Originally Posted by
KevAZ
Uh yeah, I agree about the sarcasm. "Ma Kettle" deals with pharma benefits computer systems all day long and "Pa Kettle" works with airline res systems and many other web enabled eCommerce customers every day (among other things). I can't get into details why.... neither one of us likes to call, we do everything on the web. But she can't due to "client restrictions." That's all I can tell you. Expedia, etc won't help.
So yes, darn it, she needed to buy a ticket over the phone to LHR but couldn't. And am I bit touchy about people that have never run a call center acting like this isn't a big deal? Yes!
I've run them and the fact they can't sell an int'l ticket to a FF customer tells me everything I need to know about their call center mgmt. Short of a coast to coast shut down of all the major cities US serves, there's no reason not to accept calls, pay the $0.02/minute to leave the customer in a queue and eventually get to them. To tell them to go away and don't bother us sends a solid signal. Especially when it's been
all day long
I doubt that Doug Parker and Scott Kirby are aware of this, so I'll give them some details as well as suggestions on how they can prevent the same in the future.
It seems like people are forgetting about United Airlines and the mess they dealt with with the horrible storms in Denver. You could not get through to anybody on any phone number, domestic, international, premier, 1k, etc. You couldnt even get through to India. This problem can happen with any airline, even the best ones, so back off of US Airways (and no I am not an employee of US). How is it US Airways fault that people with Domestic reservations started calling the international line?? I am sure if US Airways could have taken every call, they would have, it was just not possible. As with any phone system there are only so many calls that can be held queue at any one time. Its has to do with the amount of available trunk lines. When all those trunk lines are filled, you will either get busy signals or a message that all lines are busy call back later (such as with this situation). It also better that US Airways just said to call back from the get go, unlike UA that would make you go through the horrible voice response system, only to get a busy signal afterwards.
So stop complaining and get on with life. Also, I am sure Doug Parker and Scott Kirby are well aware of what has occured, so let them be.