I propose a title change,
"Really? A hurricane is coming before me?!?"






+1 never happened to me, never seen by my eyes. But please, I'd love examples.

I have seen many, many posts from CO elites about this at FT.

You can ignore that, I suppose. :rolleyes:

I haven't. Qoute a few and I'll believe you.

I believe that you enjoy listening to busy signals. :D:D

Not really. Its better to have that then other possibilities.

There are a few threads from this year (maybe even late last year, IIRC) where CO just simply was not letting folks get through due to a volume overload. :(

Triggered the normal nonsense from both sides with the takeaway point that fastair mentioned earlier: onshore agents = generally better product knowledge but few other them (long hold times, not accepting calls); offshore agents = less product knowledge but more of them (shorter hold times, easier to get to a human.)

While I understand that point, it seems that inability to get through is reported most frequently on CO.

So I would adapt fastair's correlation a bit -- offshore agents or American agents = less product knowledge but more of them (shorter hold times/easier to get through); the FINEST people in the business = generally better product knowledge but fewer of them (longer hold times/not accepting calls).

After my recent and only experience with UA's off shore agents, I much prefer CO's longer wait. I had to hang up on the off shore agent because he insisted my flight was CO and not UA. And so I called CO, explained the problem and the CO agent called UA and got my problem fixed.

What is the use of getting a human faster if you have wasted all that time with someone who can't help you?

Why is an Elite getting the off-shore agents in the first place? All UA agents get US agents.

On Shore Agents, Wait Time Reasonable...DL
 

I read through this thread and wanted to let you know how much less of a hassle my reaccommodation has been on DL than anything I have ever experienced on CO.

I was supposed to fly DTW-LGA this morning (Aug 28), but with LGA closed, that flight was cancelled. I was notified via email and on my cell phone.

In all my years of flying CO, despite having status, I have never once been contacted by them in an IrrOps situation, despite all my contact info being inputted on the website.

With DL I was able to select a new itinerary on dl.com (Aug 29) very easily, but I had trouble checking in my connecting flight.

Called the DL 1-800 number (no status). The message announced an estimated hold time of 12-25 minutes. Extremely friendly and professional agent picked up after 6 minutes (I was timing it).

She was so helpful, she got me a better itinerary, selected two aisle seats for me even though the flight was oversold.

In a similar circumstance on CO, the most likely outcome would have been the notorious "due to high call volume" message and hang up...which is easily one of the most offensive customer service features I have encountered from any business.

Last spring, I was flying YQB-EWR on CO, and used SDC to change to the early flight that leaves at about 6:30 AM. When I woke up that morning, I checked co.com and it showed the flight departing "on time." After a long drive to Quebec airport, I checked the pda site, no change.

I dropped off my rental car (I had to put my keys in the drop box because the location wasn't staffed yet) and went to the kiosk to retrieve my boarding pass. There I discovered the flight was cancelled.

I went to the ticket agent who told me that my original flight (leaving at 12:15 PM or so) was now full and I could not leave till 3:45 PM.

I was told, of course, that the reason my flight was cancelled was because of "weather." Since I had some time on my hands I did a little checking. Every other flight departing that morning from YQB was on time. I checked arrivals at EWR, also the vast majority of flight operating normally. I wondered if perhaps the "weather" was in between YQB and EWR, so I checked radar between the two and there was absolutely nothing, no precipitation, no wind, no extreme cold...

I never received any notification from CO, and I checked both on co. com and the pda site. Since my rental car was already turned in, I was stuck and decided to take a taxi to the closest hotel and back ($30) and rented a room for the day (about $90).

I later inquired with CO if my SDC fee could be refunded and I was told that it could not.

The bottom line? Not only was I never informed of this (dubious) weather-related cancellation, but I ended up spending about $170 out of my own pocket...

So when I see how much more pro-active and easy it is to deal with DL, I am very satisfied indeed.

Sorry. You dialed wrong number.

1P or higher elites get US call centers.