Having been introduced to the miles and points in the past year and a half, I’ve learn quite a bit of travel tips and tricks. Blogs and travel forums are full of acronyms, and one particular one is HUCA, short for Hang Up & Call Again. Essentially what this means is if you don’t like the answer the customer service agent is providing (because you know the information he/she has is incorrect), then you just hang up and call back until you get what you want.

I finally got a chance to try this out this week. For our August trip to Tanzania with MIL and SIL, I had booked our flights on Qatar. While picking our seats, I noticed that the center seats were all blocked. Recalling from something I had read on FlyerTalk, I suspected that Qatar blocks these seats for families traveling together. The first customer service rep looked at the seat map and told me all center seats were occupied and unavailable. I challenged her on that information, but she wouldn’t relent. So I thanked her and hung up. Today, I called up Qatar again, and lo and behold, the seats were available for booking. So moral of the story – not all agents are created equal, keep calling until you get one who can help you.

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