FrankMorris

Just made EXP. Wondering if I just call the regular AA number and the system will recognize and route my call to the dedicated line, or if there is somewhere I should search for a different number? Guessing it’s the former, but wanted to verify, and couldn’t find any threads with this info.

robertablake

I believe the EXP line is: (800) 843-6200

FrankMorris

Thanks Robert. That’s the same number I’ve been calling since before even having status at all, so guessing it just must be auto-routed based on status.

777lover

yes. It does.

VegasGambler

I find that sometimes the auto-routing fails. Here's something that I've noticed:

From the automated system, I always immediately hit 0 to get to a real person.

If, after hitting 0, if it immediately goes through the process of connecting me, I know I've been routed correctly, and I'll get the short queue and the EXP desk.

On the other hand if, after hitting 0, it says something like "many issues can be solved through our automated system" and tries to get me to use it again, forcing me to hit 0 a 2nd time in order to get to a real person, I know that the auto-routing has failed. I will get the long queue and a regular agent. In this case I just HUCA, which fixes it (I've never had back-to-back calls fail to route correctly)

MasterPlanner

Out of curiosity, every time I’ve called the EXP line over the past month has resulted in a literal 2 hour wait to be called back. Have I just been unlucky or is that the ‘new normal’?

VegasGambler

There is a very long thread about this. I will say that I've had calls that were picked up with no wait, and times where I waited about 3 hours for a callback. Time of day seems to be a huge factor.

FrankMorris

Wow this is immensely helpful - thanks for posting all of this.

Any advice on searching for this thread? Had searched but didn't see anything immediately relevant. I guess the backup strategy after a second time of a longer wait would be to just accept the callback option to at least get in line, then try again in a bit.

VegasGambler

You're welcome. I guess not being harassed to use the automated system is an unpublished benefit of EXP

Long call wait / delay / hold times for AA phone lines (master thread)

FrankMorris

Thanks for the link, and yes - avoiding the automated system is arguably better than avoiding hours of delay.

FrankMorris

Well, just tried the strategy of the call back after getting the notification of "all agents are busy" and no luck - still a wait time. This may not have been the issue you had mentioned here VegasGambler . What would also be nice would be to avoid the computer system talking over you to describe how to tell them your record locator, as if you've reached EXP and don't know what the record locator is. Small problems!

FAA1996

When you get in line for a callback and call back from the same number, the system recognizes this and won't let you get in line again or hold. I guess you could try and call back from a different number to see if the wait/call-back time is different.

VegasGambler

That has not been my experience. Maybe the system was messed up when I called but I had multiple scheduled callbacks to the same number.

I was surprised by this; I thought that the system would act in the way that you describe. I didn't really think I would get multiple callbacks, but I did.