Trust No One

Whenever Im told anything by anyone in authority, I never believe them. I don't know why, but I just always think they are either lying or don't know what they're on about.

Remember how chuffed I was to be flying back to the Uk first clarss? Well, imagine my disappointment when the secretary e mailed me and said she wasn't able to upgrade me because it would cost 25,000 airmiles rather than 10,000 miles. So that was that it seemed.

Not a chance in the world!

I rang the airline and asked them to claify how many airmiles I would need. They told me it would cost 25k airmiles. "Feck" I thought

How could this be? I had been told by 2 different people that it would cost 10k air miles. I decided to e mail the customer care centre.

I got the e mail back today, and it read:

"If you have purchased a business class ticket, the the upgrade will cost you 10,000 miles. The 25,000 mile upgrade plus the $250.00 copay only applies if you have purchased an economy class ticket"

So there it was in black and white...I could upgrade for 10k miles.

I rang the booking centre....

"I'd like to upgrade my business class ticket to first class please"

"Certainly sir, the seats are available, that'll be 25k miles please"

"No you're wrong, its 10k miles"

Being told she was wrong really rubbed this lady up the wrong way! She got very shirty with me and assured me it was 25k miles. "Oh really?" I replied, "So why does your customer care department tell me I can upgrade for 10k?" (I read the e mail to her) I was put through to her supervisor...

The supervisor told me she was checking and put me on hold...

"We cant find any record of you receiving an e mail from our customer care department" (the old 'deny everything' trick')

"Well I have it in front of me here, Mrs Jane Doe sent me it, I can forward it to you if you like?"

"Well the rules are that its 25k miles, Im so sorry"

"Yes but I have it in black and white here that its only 10k miles. Are you saying your customer service people don't know the rules about your offers? I would point out to you that I fly to the states quite often, and as your flight attendants always point out to us, we have a choice of who we fly with"

"One minute, Ill have to put you on hold again"

Five minutes later....

"Sorry to keep you waiting Mr Taylor. We have decided to honour your request, and appolgise for the misunderstanding. Also we would like to assure you that the mistake in our customer help files here have been pointed out to the training department....We have several seats available, which one would you like?"

Yay! If I had trusted wat I had heard in the first place I would have been so miffed - especially after blogging about it!