American Express Membership Rewards - Telephone Mannerisms toward AX Travel Agents

Curious to hear how Centurion and Platinum Card holders typically treat the travel reps on the phone. Are most folks here nice and pleasant right off the bat, or just demanding and short with the agents. I've heard horror stories from the agents how about 9 out if 10 callers are so terrible saying things like "You WILL do this", "Do you know who I am?", and just being rude and hateful in general. Can this be typical? Most folks here are intelligent, logical, and just discuss topics objectively.

Well, this is interesting, since I would see no reason for anyone to be rude off the bat to someone who is trying to help you. Unless of course, someone is NOT trying to help you or is grossly incompetant. There are two sides to every story, and I wonder how many of those demanding cent/plat members are that way because they are frustrated with the service.

I always try to be nice off the bat--there is, after all, no reason not to be. However, when I experience gross incompetence, it's a different story. I recall at least one episode where I literally blew my top off on the phone because some clueless rep told me to make an advance trip to the airport to get a last-minute itinerary ticketed. I drove out to the airport on this reps advice, and the airline couldn't find the reservation and had to do the booking all over from scratch. I was livid at how PTS had completely wasted my time, made me drive out to the airport, found an inferior itinerary to what I finally got from the airline, and gave me poor advice. On another occasion, I found that PTS gave me completely wrong advice about the various visas for mainland China. Luckily I sorted my way through it by other means, but had I listened to PTS, I would probably have had to turn around and go home for having the wrong visa. IMHO, this level of service is completely unacceptable for something that bills itself as a "premium" service.

I have avoided using PTS of late except when I HAVE to (IE, to use the FHR program) because of my very negative experiences with them. Further, they add no value for $35 ticketing fee they charge. To be fair, however, I've recently noticed an uptick in the level of service and professionalism, and may go back to using them more often.

I use them for FHR and cruises. I have found the FHR reps to be inexperienced and awkward. I have found the cruise reps to be outstanding. I haven't ever felt a need to yell at them, though.

Mike

Well one reason people might be disturbed may be Amex agent aswering the phone "How can I help you ?" and the customer just wants to know if a flight has any seats or a hotel has a room for one night and the amex agent will want the following information before answering a simple question.
1. callers name
2. callers amex number
3. callers address
4. contact phone

Then the caller waits and waits......... and waits.............and waits........ until the profile is pulled up just to find out information that could have been handled in less than 30 seconds without a profile because the caller just wanted to know about availability and does not care about pricing such as FHR, etc.

Amex could at least invest in a caller id system the credit card companies use that would just require a couple quick id questions since the profile pops up when the agent picks up the call.


That is why so many customers are upset.

The worthless trip to the airport would make me livid too. The reason, they always want the credit card# etc.. is to make sure you actually are eligiable for the service. They don't want anyone to be able to call and tie up the phones. They do need a better ID system though.

The worthless trip to the airport would make me livid too. The reason, they always want the credit card# etc.. is to make sure you actually are eligiable for the service. They don't want anyone to be able to call and tie up the phones. They do need a better ID system though.

Why can't you just enter your CC # once the phone picks up, that places your profile on the screen and you're routed to the right agent? That would save 1-2 minutes per call.
My beef with the phone service is it seems to take FOREVER to get responses from either PTS or the concierge. I only use it now to book FHR, because there is no other viable option. Otherwise, I would never call them

Why can't you just enter your CC # once the phone picks up, that places your profile on the screen and you're routed to the right agent? That would save 1-2 minutes per call.
My beef with the phone service is it seems to take FOREVER to get responses from either PTS or the concierge. I only use it now to book FHR, because there is no other viable option. Otherwise, I would never call them

I like the system that Amex has in place for Blue accounts. When I call, it prompts me for my card number. Then instead of verifying zip code/last 4 of ssn/etc... it just verifies the caller id and says we have matched your account to the number you are calling from.

Yeah I know caller ID can be spoofed, but there is no danger if all the agent does it provide simple information like rate quotes. If a booking ends up being made or acct info being released, then I'm all for verifying address, etc...

Am I missing something here or is there a good reason why the bookings can't be done through their website? :confused:

Am I missing something here or is there a good reason why the bookings can't be done through their website? :confused:

To get FHR benefits, bookings must be done through either PTS or CTS. Also booking with CTS/PTS allows for special requests, they can call hotels and arrange things, book shows/tours, etc...

The travel website is just like another expedia for the mainstream consumer. The real benefits come with the CTS/PTS.

Am I missing something here or is there a good reason why the bookings can't be done through their website? :confused:

If you are talking about Plat/Cent card travel benefits such as IAP and FHR, they can only be booked through PTS.

Which brings up a good point--why can't Amex provide a Plat/Cent travel website so that we can do these bookings ourselves? Verification of Plat/Cent membership could easily be done when you login. Once they are done with the initial cost of building the website, they could trim their agent numbers and save money in the long run.

Absolutely agree with kuroneko's first post.

And for the second too, there is a locked down Centurion website yet it is awful. One of the worst sites I have ever used, contains barely any information at all and always asks you to call in for more information. For goodness sake - the morons. One of the reasons for websites is to reduce number of calls in, as the cost per transacation is likely to be lower. It is frustrating to have to do the security and account identification when you just want a FHR rate.

Thanks,
Richard

The technology to allow customers to book FHR rates online already exists.

demiurg posted in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=557428) details about how to check FHR rates online:

If you are able to deal with a website in German, the German CTS online booking website shows the FHR rates for most FHR hotels when you go to the page of the various rates per hotel. Works well, e.g., with most FS properties.

http://amex.start.de/classes/smp.products.ach.ActGoAch?ref=1&customer_id=amex_cc

- Select "Hotel suchen"
- Enter airport code of city in "Flughafen oder Stadt"
- Enter number of travellers ("Anzahl Reisender") and dates ("Anreise", "Abreise")
- Optionally restrict to specific hotel chains ("Bevorzugte Hotelketten") or to "Kategorie: Luxusklasse"
- Press "Abfrage starten"
- Select FHR hotel and press continue ("Weiter")
- Look for FHR, "FINE HOTELS AND RESORTS", etc in the tarif description (Note that all amounts are converted to Euros)

I just wish that they would offer this on the US site.

The technology to allow customers to book FHR rates online already exists.

demiurg posted in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=557428) details about how to check FHR rates online:

I just wish that they would offer this on the US site.

Nice! Has anyone with a U.S. based card been able to book tickets or hotels using this site?

demiurg posted in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=557428) details about how to check FHR rates online:


Hi MarshKing and all,

Yeah,It's Amadeus system.
Germany has Cent/Plat Raise-Service Online.
Also Sweden,France and Netherlands has similar travel online.
If you access to the online system, you can check FHR,SLH,Centurion program(Ritz-Carlton(AXC),Mandarin Oriental,etc) rates and available rooms.;)

thanks,
masahiro

Well one reason people might be disturbed may be Amex agent aswering the phone "How can I help you ?" and the customer just wants to know if a flight has any seats or a hotel has a room for one night and the amex agent will want the following information before answering a simple question.
1. callers name
2. callers amex number
3. callers address
4. contact phone

Then the caller waits and waits......... and waits.............and waits........ until the profile is pulled up just to find out information that could have been handled in less than 30 seconds without a profile because the caller just wanted to know about availability and does not care about pricing such as FHR, etc.

Amex could at least invest in a caller id system the credit card companies use that would just require a couple quick id questions since the profile pops up when the agent picks up the call.


That is why so many customers are upset.
The agents are told to ask these question. The travel profile does not pull up on it's own. The agents have to make sure that the caller is Plt, and can be serviced by the PTS desk.

If they just start getting information for you, when you want to book something their system will ignore everything to pull up your profile..