You are completely right, your travel agent DOES have options available to them that the customer service agents do not. When you purchase a ticket from a travel agent your getting what is called a "bulk ticket" which basically means a bulk of tickets sold to the agency at a reduced rate, which then turn around and resell them for a profit.
Now when you come to an airline with a bulk ticket they have to "reprice" the ticket, since the ticket now has pretty much no value, remember they were sold to the agency at a reduced rate. Only the agency that put you on this ticket would have another, equally priced ticket on another airline available. That is why everyone tells you, go back to the agent that sold you the ticket to put you on another airline.
The agents could not help you unless they repriced the ticket, which is done by the computer system and usually costs you hundreds more then you paid for your original ticket because you now have to pay for a full priced ticket, plus penalties, on the day of departure.
Customer service of Northwest agents were bad, BUT they could not put you on delta without charging you much, much more.
|