vytas315

Maybe. I can only speak to my experience though and calling Emirates from the US I've never gotten an American, Canadian or British accent.

Just to be clear, I'm not faulting them for this, just wanted to share one example where multiple call centers were operated on similar time zones at least partially for localization.

skywardhunter

As et mentioned, Gold members get redirected to DXB.

Also what if the wait for the NYC call center is 12 minutes but there's someone available immediately in DXB or Manchester. Would you prefer to wait 12 minutes for the sake of the accent?

vytas315

I've had pretty good experiences with EK call centers and am happy with their level of service. Most annoying has been when their tech doesn't facilitate easy and quick answers. The agents themselves appear to work hard to resolve the issue at hand. I've only recently reached gold so not sure where most of my calls have been routed prior. I usually call from a Skype virtual number. But regardless, they've went well.

The only reason I piped up is that it was stated localized call centers are a dream. I wanted to highlight that at least some companies believe in them to the point that they want people from Georgia to hear a southern accent. Not saying it's applicable to EK, but wanted to illustrate that it is a reality for some organizations and not an unreasonable dream.

stuie2210

Currently in Thailand and called the Thai number and got, I believe, Mumbai. Suffered from equipment change on an evening flight from lax to dxb (miles upgrade flex j to f)- whole point of the trip was to experience 16hrs on a380 in f but now changed to 777. I know they can make changes and if operational at the gate have no problems with that, but being told 3 months out after booking 5 months ago was rather aggrieved to be told that needed to pay all change fees and price differences to alter to earlier flight.
As usual supervisors/managers appear to have no power to manage and make any decisions and were adamant that they wouldn't do anything to help me.
Now the HOWEVER --- The original agent said lets see what i can do and he managed to change the flight to next days a380, confirm the upgrade and alter an outbound flight for pretty much the same as the due change fee! So after expecting arguement and toy throwing they get a big thank you from me.

thijsseh

I have had very limited experience with the call centre calling from CPT. But both times, the phone was answered after two or three rings, the agent made sure he (first time) of she (second time) understood my need. Then managed to do exactly what I wanted (or in the one case explained why what I wanted could not be done but suggested a viable alternative). The second time I needed to do an on-line transaction with a very slow internet connection (SA). The agent told me not to worry, she would stay on the line however long it took.
So in both cases a great service. Very happy!

Now compare that to calling the SAA call centre..... And I don't complain and have no prejudice about accents but the people they use as call centre agents are at times incomprehensible....

Devil

Exactly my point.

Why else does Amazon follow one around with ads of the products they saw? Because relevance wins, every time. Over and over again. Every company that has had some form of personalization has been winning. And technically, it's not hard to do that. I have clients in my company that have franchises all over the world and just one toll free number to call. Based on the NPA (the first three digits or area code), the call gets routed to the nearest call centre.

Nothing wrong with the accent either. But maybe I'm used to north american companies bending over backwards to provide friendly localized service (and it doesn't help that I'm from Canada where everyone is friendly).

Everyone seems to be fine with the callcenter being anywhere in the world (and I just had a good experience out of a callcenter in India), but it really does help me if I speak to a Canadian. The experience is "recognizable", not better or worse. Maybe it's just me.

Sdcorreia

I fly EK for 5 years now. I'm gold for 3 years in a row. My mobile is associated to my account so every time I call and dial 1 for continue in PT, the system divert to Machester center. For every time I called it was useless. Nothing they can do. Basic things, upgrade availability, seat blocking, miles miscalculation, flight change, delay compensation, and I believe that's all. I don't call to ask time or talk about weather. I call when I have a problem that need to be addressed and it's beyond the Agent my company uses to ticketing control.
I recognise I am a person with bad luck. I really do. When I need something it never fall from the sky.
From EK, I would just expect that the loyalty program that they created works properly, with no tricks, with no small letters on the clauses. I just expect my loyalty to be reasonably appreciated.
Otherwise, I would prefer meaningless program with irrelevant advantages that I could ignore. Having a call center is something I appreciate as I can address problems and get solutions. Having a call center that do not work properly and with powerless attendants that only repeat the issues to someone above that can ignore or pass to someone else with delay and losses on the processes is really something I don't appreciate.
Is like buying a car to go from A to B. With stereo to listen to some fine music. But the car only rides 50 km/h and stereo is stucked in one radio station only.
The deliver might be accordingly to the formal promise but it is far away from expectations. And yes, being a loyal client give me the right to have expectations regarding services.

Mister Nice

Recent IAD-DXB in F - some rain showers on arrival so we had to circle for about 1 hour which resulted in a 1 hour delay overall . Pulled up to a gate in B gates area and SAT for 30 minutes waiting for someone to move the jet bridge to the gate . Folks had connections that were now in jeopardy and EK could have cared less - not a single EK employee available to assist or answer questions for the folks with connections as they deplaned . Fortunately , not an issue for me but what a poor showing .

kq747

I'm not really sure what EK staff could do at the jet bridge besides tell them to see the ticketing agents inside the terminal. Passengers would still have to go through immigration and customs then recheck bags at the designated counters for their onward connections. It is there that the onward carrier (obviously won't be EK) can assist them with alternate flights. Now if they are a single PNR then the onward carrier may not be able to sometimes rebook them which is where I imagine they would contact EK. I'm just going by what I would do in the situation. One thing I might add is that I would call EK/onward carrier while on the ground waiting if I was really worried but I understand that not everyone will have access to a mobile phone at that time.

skywardhunter

???

1. No indication onward travel is not on EK
2. No need to clear immigration and customs unless checked bags

eternaltransit

That is an issue with DXB I agree - people with tight connections aren't reassured: if you're a regular you know that you unless someone is waiting for you or your destination at the gate, you always assume the flight is on time and waiting for you, which means running.

Some less seasoned travellers (of which DXB has more than its fair share, imho), might think it's too late or they have plenty of time.

Some sort of gate signage would be very useful, I think, telling people on tight connections to go to gate or not, instead of listening for the individual who doesn't shout often or has an unclear piece of A4 paper to talk to them.

eternaltransit

What exactly do you need the call center to do - you have a travel agent, so EK cannot really change tickets and should just direct you back to them.

If it's just to make complaints, you will be directed to the online form. For complex queries, I find emailing has the best response.

kq747

Oh! I misread the post as DXB-IAD so hope that explains my response. Apologies to all...

Lkaroo

Not in my experience. Even pin verified, more often than not I end up getting routed through to India office rather than DXB. The only way to guarantee getting through to DXB is to select Arabic language option.

On the whole I find the DXB / MAN offices to provide a considerably higher level of service overall - regardless of accent.