Yesterday, I wrote about the issues I encountered while trying to book a flight on Boutique Air. The episode was put on hold after I left a message with the customer service department. As luck would have it, I received a call from customer service less than 30 minutes after I posted about my booking issues. I do not know if this was coincidence or if someone from Boutique Air reads my blog. Either way, I will explain to you the rest of the process for booking a flight on Boutique Air.
To recap: I wanted to fly the airline between Dallas and Clovis, New Mexico on this weekend, but I encountered a price discrepancy on Expedia.
I called the customer service line, but did not reach anyone, so I left a message. Three and a half hours after the initial call, I received a follow up call from the same number. I thanked the agent for returning my call and explained my situation. She stated the ticket for the date I wanted was pricing out at $328 USD. This was the same as the Expedia final price. She apologized and told me that there was nothing more she could do.
Being versed in airlines offering benefits to military members (click on the airlines to see more: United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Airlines and JetBlue Airlines), I asked if Boutique Air offered smiliar discounts. She stated that the airlines does indeed offer a military discount, but needed to put me on hold so she could retrieve the discount code. After almost seven minutes, the agent returned to the line and provided the code. I asked if she could input the code so I could purchase the ticket over the phone, she informed me that it would be better if I did it online.
I immediately went to the Boutique Air website, but did not see an option to input the discount code.
At this point, I was frustrated with the situation so I went to bed. I planned to call Boutique Air again today after my failed attempt last night to apply the code, but I wanted to try one more thing. There was an option to create an account on the main screen so I did. After inputting my personal information, I scrolled down and saw the following:
Voila. Easy, right? This lowered the ticket price by $50 USD. I purchased a roundtrip ticket for $278 USD. Another thing that stood out to me was the option to input my United Airlines Mileage Plus account number to earn miles for the flight. Wait, what??? It appears Boutique Air and United Airlines entered into a codeshare agreement less than a year ago. Mileage Plus members are now able to earn award miles on eligible Boutique Air flights. Nice!
I thought that my flights would be aboard a PC-12 (single prop), but the aircraft was swapped to a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 (double prop).
Final Word
While I found it unorthodox to leave a voicemail for an airline, I was happy the agent returned the call and was able to get me a discounted price. I know the airline will not have any amenities, but the AVGeek in me cannot wait to experience what amounts to a private flight. Thanks for following and check back for the review of my Boutique Air flight.
Not conventional by any means buddy, but they did come through. Interesting experience.