Booking RWSTAR with an actual human being... the experience

[QF009]

Thought I'd share an experience with the other side.

I never realised how good we have it with OW (or more specifically the AA desk and most CX stations) until I guided a friend through with his STARLITE (RWSPCL) booking last night. He couldn't use the rather handy online portal (which would've otherwise saved LOTS of time and energy) as his itinerary contains UA SYD-MEL, a sector which is conditional upon an international connection for legal reasons and apparently requires human intervention to approve.

Friend has the below itin:
VIE-xDME-xSIN-KUL-SIN-xSYD-MEL-AKL-LAX-JFK-xFRA-VIE

Would've been easier to remove that SYD-MEL segment and do SIN-MEL directly which would then enable the use of the online portal, but he wanted to ride the A380.

Friend is based in VIE, native German speaker so no issues of language barrier here. Decided that he wanted to plate on UA due to the low fuel surcharges. His TA couldn't help for a few days as she needed managerial approval for "strange products" (her actual words, translation from German) and the manager was on leave.

We hunted around for UA's equivalent of a central ATW desk but couldn't find anything and the UA website seemed pretty sparse when it comes to info on RTWs. It's like they don't want you to find out about them. No UA ticketing facility in VIE, and so he called UA FRA.

Now AA can usually come up with a 20 segment itinerary in bang bang <10 mins, even with the routings I tend to come up with....

Meantime I was chatting with him in real time on msn. The following transpired in his convo with the lovely but almost totally incompetent UA FRA agent:

1) Lots of being put on hold as the agent ran around to various lines of authority to make sure the fare wasn't something invented by some crackjob who had nothing better to do.
2) "You can fly Emirates, there are seats available!" "What do you mean, they're not a Star Alliance member?" ----> resulted in yet another hold
3) 20 mins later.... grand total of 2 segments booked.
4) On hold for what seemed like almost the entire evening while she verified left, right, centre, in and out.
5) Took another hour to finish the booking and generate the record locator.
6) Emailed him itinerary, told it'd take a day to price
7) Discovered that booking classes were entirely wrong, and he wanted to upgrade to premium economy on NZ AKL-LAX but was instead booked into business (!)
8) Rang back to rebook, hold period of 20 mins as the agent verified with her supervisor RE booking classes.
9) Finally done after another 20 mins.

And after what seemed like an eternity he finally got his itinerary set up.

Phew...................

On the plus side they didn't knock back the itinerary despite only operating a trans tasman codeshare, and domestic flights - most of his segments are SQ and NZ with the odd LH and OS short hauls.

Today he rang back and got the pricing, and thankfully the pricing people are a lot more competent than the call centre agent and got the pricing right. Paid and ticketed.

They wouldn't assign seats for him on partner airlines though (not even on their MEL-AKL codeshare operated by NZ), so he now has to call the others himself.

Echos my experience booking Circle Pacifics and Circle Asias with Star somewhat, but at least people i dealt with at the NZ and SQ offices were more competent. Back then though they had no "direct access" to seats of fellow alliance members and it usually took at least a week or 2 to 1) get seats booked 2) get a price quote record. I gladly paid my TA the service fee when urgent.

Anyone wants to volunteer checking out Skyteam?

[aybee]

Your friend will more than likely have a problem at SYD. UA will not accept him for travel on SYD-MEL unless he has a trans-Pacific UA metal flight as per the traffic rights. (Their traffic rights on the route only allow online connecting or stopover traffic).
They used to turn a blind eye - until they started getting fined and now they won't allow it at all.
Based on personal experience, he'll probably be made to buy a QF/DJ/JQ ticket and then have to get the RTW reissued (with fee) as it won't be in sequence any longer.

As for the experience itself, there are plenty of competent Star staffers with the carriers here in Oz at least. AC seem to have their act together, but then again there are a few ex-Ansett people there. Sounds like UA in FRA don't sell any at all !!

[QF009]

Your friend will more than likely have a problem at SYD. UA will not accept him for travel on SYD-MEL unless he has a trans-Pacific UA metal flight as per the traffic rights. (Their traffic rights on the route only allow online connecting or stopover traffic).

I've not read of this change anywhere. I've done the shuttle with an SQ connection a few times with no probs and assumed it's ok.

It MUST be UA metal and transpacific? He has MEL-AKL as a UA codeshare, would that satisfy the rules?

And what's his recourse if UA SYD throws him off the plane? In an ideal world it's UA who made and ticketed the booking and so surely it's UA that eats the cost... I infer from your post that he'd be told to go pound sand?

[QF009]

OK turns out that they've yet to charge his card nor ticket his itinerary, only taken down his CC info.

He's now given up the idea of flying the A380 and will instead fly the 77W (same seats anyway) down to MEL directly.

New problem:
We noticed that his AKL-LAX segment was downgraded to Economy. The rather low total fare should've been a warning. Rang up UA FRA about the error.

Apparently UA has got their own version of the rules and *refused* to entertain the thought of booking NZ Y+. Pointed out paragraph 12 "surcharges" where it clearly states one could upgrade to PE on YRWSPCL fares. The guy consulted his colleagues.

"Yes that's the Star Alliance rule but we have our own guidelines - everything must be booked in H for Starlite."

"We're issuing the ticket so you follow United rules ,not Star Alliance."



Tried the old school call back method. 3 different agents, one of whom claimed to have spoken to tariffs. Nein!

Tried the UA USA international desk. And got hung up on.

He then called NZ's outpost in Europe (Austrian number which i assume diverts to London). The staffer who answered was totally lovely and knew all about RTWs. More importantly, agreed with him on the rules. He told her his issues, "yes UA can be a total pain in the b*tt to work with." (again, quote unquote, English). But alas she couldn't see the entire reservation as her systems and UA's don't talk to each other, and so there's no way she could ring up UA to intercede on his behalf.

I'm now putting it to him that it might be worth paying a little bit more fuel surcharges to issue through an office that can get the job done properly... Lovely NZ lady seems keen to play ball.

[aybee]

UA should probably have to authorise carriage if they've stuffed up - but it sounds like UA FRA have absolutely no clue whatsoever, so I'd be wary if they do actually add something to the booking for SYD UA to see.
SYD UA may see it's a UA booked itin and then wear the fine if it comes to that and your friend may slip through, but that's all speculative. I can only relate several personal experiences I've been involved in and say that SYD adn MEL UA have definitely cracked down on non-UA connecting traffic.
I personally would be noting the warning bells that are ringing and cancel the UA booking if not charged/processed yet, as it sounds like there may be more hidden problems than first thought. Either that, or go over the itinerary with a very fine tooth comb.

If you're talking to NZ Europe and it's the NZ office that it used to be, I believe they are in Antwerp in Belgium. At least that's where their Euro office used to be and yes, they were quite a good team there. Used to deal with them a lot when I was with Ansett in another life.

[trooper]

If it's the normal call centre number he may well have been speaking to a Kiwi... In AKL.

Some time ago NZ consolidated most (all?) their overseas call centres "back home"..... Another reason I like dealing with them!!!

[bravoecho1]

How do you understand them though?

Customer: What sort of business class seats do you have?

AirNZ Staff: We have lie flut buds with the usual complumunt of buzness cluss amunuties

(Just joking to our Kiwi members)

[trooper]

You mean "Jist joking"?

ROFLMAO!!!!!!! I could "hear" that clearly!!!!

(personally I find the way Kiwi ladies speak to be rather...... nice.)