Is hold time always this long?
 

I'm not a CO flyer, but had to call twice today. First was about 50 mins hold and second i'm still on hold???? (35 mins and counting)

Some have suggested that if the CO system did not pick up your elite #, you are sent to the general line.

Be glad you haven't experienced the norm, which is the CO system saying that calls are heavy, and that they're going to hang up on you.

:rolleyes: how is that "the norm"? Calls made to the elite line on CO (using the number printed on your card - not one you found on the Internet somewhere - and entering your FF# using the phone keypad instead of the voice recognition to eliminate any risk of background noise) are answered in <5min any of the hundreds of times I've called in the last decade. Usually in <1min. Not once have I experienced the "norm" you describe above. Are you particularly unlucky?

Apparently you have a different definition of "norm".

:rolleyes:

Of course.. Nothing bad ever happens with CO..

Apparently I'm not the only one to have problems with calling CO:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ing-calls.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...old-times.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...wer-phone.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...giving-up.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...5-minutes.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...at-number.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...-plt-line.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ones-down.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ly-co-bad.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ait-times.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...excessive.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...hold-time.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...00-number.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...ntinental.html

:rolleyes: I have news for you - disagreeing with a categorically false statement that you spout does not translate into "nothing bad ever happens". I'm sorry if that disappoints you.

My advice above is correct (which incidentally you also mentioned before the nonsense). You've done an excellent job of posting links though ^

Please follow the thread to the CO pre-merger forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, United.

Why bother? Clearly it's not working, no matter how many times you (and I and others) try to help clarify between the general line (which by their own admissionn has been a disaster for a while) and the elite line, for which I also have never waited more than a couple of minutes.

The problem has not been limited to the "general line".... Particularly during the holiday period, the wait times on the elite line have been ridiculous... Especially during the late evening/early morning hours.

I spent a total of about 2 hours "on hold" during 3 separate calls the week of Christmas.....and they were all "elite line" calls.

:(

One problem that CO seems to be having today is a snowball from another problem they're having across their kludge of distributed systems.

Many Plats are showing up as Pres. Plat today, so the phone system is routing people to the Pres Plat call center, overflowing that line.

Usually my Plat line wait is 0 to 2 minutes (occasionally more, but not too bad usually). I was waiting earlier today and heard on the recording after about 6 minutes that I could Press 1 to get the regular Elite call center. Once I pressed 1, I was connected to an available agent immediately.

If you're a Platinum, this may be your problem today.

I pressed 1 and waited about 30 more mins for a regular elite person

Not sure if they have difference staffing levels or what, but surprising how long the wait time is on the Platinum line every time I call compared to the 1K line. Just now it was 5 minutes and I had to transfer to the generic elite line to get service.

Part of it could be staffing, another part could be systems, tools, and processes so that the average call is longer.

It's a lose/lose proposition. CO could go the UA route and layoff most of their onshore reservation people and hire armys of cheap offshore agents to get the wait times down, but then you would be trading in skilled US jobs for less skilled/less well trained overseas jobs.

The happy medium of CO having the same number of people that UA contracts out overseas being hired in the US with US pay/benefits would add to the labor costs significantly.

Two different approaches to the same problem, both have their upsides and downsides.

Comparing elite line to elite line should not be impacted by off-shore staffing. Seems some of these comments are about the Plat line.

It would certainly impact the regular non-elite line.

All I know is the 1K wait time is seconds and the Plat line is minutes. It's always been that way for me for the past year. And I always reach someone onshore. So this has nothing to do with offshoring, and everything to do with lower staffing levels.

I've been fortunate to never go through a bad weather patch with CO, I can't imagine how large the wait times was grow past 5 minutes. Waiting in line at the airport may be the better move then.