USAir gives a smarta** reply to Navy man

[night-ice]

New agents. Where is the line drawn between experiences and new? HP pay and work rules for agents was the worst of all the major airline by a large margin. The effects of that is/was turnover. Who said anything about being rude? There has been rules regulations and polices with the airlines since there conception and they have been used for guidelines and some situations. Flexibility is a must to achieve good customer service. HP management is not use to having seasoned agents making good decisions and taking them out of the process.Not a day/month/year goes by without me saying. Just went I thought I seen/heard it all
That’s what makes this job

Here's the bottom line, folks:
IF the military member was on a gov't issued ticket for official gov't business (normally SATO will issue the ticket) then the ticket is fully refundable and changeable..the difference in price (if the traveler changes dates/itinerary) will be up to the traveler to file with his/her travel voucher at the completion on his trip. SATO also charges each time a ticket is changed ($21). City-pairings normally are fixed price but last-minute changes are what adds up. If he/she chooses to cancel the entire ticket, then it's fully refundable without penalty.
It's a good idea to tell the gate agent if you are traveling with excess/overweight baggage and NOT to use the kiosk, as when you enter the number of bags you are traveling with, the kiosk doesn't know whether or not you are military- it just counts the number of bags you are checking in.
Now, all this said, if this traveler just bought a military-fare ticket at the reduced price, then everything changes (not on offical orders) but from what I read, he was not on official TDY orders - just leisure.
Don't understand what all the fuss is. The gov't will pay for all approved changes/fees anyways so it's not like he's out of any money. Put it on the Citibank Travel Card and file receipt with voucher...done.

 

[john john]

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[john john]

Here's the bottom line, folks:
It's a good idea to tell the gate agent if you are traveling with excess/overweight baggage and NOT to use the kiosk, as when you enter the number of bags you are traveling with, the kiosk doesn't know whether or not you are military- it just counts the number of bags you are checking in.
Now, all this said,

The gate agent does not check-in passengers and there bags
It is company policy to have military passengers check in with the kiosk

 

[john john]

Here's the bottom line, folks:
City-pairings normally are fixed price but last-minute changes are what adds up.

Government contract fares should be the same as long as the city pairs are the same regardless of the time frame excluding PFS differences with the connecting city’s

 

[Travel Is My Life]

You are perfectly right ! As for the the other way to manage, grow, vision, marketing etc ? One word : Southwest.

Actually while not a domestic airline, West Jet is probably a bit better example of a good way to treat customers. They even take care of their passengers in situations where other airlines say "f-you" such as with weather.

Southwest really is not a great example as they are not the be-all-end-all of airline customer service. While they do have some strong points, they are not great.

 

[john john]

Here's the bottom line, folks:
SATO also charges each time a ticket is changed ($21). City-pairings normally are fixed price but last-minute changes are what adds up.

SATO is noting but a run of the mill travel agent that got a government contract to handle military ticketing.Pretty much useless on day of departure.weekends and out of business hours SATO use to be run by the airlines and all personal working for SATO were airline employees. Been there done that

 

[mrman]

Maybe US just doesn't like military personnel...

There's this one too:

Injured soldier fights for refund

BTW, US didn't offer to reimburse the Navy guy. They offered a voucher, most likely good for a year and only worth $145 if he buys another ticket on US that costa at least $145. It can't be used anywhere else, unlike a reimbursement. Of course, US has his money, making interest, until he uses the voucher. Going back in-theater how soon will that voucher get used? If ever.

Jim

On top of that they would likely charge him a fee to make the reservation due to website limitations on booking these, so any voucher would given would be eaten up in fees

 

[tadjr]

On top of that they would likely charge him a fee to make the reservation due to website limitations on booking these, so any voucher would given would be eaten up in fees

If you have a voucher that requires you speak to someone to complete a transaction, there is no fee associated for ticketing.

 

[Oldhawker]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/22091682/detail.html

I've read all the comments on this subject and I only have 2 things to say.First, ignorance abounds and second if he would have talked to a supervisor (back in my day) the situation would have been resolved.

 

[night-ice]

The gate agent does not check-in passengers and there bags
It is company policy to have military passengers check in with the kiosk

you may be correct about company policy but if you check in at the kiosk on military orders with extra/overweight bags, you get hit with the fee; if you tell the agent first BEFORE checking in and presenting a vaild military id, the agent can waive the fees....trust me...at least at my airport.

 

[night-ice]

SATO is noting but a run of the mill travel agent that got a government contract to handle military ticketing.Pretty much useless on day of departure.weekends and out of business hours SATO use to be run by the airlines and all personal working for SATO were airline employees. Been there done that

yea, I always have a hard time with SATO. What I don't get is the military member does not have to go through them..the Gov't fares are usually in most cases very high. However, they are refundable and changeable. If the member elects to get their tickets somewhere else (for cheaper) and then the TDY cancels, changes or he/she desires to make changes to that ticket, it can be really expensive but if you know it's a sure bet, buy eleswhere. SATO fees are high. I spoke to a few SATO agents when SATO was owned (by the airlines?) and they used to carry a wad of free passes around in their bags as an alternate way to get home from their trips.. Not anymore..they get NO free passes on any airline.
I checked a ticket fare a few months ago and online through Delta and US Airways, the fare was under $200...for the exact same routings/flight numbers/date, etc, the Gov't fare from SATO was over $800.

 

[john john]

you may be correct about company policy but if you check in at the kiosk on military orders with extra/overweight bags, you get hit with the fee; if you tell the agent first BEFORE checking in and presenting a vaild military id, the agent can waive the fees....trust me...at least at my airport.

Kiosks NOW has a prompt for military
The kiosk is the USAirways way PERIOD

 

[john john]

I spoke to a few SATO agents when SATO was owned (by the airlines?) and they used to carry a wad of free passes around in their bags as an alternate way to get home from their trips.. Not anymore..they get NO free passes on any airline.
I checked a ticket fare a few months ago and online through Delta and US Airways, the fare was under $200...for the exact same routings/flight numbers/date, etc, the Gov't fare from SATO was over $800.

That was the way it was for all airline customer service agents
It was call terminal agreements this is still exercises to some degree today