Do you want to speak to an American rep?

I don't know if there's any truth to this, but I know a lot of us dread the foreign call centres.

I don't know if that is required, but I just got an e-mail saying that if you demand to talk to an American representative, they are required to accommodate that request.

Has anybody attempted this? I am a 1K so I never have to deal with this, but unlike some 1K's and even 1P's, this 1K cares about everybody.

Even as a 1K, I've reached foreign reps. But unless there's a problem (which I haven't had yet), I see no reason to summarily ask for an American rep.

United Airlines Japan is great since our reps are local.

This sure sounds like an e-mail chain letter. Did you get this from United?

And as a 1K I've reached foreign reps too. Some were good. Some were less good. And some were overpoweringly incompetent.

The exact same analysis applies to American reps.

I've been on the phone with some UAL.com phone support people who were better than some domestic 1K operators.

+1.

What was the purported source of the e-mail?

It came from a friend - but he has a history of cleaning up e-mails so it's possible this one was a chain e-mail.

True, but I have not every talked to someone overpoweringly incompetent from HNL. They may be out there, but I haven't run across them.

DTW on the other hand.....

I accept that I'm in the minority here on this, but it would be the height of rudeness to hear a "foreign" voice on the phone, assume it's a foreign call center, and demand to be helped by someone else. I can understand the frustration often felt when dealing with someone overseas who may not be well-trained or well-versed in American customs. But it's still a person that you're talking to, not a machine, not a company. And that person deserves some reasonable amount of respect and telling that person I'm sorry, I'm not going to talk to you because you're not one of us (American) isn't that much different from someone walking into my bicycle store and demanding to talk to someone older & male because a young woman can't possibly know anything about road bikes.

Hey Mike, now that I know what you look like, when I walk in your store, I'm going straight to the boss!

Those times when I've gotten a foreign call center, the problem wasn't their location or nationality, it was their inability to have either the authority or the knowledge to deal properly with my request. Secondarily, it often was because I couldn't understand their English.

Admittedly I didn't try this a statistically significant number of times, but it was enough for me to give up and not allow them to handle anything other than totally simple, straightforward requests, if their English is up to that.

BTW, I gotta admit that I looked at this thread because I thought the headline referred to an AA official rep posting on the UA forum!

Well they can send you to the Manila call center?

I lived in the Philippines for three years, I can spot a Filipino accent 7,000 miles away (and confirm it by speaking a few Tagalog words to them).