Never take the first answer...

...unless it's a very good one.

Just spent an hour trying to get a K on the 8 from LA upgraded to an S so I could use miles to upgrade it to UCS/G, and on 3 separate calls was told;

1st Call - Yes we can upgrade the K to an S for £440 plus taxes. But I need to confirm with partner if I should book this.

2nd Call - Can upgrade LAX-LHR but it'll be £780 plus taxes because we have to upgrade both legs. !

3rd Call - I explain the earlier calls and still told it's 780, so I dig my heels in and repeat what I was offered on the first call (but now regretting not taking!). The agent has another go and magically I then only need to upgrde the one leg, and it all done for a lower price of £360 inc taxes and 12.5K miles. :0 y)

Moral of the story, get a 2nd and 3rd opinion and you MAY get what you ought to have been offered on the first call!

This really is pretty poor to be honest. I'm sure a lot of people would have been put off/given up after the first 2 calls, even when there was a potentially a good offer to be had.

Once again, lack of consistency of service undermines VAA (this time on the ground)...

Can I ask do you go through on the flying club number and is it an Overseas or Uk call centre, as I will need to go on quite soon to do some serious booking while there are some reward seats around. Many thanks Linda

[mitchja]

All VS call centres are now UK based.

Thanks James,

I will let you know how i get on as we are hoping to book some UC rewards, and as it will be our 1ST time ever will need all the help and advice from all the knowledgeable folks on here. |:)

Is it generally better to call, are you likely to find more flexibility or options than if you look online?

Is it generally better to call, are you likely to find more flexibility or options than if you look online?

The call centre sees no other availability than that which you see online.

Except that maybe they see different things at different times too!

Except that maybe they see different things at different times too!

Oh so VERY true

This really is pretty poor to be honest. I'm sure a lot of people would have been put off/given up after the first 2 calls, even when there was a potentially a good offer to be had.

It really is poor and I just don't understand it. I mean, doesn't a computer work it out? It's not rocket science.

Whenever I change to an upgradeable fare code I always work out in advance what it 'should' be, and then see how that differs from what I am offered!

On this booking, I've just noticed that although there are still some 50 days to go before the o/b flight, there are only 5 PE seats left in the 747.

Doesn't that indicate that it's likely to be full/overbooked (in PE at least) and that using a 346 might have been a better idea? Just wondering...

The thing to remember too is that the availability is constantly changing.

Constantly.

Travel agents can book fares without ticketing and these seats get released and rebooked etc. Don't know how strict VS is with this as airlines get charged by GDS for every booking made, ticketed or not.

I work for a hotel company and I'd say that 2 out of 3 GDS bookings are cancelled - so our inventory changes all the time. A rate that wasn't available yesterday will became available again.

It does make it tricky but also accounts for some inconsistencies.