My First Experience Booking US Airways Award Ticket

I called US Airways yesterday to book a ticket for my girlfriend to join me in Guatemala for a 2 week stint in November. I have read horror stories about their phone reps and was prepared for the worst. I had all the flights I wanted with open inventory that I found on Expert Flyer. I was prepared for a painful spoon-feeding call buried in ignorance.

I called up the reservations line, got through the annoying automated system, and spoke to "Dennis." He was friendly but immediately asked me where "GUA" airport was. "Here we go..." I thought to myself. Turned out to not be too bad. He said he had traveled to Central America before but never Guatemala.

I explained that I could not book this online and hence my call. He did some checking to confirm that United flights in fact had to be booked over the phone. I was prepared to pay the fees. Lucky for me he waived the $40 phone booking fee. Yay!

I ended up having to give him my dates and specific flight numbers. He was unable to locate them on his own but when I gave the info to him segment-by-segment it was not an issue. I spent a total of 20 minutes on the phone with "Dennis" and got every booked and done. Not great and not bad either. Maybe I was lucky?

This means that I have now burned most of my AA and US Air miles. This was by design due to expiration dates and now sped up since the potential merger between the two. Who knows what would come of that so may as well burn the miles for something I need now and watch to see what happens.

In the end I have success! Another cool trip for pennies on the dollar. I love miles.