Wednesday, July 06, 2011

I officially do not understand airlines

Today we're flying from Ottawa to Washington DC (this post is brought to you courtesy of Ottawa airport's free wifi!)

We arrived quite early for our United flight so we asked about getting on an earlier United flight (same airline) only to be told that it would cost us $120 each.

We were also told that it was too early to check in for our original flight. So we had lunch and a cup of coffee and came back. At which time we were told (by a different agent) that we could get on an earlier Air Canada flight (yes a different airline) for no charge. In fact, because Air Canada does not charge for checked bags, we're saving fifty bucks.

I actually do understand what's going on here. It's all about the check-in agent. One decided to be helpful and the other one didn't. Simple as that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dan, you are right on the money. Have you ever been frustrated by little or no response from a customer service agent over the phone so you give up and hang up. Then you call back again and the second time around the different agent helps you and the problem is immediately resolved? Happens all the time. I can recognize almost immediately whether the agent will "try to help" or WILL help, without a doubt.