Why a simple, polite hang-up may be an effective traveler’s tool

With all the high-tech tricks and gadgets available to travelers these days, sometimes the best solutions are still the old-fashioned ones. Sometimes, a way to save money or just find someone to solve a problem, starts with just politely hanging up the phone, and then calling back to talk to someone else.

A recent episode with a client trying to change a return from Hawaii illustrates this well.

The traveler in question had a heavily discounted fare roundtrip from San Francisco to Honolulu. He wanted to come home a day earlier. I called the tour operator, Classic Vacations, who called United Airlines.

After considerable time, the United agent relayed that the fare difference would be $371 plus a $150 change fee. Since this was a significant amount of money, I told them to leave it alone and I would call back if necessary.

In this case, however, the client said they would pay the difference. So I called back, and once again the tour operator’s flights agent called United. This time, after almost as much time, United said the cost would be $791. I asked the woman I was talking at Classic to ask United to double check, and the relayed message was that the United agent was “sure.” That was far more money than I had authorized, so I asked Classic to say “Thanks but no thanks, we’ll leave it alone.”

I then asked the agent to call back one more time, because the $371 fare had seemed pretty sure the day before, and the same “W” class of service they had mentioned was available. So we tried it again, 30 seconds later. This time, with identical availability, the United agent came up with $285.00 – total. Suffice it to say I gave them the client’s credit card to take care of it immediately. So everyone is happy.

Fortunately or unfortunately, this sort of thing happens relatively often in the travel business, especially with airlines and reservation changes.

Partly, it’s because the fares are confusing, partly, it’s because the agents answering the phones are often low-paid employees without a lot of experience plus, many of them are working from call centers out of the country.

I’ve learned over the years that when you get a response that seems unreasonable, or a fare that seems too high, arguing doesn’t often help. If anything, it will get the agent in question to document the record, which makes it almost impossible to get any other solution. I have seen such documentation, after the client calls us because they got nowhere with the airline in the United Airlines records, since our agency uses their Apollo reservation system.

Really unhappy reservations agents can note in the passenger’s record the amount of the penalty that should be charged, complain about the passenger’s attitude and warn other customer service agents looking at the record. This also means travel agents have no chance or making better changes when they call the airline’s sales office.

Short of hanging up, you can ask if a supervisor is available, which works sometimes. However, just as often will get even more resistance from the telephone agent.

But politely declining the price, or even saying that you will think about it, or even, “Sorry, I can’t hear you well” or “have to take another call, I’ll call back,” and then hanging up, can work very well with less stress.

Again, quickly and politely is the best disengagement strategy. You really don’t want the person you are talking to to document the conversation. (Usually these call-center employees have to get right on another call so unless a caller really annoy them, they don’t have a lot of time or motivation to take the extra time.)

Don’t bother calling over and over and over. Sometimes a ridiculous sounding price really is correct. As a frequent flier, over time, you get to a point where you know what makes sense. If you get an answer that doesn’t make sense, it’s worth another try.

Photo: www.jetsetmodern.com