US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Anyone experience Nightmare with US Air New International Customer Service

I have been trying to get international Star-Alliance award since about a month ago for two people in Business going to SIN from SFO.

I tried calling about three weeks ago at midnight, and was greeted by someone (Mexico Call center) who barely speaks and understand what I said. I thought, well that was bad. So I called the next morning, and was greeted by the US call center.

Apparently, US air have also decided to switch the international call to the Mexico Call center on during NORMAL business hour starting last week.

Now, everytime I called, I was greeted by the Mexico Call center. I know that US Air is trying to save cost here, but can't they hire people who can speak English well????? This is an outrage, it is VERY VERY Hard to speak to them.

Anybody else experience the same issues as I am facing here? Maybe I should take my business somewhere else.

I am getting frustrated here.

I think you will find if you do a search here on FT that this subject has been discussed quite a bit.

Most companies nowadays have outsourced their customer service people. Have you expressed your concerns to US?

Does anybody know which US Air number I should call to complaint regarding this matter?

Thanks.

Consumer Affairs
866-523-5333

If you think US is bad, try DL :rolleyes: :td:

I usually don't deal with other airlines, so don't know how the outsourcing there works (if at all). Always have an American when I call United...wait, that doesn't sound quite right :)

You need to focus on some underlying issues. All the airlines would like customers to simply handle their own arrangements, so in a perverse way, providing poor service in that area to live callers, helps push people to self service. It's sort of the reverse of the online bonus. Secondly, with people jumping ship, and losses piling up, there simply is no one watching anything. You cannot successfully manage interaction between customer and employee without oversight. My guess is they are hanging on by their fingernails, praying this thing gets merged before it runs out of money, and not thinking about much else.The latest email, crowing about combining the two FF programs, then saying they have no exact date, and finally telling us to book AWA direct, using a separate FlightFund account, and then wait for them to combine them in 2006, is a good example.

The problem is there is no self service for international award travel with the Star Alliance.

If there is one, I would not want to call customer service at all. It is much easier to do them myself.

So I am stuck with the incompetent customer service.

What a joke! I have been on the phone with Mexico for 90 minutes to meal list my boss for a SA transatlantic upgrade. Finally, after the CSR contacted his supervisor, I was told that I must meal list at the airport :td:

Where are the supervisors?

Why aren't these people properly trained?

How much money is US wasting?

Exactly,

I had much frustration over these new untrained international call center. I have to speak VERY Slow and REPEAT myself Several times to be understood by Customer service.

I book my flight in Business and some of the segment was not availabe when I reserved them. I specifically asked (this is 4 weeks ago when the customer service was still American), and they say I that could upgrade to business when the flight become available.

Last week, I was greeted by the new international call center. After explaining the situation for about 5 minutes, I was put on hold for 10 minutes, and was informed that I have to pay $50.00/person for upgrades.

I was shocked, but the rep still insist that this is voluntrary changed to the award ticket. so I asked to speak with supervisor. She put me on hold for 30 minutes before finally admitting that she was mistaken, and there is no fee for this change.

I don't know whether they have supervisor or not in that center. Sometimes a simple request will took about 4-5 minutes before they reply. Many other unfortunates, and stressfull incidents happened afterward.

US Airways, please change your call center back in US. or TRAIN your new people there and hire some capable persons, will you??

Last night, I broke all the "rules" -- I called at night, and I had a transaction that couldn't be handled on the website.

I was connected with Yvonne. She was obviously not a native English speaker, but we had very little trouble communicating. She patiently went through the schedules and found a "B" fare that was upgradable with points. Interestingly enough, they were on exactly the dates I wanted.

All the details were handled smoothly; confirmation email sent, itinerary posted, points deducted, everything just as advertised. I was well pleased.

After reading the horror stories here, I was a bit hesitant. But all's well that end's well, right? :)

I think you will find if you do a search here on FT that this subject has been discussed quite a bit.

Most companies nowadays have outsourced their customer service people. Have you expressed your concerns to US?


I just joined FlyerTalk and found your comment as I raised this issue under US Air category. It has been very frustrating as the same thing has been happening to me. Previously, I had US Air people who at least tried to understand my request and check availability, taking minimal time to find out. Now I have to repeat myself literally 3-4 times, be but on hold after each question no matter how simple, be denied speaking to a supervisor, only to be told no availability. This is terrible service.

Exactly,

I had much frustration over these new untrained international call center. I have to speak VERY Slow and REPEAT myself Several times to be understood by Customer service.

I book my flight in Business and some of the segment was not availabe when I reserved them. I specifically asked (this is 4 weeks ago when the customer service was still American), and they say I that could upgrade to business when the flight become available.

Last week, I was greeted by the new international call center. After explaining the situation for about 5 minutes, I was put on hold for 10 minutes, and was informed that I have to pay $50.00/person for upgrades.

I was shocked, but the rep still insist that this is voluntrary changed to the award ticket. so I asked to speak with supervisor. She put me on hold for 30 minutes before finally admitting that she was mistaken, and there is no fee for this change.

I don't know whether they have supervisor or not in that center. Sometimes a simple request will took about 4-5 minutes before they reply. Many other unfortunates, and stressfull incidents happened afterward.

US Airways, please change your call center back in US. or TRAIN your new people there and hire some capable persons, will you??

The same has happened to me multiple times over the last 3-4 weeks. I am glad that I already have several Lufthansa tickets, but cannot make any changes in them these days.

Sorry to say the Gold Desk in the USA is not much better. I never call reservations. Had to make at least 20 calls in the past two weeks --major IDIOTS

I think this is time to raise this issue again. And I will call Customer affairs.

I finally got the itirenary that I wanted last week with all in business class, after much frustrations.

Then one of the stupid Customer service, change my award reservation to economoy. And to make the matter worse the stupid person, changed my ticket from award to regular.

I almost lost my hard earned award ticket. Thank God, I got it back after several frantic phone call with several customer service.

Please call customer affairs people, this had been going out of control.

I think this is time to raise this issue again. And I will call Customer affairs.

I finally got the itirenary that I wanted last week with all in business class, after much frustrations.

Then one of the stupid Customer service, change my award reservation to economoy. And to make the matter worse the stupid person, changed my ticket from award to regular.

I almost lost my hard earned award ticket. Thank God, I got it back after several frantic phone call with several customer service.

Please call customer affairs people, this had been going out of control.

First I am surprised, did not know every outsourced company had the same problems as the one I work for. Customer sat goes way down... One thing HP is good at is not OUTSOURCING its customer service. That is one thing I do enjoy when speaking to HP customer service or HP Platinum line. I know that philosophy will also go to the new US Airways, but they have to weed themselves off the outsource contracts first :(

First I am surprised, did not know every outsourced company had the same problems as the one I work for. Customer sat goes way down... One thing HP is good at is not OUTSOURCING its customer service. That is one thing I do enjoy when speaking to HP customer service or HP Platinum line. I know that philosophy will also go to the new US Airways, but they have to weed themselves off the outsource contracts first :(

So my understanding is that Parker will in time have all new US/HP phone centers US-based?

What are the current status of which centers are outsourced? I have never encountered one as a SP 9/04-10/05, CP the past month or even as a US nothing prior to 9/04. UA on the other hand is a different story.

I would not hold your breath waiting for consumer affairs to do anything, especially about a complaint like this one. I predict you will get some form letter response talking about cost cutting.

You can also file any kind of airline service complaint with the US Department Of Transportation. Details can be found at:
http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov
or by calling (recording) at:
(202) 366-2220

I don't think DOT is going to require any airline not to off shore, but one interesting thing about DOT complaints is that a relatively few number of complaints can put an airline in a different place in DOT's monthly rankings. Frankly not too many consumers file DOT complaints, even though it is not hard to do.

Basically DOT enters your complaint in a database, and supposedly if there is a pattern of certain issues, they will investigate further. One of the complaint categories DOT now has is frequent flyer related.

But if say 25-75 people filed a complaint about the off shore call center for one airline, that relatively small number could hypothetically put said airline in last place in the consumer complaints category. However, these days, I don't know that the airlines really care what place they are in in DOT's monthly consumer report. Historically JetBlue and Southwest do very well in the consumer complaints category. JetBlue largely uses work at home res agents and I don't believe they use off shore call centers.

If you are concerned about off shore call centers, perhaps some cinergies could be reached between some kind of pax advocacy group and the CWA who represents the res agents. Surely the CWA would be against outsourcing work on foreign shores.