Yes…parts of it are outsourced to a company in Florida…it is not outsourced to a company in India, Philippines or etc. but I considered it outsourced since you are not talking to a US Airways employee. If you want to book reward travel, you will be talking to an US Airways employee. If you have a general question such as the elimination of the 500 miles Web Bonus, you will be talking to a minimum wage employee that is working for a ‘telemarketing’ company.
Yesterday on this forum, I learned about the elimination of the 500 Miles Web Bonus for individuals booking their reservations on their website (which it is going to cost me a minimum of 25,000 miles per year). Since I never receive any communications from US Airways about this elimination, I called the 800 number on the back of my 2007 Platinum Preferred Dividend Miles card to find out. Once the message started, I selected "2" which is questions about Dividend Miles. Since this is an automated service, I hit “0” since I wanted to speak to a person about the elimination of the 500 miles web bonus. It prompted me to enter my FF # and when someone came on; they said "Chairman and Platinum Dividend Miles Line."
When I made my first call, I asked where this person was located since her English was extremely poor and I thought it could be India, Philippines or etc. She said Florida and I said to her “that is strange because I thought the FF program was administered in Winston-Salem or Tempe.” She couldn't give me an answer so I asked if she was an employee of US Airways...not a sub-contractor or etc. working for a telemarketing firm...and she said very clear three times (I asked two additional times) that she was an employee of US Airways.
Since she couldn’t provide any answers about the elimination of the 500 Miles Web Bonus, I asked to speak with a supervisor. She put me on hold...a minute later, she said that I was # 7 on hold waiting to speak with a supervisor and asked me if I wanted to wait and I said 'Yes.' A few minutes later, the phone line went dead.
A few seconds later, I received a phone call on my Blackberry with the telephone of 954-984-3000. It was her calling me back. When my call was dropped again for the second time, I called this number and it is a telemarketing company. I made a digital recording of the automated recording but since I am new member to Flyer Talk, I don’t have the ability yet to post this digital file of the company announcement to this forum yet.
I called back and spoke with a second person and she didn’t know anything so I hang up on her and call back for the third time. The third person that I spoke to admitted that she was NOT an employee of US Airways and they are a telemarketing firm.
By the way, I was told that an e-mail was sent out in October 2007 announcing the elimination of the 500 Miles Web Bonus as well as it was posted on their website and it was still there. When I asked this person for a copy of this announcement\e-mail, she told me that they have no access to any of the information such as press releases and announcements in regards to promotions, policy changes and etc. plus I had to send an e-mail requesting the e-mail. When I asked for the page address, they couldn’t give it to me and the line went dead.
Do you want to talk to someone that is probably reading from a script, probably has never been on an airplane or has limited air travel experience, don't care it they resolve your problem since they are paid to handle calls not to resolve problems and etc? I can see why US Airways has poor customer service.