Part 1
Calls Porter Airlines.
Waits Thirty-Two Minutes On Hold.
Twitters at Porter Airlines that he has been on hold for 32 minutes.
Porter representative immediately answers phone.
Part 2
Customer: “Hi, I need to move mine and my husband’s flight from this Monday to this Friday.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “I’ve looked at your flight info, and you will need to pay the change fee of $75 each plus the difference in fare.”
Customer: “No problem, I will pay the change fee, and the new fare is cheaper.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “So with the $150 in change fees, and the difference in fare, you owe $450.”
Customer: “I don’t think that’s right, the new flight is like $100 less than the old flight.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “Because your existing fare was discounted, we can’t apply the sale price to the new fare. You need to pay the full price of the new fare.”
Customer: “Wait, you’re telling me that because I already got a sale on the flight I booked, even though I’m cancelling that flight and booking a new one I can’t get a discounted price? Even if I agree to pay the change fee?”
Porter Airlines Representative: “I’m sorry yes, you can’t combine discounts.”
Customer: “I’m not combining discounts, I’m cancelling one discounted flight in favour of another.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “The rules of your fare state that if any part of your existing fare is discounted, you can receive no further discounts when you change flights.”
Customer: “So the credit I get from you in moving my flight is discounted so I get less credit, but I can’t get any discount at all on the flight I’m buying? Does that sound right to you?”
Porter Airlines Representative: “…”
Customer: “Can you maybe check with a supervisor? Because that seems crazy to me.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “Just a moment.”
Part 3
25 minutes later.
Porter Airlines Representative: “Thank you for your patience Mr. Customer, we’re running a sale right now so my supervisor was very busy.”
Customer: “Clearly.”
Porter Airlnes Representative: “So my supervisor has agreed to let you cancel the flight for the total change fees of $150 plus tax, and I can go ahead and book the new flight for you here.”
Customer: “But I can just book the flight here myself on the website, one way, and it’s only going to be $300. I don’t have to pay a cancellation fee. I can just book the flight.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “Yes, sir, but in order to cancel your Monday flight and move it, you’re going to have to pay those two cancellation fees, because of the type of ticket you bought has [Porter Airlines Rules and Regulations Excised for brevity].”
Customer: “No, no I follow what you’re saying, I’m just saying if I book a one way flight on Friday, and then simply do not show up for my original return flight on Monday, I will save $150. Because either you’re going to charge me the un-discounted price to book my new fare plus the cancellation fee, which comes out to $450, or you’re just going to let me cancel my flight for the cancellation fee $150 and book the new flight for me which I can do myself, and those two things together will also total $450.”
“If I just don’t show up at all for my Monday flight and book an additional flight, it costs me less money than you interacting with my reservation in any way. And I don’t get charged a ‘cancellation fee’ if I don’t cancel.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “…I’d have to check with my supervisor on that.”
Customer: “No you don’t, thanks. We’re just going to leave this right here, and if Porter wants to charge me $150 for simply not using their services, I’ll deal with that when it happens.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “I understand your frustration sir, but the rules of your fare…”
Customer: “Nonono, I’m not angry or anything. You’re doing your job. But I’m just going to take my own course of action here, and it is going to save me $150, and you and I don’t need you to do anything.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “We’ll just leave this the way it is then.”
Customer: “We’ll just leave this right here where it is.”
Porter Airlines Representative: “Can I help you with anything else?”
Customer: “No, no you cannot. Thank you.”
Total Call Time: 55 minutes, 51 seconds.
Epilogue:
Still better than dealing with Air Canada Reservations.
Also better than trying to get at&t to move existing internet service about a mile and a half down the street. Still: awesome.
Every time I start thinking about moving someplace which will mean air travel to see my family rather than a long car trip, I usually encounter something or other which makes me think “do I really want to deal with that on a regular basis?”
LOL, just last night I had my own “nice” airline experience, I learned two things about price comparison websites:
1 – If the price is low, the flight will magically have filled up when you try to book it. But will still show up when you do another search.
2 – If the price is merely ‘reasonable’, the link to make the booking won’t work.
Then I booked the flight myself, directly from an airline. Then today I get a phone call “about the flight you tried to book”, after a brief oh shit moment, it turns out to be the operators of the price comparison site calling. I ought to have jumped through the hoops and seen what they could ‘actually’ offer XD.