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I know that most airlines will not give out the actual number of seats available when you call, but please try to give acurate information. I recently called an airline at 11:30 pm the night before my flight and told the agent that I worked for another airline and asked how a flight looked. The agent told me that the flight was "wide opened" and that there were 50 seats available.
Well I went to the airport at 5am the next morning for my flight to find out that the flight was oversold by 10 and that they did not think that I would make the flight.
When I asked the agent what had happened between 11:30pm and 5:00am, the agent said that the flight still showed 30 seats that they could sell and that these are the numbers that the agents were giving me.
I am a Res Agent and when a non-rev calls, I always view the actual number of seats rather than look at the sell ability or the first screen that shows all "9's" across the screen. If I view that screen it looks like there are plenty of seats.
I do not give the actual numbers but I do tell the non-revs if they have a good, fair or poor chance for making their flight. I treat the non-revs like I would like to be treated.
I had a back-up plan and reached my destination 9 hours later. I was very upset because I could have taken a flight out of another airport and reached my destination by 12 noon instead of 10pm at night had I been given the correct information.
Could you pass this on to other Reservation Agents and ask them to please be kind to fellow airline employees? If we are not kind to each other then how can we be kind to our passengers?
Thanks
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My strategy: Even when I call my own airline I call 2 times consecutively. Why? Because it's too easy for them to make a mistake and pull a wrong date or flight number. If I get 2 similar answers I know the information is correct, if not, I make a 3rd phone call to see which answer is right.
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Yes, I agree, that's why I called 4 days in a row and was given the same information each time. Now that I think about it, each time I called they told me that the flight was Wide Opened but the agents did not actually look at the flight because I was given the information very quickly.
This was not an American owned and operated airline but I have also gotten bad info from some of our major US airlines as well including my own airline.
My major beef is that I would rather that you not give out any information at all (just say we are very busy at the moment and please call back later) That would be more helpful to me, then hopefully when I call back I will get someone who is more willing to help.
