Wideroe Chat To The Rescue

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image credit: wikipedia

We were supposed to leave on our second trip of 2014 Thursday evening but I got a bit worried when I heard reports of a potential upcoming storm that could either shorten or completely ruin our plans.

Our original itinerary was going to be a 4 night trip so if we left just one day later, it would put the whole trip in jeopardy.

I decided to call United on Monday night and was greeted by a friendly phone rep. I asked if there was a possibility of our flight being cancelled due to the snowy forecast but was assured that Newark is equipped and prepared to deal with snow. I was told that a city like Atlanta was not, so flights from there were being changed. I hung up the phone not feeling any more confident that we would be flying if the snow started falling on Wednesday night.

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The forecast from weather.com

I’m not one to usually pay much attention to the weather or even believe what the meteorologists say but this year they’ve been pretty much dead on.

After hearing lots of chatter at work for 2 days, I decided it was time to try to take action one last time.

I placed a call once again to United and got some useful but conflicting information.

I first explained the situation and was immediately told that our flight was scheduled but things could change the following day. If there wa s a change, we would be accommodated on the next possible flight. This sounded fine however when a trip is only 4 nights long, losing one day is a bit of a problem!

I mentioned these sentiments to the representative and he told me that there was nothing he could do. Since our tickets were booked elsewhere, they were not allowed to change our itinerary! He also said something along the lines that certain flights were beginning to be switched.

I asked him what he meant and he got a bit annoyed. I was told once again, that since my ticket was not on United stock, I would have to talk to our booking agent. I mentioned how they were in Norway and I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to reach them at this hour and was then placed on hold.

The rep came back and said that he spoke to a supervisor. There was an exception, I would be able to switch my flight…if I contacted my booking agent.

This sounded great, only if I could reach Wideroe.

I thought about calling through Skype but quickly saw that Wideroe’s phone support was only available from 09-15. Luckily their Chat With Us feature was available all day long from Monday – Friday.

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Chat With Us

After figuring out how to connect with Wideroe, I was chatting with a rep within a minute. I explained the situation and was asked when I would like to re-book for and then the chat disconnected!

I signed back in to the chat and within a minute I was chatting with the same rep once again.

I mentioned when I wanted to fly and was offered a new flight within another minute or two! This was perfect and painless. I was expecting to be told that the flight could not be switched or that there would be fees. Nope, Wideroe took care of it without an issue.

Between the two chat screens going down, we were rebooked on a new flight in under 10 minutes! I even got some smiles in the form of an emoji!

We had a busy night altering our plans but we’ll be heading to Milan tonight! However, we won’t be staying long. We had planned for a little road trip around Europe and now we’ll be arriving a day early!

I usually like to write a Trip Planning post but due to this change in plans, I didn’t get a chance to. I am hoping to have some time to write about our plans either during our long connection in Frankfurt or when we arrive at our first accommodation.

Stay tuned!

2 thoughts on “Wideroe Chat To The Rescue

  1. Was Wideroe really necessary here (namely, could hanging up and calling again have fixed it)?

    When you’re within 24 hours before travel, the operating carrier should be able to lift the coupon at that point and issue a new ticket on their own stock.

    1. Wideroe had to be the one to make the change according to United.

      According to United, my booking agent (Wideroe) was the only one allowed to change my tickets unless our flight did get cancelled, which it wasn’t at that time.

      Had I waited until 24 hours prior our flight and not contacted Wideroe, we’d probably be sittng home right now and not be in Italy!

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