Triangle Trip

I had booked my flight far in advance from SFO to Paris for the Paris Marathon.  There was only one option for a 30K nonstop saver award which was on a Tuesday.  Recently, I received an email from United about a schedule change due to the removal of the nonstop flight on Tuesday.  I was booked for SFO to EWR, than EWR to CDG with a 1 hour connection.

Not wanting to have a connection, I called up United’s customer service to see what they could do.   I also looked up award tickets, and saw the nonstop flight on Tuesday was indeed gone on but they had one on Wednesday and Thursday for 60K miles. No more saver awards.  The agent quickly saw this flight on Wednesday and asked if I wanted to do that instead.  I agreed, but she had to get permission to change a revenue seat into an award seat.

A schedule change on your award ticket might look like bad luck but in reality in can be a blessing in disguise.  This was easy as pie, it took longer to give the representative my confirmation number than changing the flight with no fees and no fuss.

Like Captain G, I recently canceled a flight.  I had purchased a round trip ticket on Southwest and I already traveled on one segment (the outbound).  I wanted to cancel the return trip and thought this would be a painful process. The following points that made my Southwest experience a pleasant one.

1.  Southwest allows you to cancel any segment without a change fee. No $150 change fee like other airlines (See Captain G’s post on United).

2.  Southwest credits the entire segment you are canceling (this is when you buy non-refundable tickets).

3.  Southwest does not outsource customer service. I love how I can understand the customer service representative without an interpreter.

4.  Southwest customer service representative was very polite and considerate and even explained how to use the credit for my next ticket in the detail.