Originally Posted by
wxguy
The other day, just after really bad weather across much of the country, I had to call the GS line for assistance. "Your wait time is five to ten minutes," said the recording. A great GS representative picked up in seven minutes and solved my problem promptly. Right after that I had to call AA. I'm lowly Gold, but got the "Your wait time will be more than four hours." I selected the auto call-back feature, and the call back came in ELEVEN hours. (When I got the initial four+ hour notice, I had a friend call the AA EXPLAT line, and he got the same thing!).
Fast connection to a GS live agent is a key benefit for me.
That wouldn't be quite so bad if AA's self-service IT was better but I've always found it to be hugely unhelpful and far behind United (and Delta).
Not dealing with wait times is honestly something I've taken for granted as I've become used to that service level from GS. Dreading the day I lose GS and have to deal with longer wait times and agents with less power to modify things. The combination of GS agents for complex issues, and very solid self-service IT for standard issues has remained a differentiator for me between UA and basically all other airlines (customer-facing IT is something international airlines generally feel farther behind on too).