US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Kudos and a Complaint

First the kudos -- Coming home from Frankfurt Thursday on US 893, prior to pushing back the captain made a point to talk to the CPs in Envoy. He thanked us for our business, asked whether we had had any problems with check-in and so on, and then gave out his card. I don't know if etiquette allows me to mention his name, so to be safe I won't. But I will say that this was an excellent display of very savvy customer relations, and was very appreciated.

And now for the complaint. It is obvious that international reservations has been outsourced (San Salvador?) in the past month or so. Unfortunately the new reservations agents have very poor English language skills and, from the number of times they have to put me on hold to check with a supervisor, it is apparent that they also haven't received very much training. The reason I am calling them is to confirm Envoy upgrades, and I'm very much afraid that the likelihood of success is much lower when working with a reservation agent who doesn't understand me and whom I don't understand. In fact, every time I have talked with one of the new agents and been told I can't be upgraded, I have immediately called back and luckily been connected with a US employee, who has been able to confirm the upgrade. Not only does this waste my time, it wastes US's money as they are now having to pay for 2 inbound 800 calls when formerly only one was necessary and, of course, the time of two agents is required when only one agent's time was required. As International is supposedly profitable, it seems counterproductive to use outsourced personnnel who increase the risk of alienating profitable customers. Definitely a bad move!!!

A simple "Thanks for flying so much with US Airways" from front-line US employees always means a lot to me, and if the captain or lead FA is now starting to thank CPs in Envoy regularly ( I think UA has done it for their 1Ks for some time now), it's definitely a good PR move!

I haven't flown Envoy in a couple of months and have had no contact with the Int'l Desk. Did someone (longing4piedmont ?) mention recently in another thread that the CP Desk angels would also be handling Int'l Reservations soon? I sure hope so.......

The CP angels will start to train for international next month I believe. The last one I spoke to told me and I forgot.

The CP angels will start to train for international next month I believe. The last one I spoke to told me and I forgot.

That's definitely good news and makes a lot of sense!!!

And now for the complaint. It is obvious that international reservations has been outsourced (San Salvador?) in the past month or so.

I just got off the phone with an international U·S Airways reservation agent. She said that they are not moving that department to San Salvador. She said that they only calls for that (for now) that are suppose to be routed to San Salvador are spanish calls. She said everyone is still in the USA for now.
I mentioned that someone from flyertalk had gotten a spanish representative and she said the system must have accidentally misrouted you.

T

The PIT res center will close by end of July - the result of the previously mentioned "consolidation" to NC. This will mean a net reduction of something like 800 employees. This is probably the time when the official switchover to all calls (not just Spanish) will start to happen.

So who where could learn fluent Spanish in one month? Anyone want to guess whether the San Salvador agents can learn English that fast?

I just got off the phone with an international U·S Airways reservation agent. She said that they are not moving that department to San Salvador. She said that they only calls for that (for now) that are suppose to be routed to San Salvador are spanish calls. She said everyone is still in the USA for now.
I mentioned that someone from flyertalk had gotten a spanish representative and she said the system must have accidentally misrouted you.

T
I've called over 8 times last week for intl res and have been connected with a San Salvador agent 6 times. Due to the complexity of the itin I was booking I kindly hung up, and redialed until I got the friendly US ringing sound and the voice of a US Res agent.

LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF THE RING: Calls routed to the SS Res office have a different sound when ringing into the queue. The US ring cadence sounds just like we're used to when calling someone; the South-American ring cadence is more of a solid tone.

(It may be obvious to some, but to others it may be a nice hint)

-JC

Hmmm, I wonder what is going on then?? Maybe the US representatives don't know what is happening?? Then again I am calling the CP line and using the international option. Maybe I am only getting the US agents in the USA.

I just got off the phone with an international U·S Airways reservation agent. She said that they are not moving that department to San Salvador. She said that they only calls for that (for now) that are suppose to be routed to San Salvador are spanish calls. She said everyone is still in the USA for now.

Actually I've been routed -- presumably to San Salvador -- at least 4 or 5 times in the past 3 weeks, so I would infer that there is a problem with the call routing software.

In any event, thanks for the information.

Hmmm, I wonder what is going on then?? Maybe the US representatives don't know what is happening?? Then again I am calling the CP line and using the international option. Maybe I am only getting the US agents in the USA.

I didn't know there was an "international option" when calling the CP line. What am I missing?

LISTEN TO THE SOUND OF THE RING: .....
I learn something new from FT every day :)

Also, AFAIK, calling Int'l via the CP line only gets us to the head of the queue (aaahhh, no long waits), and we then get connected to the next available Int'l agent.