Jet With Kids

Frequent Flier Tickets: The 3 Hour Call 

My faith in frequent flier tickets has been restored - or at least strengthened. Last week, as I was determined to make it to Italy and this last minute, half price Italian cruise, I called United with my schedule cleared for the evening to get 4 frequent flier tickets (my husband, my son, myself and our “increase the ratio traveling companion” see Jet With Kids for more info on that!) on United. I was prepared to call back if I got an agent that wasn’t willing to be creative to make things work. I told my husband to clear his schedule to watch our son as I would be on the phone most of the evening.

I was delighted to be greeted by a competent, kind, and creative agent. We spent the next 3 hours and 15 minutes on the phone searching through all the possibilities for flights. Living in Northern California, I have 5 options for airports: San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Reno, and yes, there is always the added option of Los Angeles down south.

This agent was fantastic - she did not get frustrated when I refused the Philadelphia option because I do not care to fly US Airways, she was also okay with me refusing any connections through London Heathrow just because it is exhausting to go there. She understood that I was looking for night transatlantic flights because my 3 year old would sleep during most of the flight.

I was in return patient, not demanding, and willing to be open to the possibilities she presented to me.

Together we accomplished our goal! 4 free tickets to Italy - on a fabulous route, with my stopover in Frankfurt on the return to visit my grandma.

She did such a great job that at the end of the call, I asked to speak with her supervisor. She was stunned when I said that I wanted to let her supervisor know how great she was and what an asset she was to United. Her supervisor was also relieved when I wasn’t complaining (which they hear plenty of) and was offering thanks to me for taking the time to relay that information as it would go on the agent’s record.

I think it is important to speak to supervisors when someone does a great job as well as when there is reason to complain.

That 3 hour call was worth $6400 since the tickets were last minute, and during Thanksgiving travel week!

I caution you that not many agents will take the time to be creative - but want you to know that they do exist and it pays to keep calling back until you find that agent! I also would like to point out that I have found it easier to use frequent flier miles last minute (usually not ever during the Holidays though), since whenever I have tried to book in advance, especially with certain airlines or busy travel times, tickets usually are not available.

So my advice for using frequent flier miles is to find a quiet time (do not do this when your child is around) and find a speaker phone and sit in front of a computer so the waiting time is productive time.

Be prepared to be flexible and think outside of the box. I knew that I wanted a stopover in Germany on the way home. A stopover is allowed (and a great way to break up long travel days, and see an additional city for free!)

However, know that if you want to use a stopover option then you are not able to fly with an open jaw ticket. I recommend open jaw tickets to those who want to see a destination and fly into one city, travel around and fly out of another city. This eliminates the need to circle back to your arrival city.

So you do have to decide if you would rather have an open jaw OR a stopover. A stopover is different than a layover in that you can stay in the connecting city for a few days and then continue on with your journey.

Also be flexible as to what cities you can fly into and out of. Saving $6400 makes me creative. I can fly into Milan instead of Venice and take a train to Venice instead. Look at the cities around and ask for suggestions from the agent. Do your homework before you call though, don’t waste their time by looking at a map while on the call.

Although I did look up an airport (Linate airport - outside of Milan) as this was an option she presented if we flew on Austrian airlines through Vienna. Sometimes those little airports are even better than the big ones. (We flew with Ryan Air into a small airport- Ciampino, outside of Rome and it actually was 15km closer to the city than if we had flown into the main airport!)

Back to frequent flier miles, I usually reserve my tickets for emergencies though as I have found them to be great to use last minute and saves the most money. More on that later…