"Computa says Nah"

[fastingforweightloss]

FGS, why, oh why, can we not get good service anymore? I feel like every time I try to do something, the rep is thick as mince, can't think outside of the box, or it's just a case of "Computer says No".

Got an airport lounge booked with TUI, which comes free with Premium seats. I want to change to a different lounge - the one right next door is so much nicer (happy to pay to upgrade).

TUI staff member says yes, you can do that - do it via the Holiday Extra's website. Eh? Why would I do that? Holiday Extra's don't have access to my TUI booking. It turns out she's telling me that I can book the lounge I want on Holiday Extra's. Well, Duh, obviously, but I don't want 2 lounges booked, since we can only be in one lounge at once.

She can't seem to grasp what I'm asking, which is to swap. She just keeps repeating that yes, I can do that via Holiday Extra's. How is this hard? Had to just give up in the end.

Aaaaaarghhhhh.

The ONLY places I've had good service in the last 10 years is Barclay's and Swinton Insurance.

Well, could you do it via the Holiday Extras page?

If your booking comes with lounge access that’s probably not transferable so you either use that lounge or pay for another. It sounds like you weren’t understanding. Or maybe you can CHOOSE your lounge on the website in the Holiday Extras bit?

Different lounges have different access eligibility. Some will only allow / have agreements for access to passengers flying with particular airlines, or with particular memberships (such as through top-tier credit cards etc.) The computer says no because TUI likely doesn’t have the agreement / eligibility with that lounge to book its passengers in, thus their platform can’t do a swap.

Yeah, I gathered this, but that's not what she was saying. She was saying "yes you can swap on Holiday Extra's". No, you can't. You can buy another 2 lounge tickets (as could any Tom, Dick or Harry), but I wanted to swap.

She was saying that her computer system can’t perform a swap to another lounge, because that functionality doesn’t exist for her to action it. She probably doesn’t know that you can’t make a swap, only buy in addition, on Holiday Extras, because she doesn’t work for them.

Surely OP's whole point was that she wasn't saying that, though?

We can all make assumptions about what the possible situation is re: booking a lounge, but OP's issue is that this person (who should surely be more knowledgeable about it than your average MNetter) gave her what was clearly the wrong information.

If she had said 'I'm really sorry, I can't action a swap because they are two different lounges and I don't have any access to or authority over the second one, you might be able to do it via Holiday Extras, I don't know for sure because they are a different website but it might be worth trying. If not you might have to just book the second lounge separately, which I know you definitely can do on there,' OP might have been a bit disappointed she couldn't achieve what she wanted but wouldn't have any cause for complaint about the customer service - if it can't be done it can't be done.

It's the being told the wrong information that's annoying.