Phone Res agents

[PHL]

I've had a number of calls to USAirways over the last week or two as I've been tweaking a Star Alliance award reservation. I call the main number and go through the prompts for international bookings. Every time I've gotten a very well spoken, easy to understand, KNOWLEDGEABLE agent that has been very helpful. So, to that end - Kudos to US!

Too bad none of my award travel will be on US(said with sarcasm), even though I tried booking from PHL to points in Europe for June. Looking at *A awards from IAD on UA/LH or EWR on LH opened up a whole lot of opportunities. Who said Summer award bookings are impossible. I'll enjoy sampling LH First on the upper deck of their 747, though.

Here's a question - what's more expensive from a cost perspective -

1.) Paying another airline to put your members on it with points (i.e. US is paying LH something for my F seat in exchange for my 125,000 miles)
2.) Giving away one of your own premium seats on a similar route (i.e. PHL-FRA/LGW/CDG, etc)

 

[N965VJ]

A pair of fiber optic undersea cables to India was severed on Tuesday FWIW.

 

[happy01]

A pair of fiber optic undersea cables to India was severed on Tuesday FWIW.

We don't have a rez center in India, thats United. Unfortunately, we do still have Manila, Guatamala, and El Salvador. I don't know how the OP was lucky enough to get a stateside rez agent. We do have some really good ones here in the states, they keep telling us that the outsourced ones will be gone by 2010. That seems like forever.

 

[PHL]

A pair of fiber optic undersea cables to India was severed on Tuesday FWIW.

I guess it's irrelevant since US doesn't use India. But all but one of my calls were before Tuesday. I finalized my plans today, however, and again got a stateside agent.

 

[Pilot692]

I guess it's irrelevant since US doesn't use India. But all but one of my calls were before Tuesday. I finalized my plans today, however, and again got a stateside agent.

You mean...no more "Floyd"?

 

[InternationalShannon]

You mean...no more "Floyd"?

hahahahahhaha ......"Susan" I had to talk with a "Susan" who was most definitely NOT a Susan when a pax got mad and thrust the phone at me. She had no clue what I was talking about and had very broken English. She talked, did not listen, and had no clue what was meant by "plane is delayed. crew inbound plane is delayed. i dont know WHY this pax is calling you or why I'm talking to you" and then she continued on about some change fee and crap. What??

 

[happy01]

hahahahahhaha ......"Susan" I had to talk with a "Susan" who was most definitely NOT a Susan when a pax got mad and thrust the phone at me. She had no clue what I was talking about and had very broken English. She talked, did not listen, and had no clue what was meant by "plane is delayed. crew inbound plane is delayed. i dont know WHY this pax is calling you or why I'm talking to you" and then she continued on about some change fee and crap. What??

LOL,LOL,LOL ...But did she start calling you by the passengers name??? I love it when they start calling you mr. passenger, and you're yelling at them that you work for US Airways and they're still calling you mr. passenger. I've learned it doesn't help to yell any louder because they just don't get it. It never entered their mind that a US employee might be calling on behalf of the passenger. I think the best one ever was when tthe outsourced DM department told me they wouldn't release any information to me because I wasn't the passenger, I could see all of the information on my damn screen but I wasn't the passenger so they couldn't/wouldn't tell me if the miles had been re-deposited. I work for the freakin company, maybe I should have just lied they never would have know the difference.

 

[longing4piedmont]

..... they keep telling us that the outsourced ones will be gone by 2010. That seems like forever.

Yeah I remember that this was the first change that Dougweiser was going to make after the merger. In the end it was just first of many lies.

 

[autumn68]

I was a res agent in SYR for many years, I worked both General Res. and Executive Accounts (corporate accounts and travel agencies). We were the highest producing Res office on the system and the first to go after 9/11 (go figure). We were also a very senior office and we had very knowledgeable agents. I would love to be able to help you guys with your travel problems......I kind of miss my airline days.

 

[happy01]

This would be funny if it weren't true. Sadly we live in a society that thinks outsourcing jobs to third world banana republics is perfectly OK.

I have informed several high level execs that I do NOT conduct business with off shore call centers and my expectation is that I will deal with US Citizens.

Consequently I don't speak with Web Support or general reservations.

I have to redeposit miles and I'm sending the ticket back to the DMSC via certified mail tomorrow so we'll see how that works. I'm sending a copy to the Executive Office

PB, you'll have to keep us posted on how this goes. Last time I called there looking for a passenger's paper tickets they transferred me to Manilla.

 

[Hello Newman]

It doesn't matther where the res offices are if they don't service the calls. It seems that the res agents are so scared about not making their timers, they will say anything to get a caller off the line, no matter how inaccurate it may be. I recently took a call in the BSO from a psgr that had to chance her travel date due to a family emergency. A stateside res agent told her she had to drive 40 miles to the nearest ATO as they couldnt help her because she had paper tickets. I found a CSS to call this lady back since res was too busy to offer any kind of assistance. As a former res agent myself, if I handled a call like this I'd've been given 3 days off.

 

[kicked2curb]

We don't have a rez center in India, thats United. Unfortunately, we do still have Manila, Guatamala, and El Salvador. I don't know how the OP was lucky enough to get a stateside rez agent. We do have some really good ones here in the states, they keep telling us that the outsourced ones will be gone by 2010. That seems like forever.

The 2010 time line gives the company time explore "other options" , such as contracting with a call center company on shore such as Alpine Express, or waiting to see how the consolidation/ merger scenario plays out. They are also expecting website bookings will continue to increase. The outsourced jobs may be gone by 2010, but they won't be coming back to a rez center.

The company systematically closed the senior centers. The only US Airways rez center ( pre-merger) that remained had the least senior agents. Experience and knowledge is a liability to US Airways.

 

[Hello Newman]

Yeah I remember that this was the first change that Dougweiser was going to make after the merger. In the end it was just first of many lies.

OH YEAH...DOUG PARKER LIED TO YOU AND DAVE SIEGEL LOVED YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kicked2curb]

The 2010 time line gives the company time explore "other options" , such as contracting with a call center company on shore such as Alpine Express, or waiting to see how the consolidation/ merger scenario plays out. They are also expecting website bookings will continue to increase. The outsourced jobs may be gone by 2010, but they won't be coming back to a rez center.

The company systematically closed the senior centers. The only US Airways rez center ( pre-merger) that remained had the least senior agents. Experience and knowledge is a liability to US Airways.

oops! I meant Alpine Access

 

[noname]

The 2010 time line gives the company time explore "other options" , such as contracting with a call center company on shore such as Alpine Express, or waiting to see how the consolidation/ merger scenario plays out. They are also expecting website bookings will continue to increase. The outsourced jobs may be gone by 2010, but they won't be coming back to a rez center.

The company systematically closed the senior centers. The only US Airways rez center ( pre-merger) that remained had the least senior agents. Experience and knowledge is a liability to US Airways.

Are you referring to INTRO? Where do you get that INT had the least senior agents? Many agents had 20-25-30 yrs or more....and a lot were hoping INT would close just to get out of the hell-hole. Just curious as to what office you meant.