand and comprehend a lot of subjects, but airlines by far, perplex me to no end.
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