beckoa

Well Dubai does have a strong Indian population

nerdbirdsjc

My experience with the AS partner desk on an AF/KLM award was horribly bad. So much so, in fact, the end result was Delta having to just take over the whole ticket, TWICE, and reissuing it in full Y.

flytoeat

Currently having another lovely experience. Called to modify a Cathay award. 20 minute wait. Got a new agent; put on hold so she could ask for help, then was hung up on. No call back. So I'm calling back, currently on 45 minute hold. Thanks for listening...(scream). What happened to all the great agents and awesome customer service?

beckoa

AS just acquired a carrier that IIRC had an outsourced call center. Therefore a major hiring spree is in process. It'll take it a while to get them all up to speed. And CX awards are not the most common award types after all.

Eastbay1K

And what about the speed that the "Partner Desk" has been running at long before the acquisition of a carrier that IYRC had an outsourced call center? How do I know? Oh, the redemption of over 2 million AS miles on LA. I recall many many years ago being told that I could not redeem an award on Lan Chile to get to Santiago de Chile (or Chile altogether). I then inquired as to where I might be able to use Lan Chile for an award. She was stumped. Although that is an absurd yet true example, I've had a myriad of ineffective calls over the years.

golfingboy

While the partner desk, or the group that handles partner award bookings, have never been perfect, but based on my interactions with them over the past week the quality has gone considerably downhill.

Its one thing to be honest and say I don’t really know (seek assistance or escalate) and a whole different ballgame when answers are made up.

Seat 2A

I just got off a long, double hold with the Partner Desk, exacerbated by the fact that the Partner Desk number being promoted by Alaska is more often than not answered by the general res desk. When I did finally get an agent capable of addressing international partner awards, they weren't familiar with the 4 hour domestic versus 24 hour international connection rule. This is a fairly basic tenet of international travel, so I couldn't help but wonder...

Why is Alaska putting agents on its front line who clearly are not prepared to handle the tasks attendant therein? Some of the examples listed by others in this thread seem commensurate with not knowing your basic multiplication tables by third grade. It seems to me many of these new hires could use a week or three of additional schooling. And yet someone at Alaska has deemed them good to go. That person needs to be sent on an award itinerary themselves. Hopefully one way.

Here at Flyertalk's Alaska forum, we're pretty well versed on what can and cannot be done within the parameters of the award system. Imagine how many members of the general public who don't know any better are being fleeced by poor quality or just plain wrong information.

Unlike other aspects of diminished service, it's not a cost cutting issue. These agents are getting paid regardless. The long hold times suggest a shortage of agents, but is Alaska so desperate for new res agents that they'll throw any warm body in there?

If I remember correctly, Flyertalk's own missydarlin used to be a senior res agent with Alaska. Perhaps she has some relevant input.

GrayAnderson

I'm trying to remember the exact timeline, but IIRC VX basically wrecked their call center with the outsourcing right around the time the merger was announced.

CalanMan

It was in 2012, well before any hints of the merger: JetBlue?s Call Center Marketing Advantage Over Virgin America (Guest Post) Cranky Flier

It was part of a whole slew of changes that happened around then, when the board mandated that the airline start moving out of startup mode and into make money mode (or at least lose money less quickly mode). A bunch of stuff changed around that time, like a ton of fees were added, they introduced Elevate status tiers, moving a lot of benefits that had been accessible to everyone into being elite-only. IMHO, 2012 was the start of the death of the VX that I had fallen in love with.

GrayAnderson

You know, then I don't think I recall that...my first flight wasn't until October, 2014. I could have sworn there was another call center mess in the last few years...

NoLaGent

There was. You're thinking of Q1 2016 when they opened the outsourced Colorado call center with disastrous results.

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/02/1...rora-hire-100/

CalanMan

That totally makes sense. I wouldn't have been paying attention to VX that closely by that time.

GrayAnderson

Yep, that's what I was thinking of...and it times out almost perfectly with when the merger was being fought over (that was also 2016Q1 spilling into 2016Q2, and from what I can tell and have heard there was chatter about, some sort of merger was going to happen).

Eastbay1K

This morning was a massive epic failure. I often use Award Nexus, with has been fairly spot on with LATAM reservations. But as you know, you need to call. Expected hold time 3 to 6 minutes (not unexpected with the PNW weather). After about 30 minutes of hold, I used another phone for the "callback" feature (which said 6 to 11 minutes) as I remained on hold. After approximately 40 minutes (on the original call), a nice agent who couldn't look up these reservations put me on hold for an "international supervisor." After an elapsed 51 minutes, I learned that there was no space. All gone. (And I did re-check during the hold time, to see the space.)

After a short while thereafter, I received my callback on the other line. Said well-trained agent was able to look up the flight right away, and see there was no availability. All this hold time plus agent not capable for simple partner request resulted in 2 unicorn award seats disappearing, likely forever.

jsguyrus