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April 16, 2006

There's gotta be a better way.....

Sooooooo what do you have to go through to use Frequent Flier miles? First of all, you have to give some lead time...like a year in advance but it isn't really a year, it's 330 days. But then it isn't really 330 days in advance because that is for the flight out..you still need to come back and for that you need to be 330 as well. Soooooooo, you have to wait 330 days from the return date which becomes 316 days if you are staying 2 weeks, and why would you go to Maui for less than 14 days unless of course you couldn't get seat using your FF miles..first class or coach or wing tip. ...and let's not forget if you wait 316 days to book your flight out, the seats are already gone. So I have our seats out on hold and I call every 3 days to put them on hold until I reach the magic 330 days to book our return flight. So now that you have used all of your math skills, you are ready to make that reservation, right? Easy, right?

Wrong and please unstand, I am no rookie when it comes to making flight reservations....these are not revelations to me.

In spite of what the website states, I come to realize none of this can be done online unless of course I am traveling from say Denver to Seattle, non-stop, midweek on a day without a Y in it. This means I have to use the phone and we all know how much I like using the phone. I'd rather run barbed wire up through my nose.

First I get run through the phone menu. Using the logical menu choices, I get assurances I can do this online but if I insist, they'll still run me through an automatic voice recognition system and after 20 minutes inform me that MY reservations can't be done using this system so please hold for a sales representative. I was lucky when I made the first leg reservation, we had no communication issues once we got past the part about my being persistant about using FF miles and picking from many available airports. ( none of which are the one a mile from our home, mind you, but I already knew that wasn't a possbility) Many people would give up way before I did....BTW, we're flying through Phoenix, ya know.

Now today was the first of many where I have to call to put our reservation on hold again for another 3 days. Trip locator...AFCBSMFQ (for example). Ok I don't care what kind of accent he/she/I have according to the person on the other line..letters such as BCDEGMNPTVZ just shouldn't be used because they are hard to communicate. I can tell when they don't "get it"..and the last name is? (and please, most people have a hard time between Johnston and Johnson and they are our friends!) ....and you are traveling on what dates? and from what city? Hello, if you had our trip locator correct, you'd have all that information so you are still searching and you think I am some sort of idiot who can't get my letters correct and rather than asking me again for the letters you are trying to locate our trip by other means. I, of course remain pleasant and offer to clarify this dilemma by trying to give the correct code again. Alpha, Frank, Sigma, Mother, Frank, Queen..( of course if I were a younger blogger, I wouldn't have any trouble typing out the last 3 as Mother F**ker Queen, but I just can't do that.)....got it this time? oooohhhh good. Yes mam..what can I do for you today? Please put this reservation on hold for me...I'll get back to you in 3 days and try this allllll over gain, thank you.

Now, least you all leap all over me for being Xenophobic..I'm not. I have had issues with being understood on the phone with representatives from Bangalore, Chicago, Brazil, NYC, Charlotte, NC and Dallas! An Accent is an Accent and for some strange reason people seem to think even *I* have one! ...and you wonder why I don't like to use the phone. and don't tell me I can do this online becasue I WOULD if I could! sigh...

So maybe "they" need to come up with a different set of codes if "they" aren't going to let me do this online...

Yes, My name is Fran and my trip locator is : Square, hexagon, rectangle, octogon, dodecahedron... No No..that's dodecahedron, you know, it has 12 sides...no no..twelve, comes after eleven...no, not Seven....

sigh... never mind...can you book me a flight to Cleveland using my FF miles? No? Oh, ok then..thanks for your help.

..and you what? This really has very little to do with using my FF miles and the notion of getting something for nothing which you know darn well, there is no such thing. It's still a matter of communication and there has to be a better way......

Posted by frani at April 16, 2006 11:30 AM

Comments

hehehe

sooooooooooo, when IS this trip and IS there a layover in Seattle?

BTW, Mike's change of Command here is on May 12th and his Retirement party is on June 10th!!

---Cori

Posted by: Cori at April 16, 2006 06:52 PM

And that's why I don't go anywhere.

Posted by: Gail at April 18, 2006 01:53 PM

You know big business will not make anything easy. THey have to make you struggle so you would appreciate those FF miles that you can't use when you want to.

DA

Posted by: DA at April 18, 2006 07:04 PM

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