StayingHomeIsBetter

The secret is to schedule all of your unanticipated problems to occur between about 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. Everything else is just poor planning on your part.

Seriously, I have had good luck as a Diamond during daytime hours, but it's "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" in the evenings.

Called last night. Was told the hold time was 11 minutes. Was offered the call-back opportunity. Declined, since the call-back has never worked for me.

A bit later... the dreaded voice comes back on line and offers me a call back in 22 minutes (It's not clear whether that is an additional 22 minutes on top of the 11, or a total of 22 from when the clock started). I elect to hold.

The dreaded voice next comes on and offers a call back in 38 minutes. I elect to hold.

The voice of doom next comes on and offers a call back in 54 minutes. I elect to hold.

I finally reached a live person at 66 minutes.


If you need agent help making a change, the 24 hour risk-free guarantee is now a 22 hour risk-free guarantee, since the prudent person would hedge their bets and anticipate at least a 1 to 1.5 hr delay in reaching an agent.

BigFlyer

I haven't had occasion to call DL reservations since Covid, but I needed to change the return date on a ticket and the web interface tells me that I have to call in.

So I called - and was told the wait was two hours and thirty-nine minutes. No opportunity to request a callback. No opportunity to enter my SM number to perhaps get a little bump towards the head of the line based on my lowly Million Miler Silver status.

Is there any way to do this other than waiting two hours and thirty-nine minutes?

By way of comparison, I've had to call KLM a few times recently and waited for about 5 minutes each time.

sdix

The system recognises your phone number if it's the one in your profile so it knows your status.

21A

Is our consensus/understanding that there are no elite chat agents, per se? I agree with others that chat can be hit or miss, though quite convenient in some situations. I’ve been fortunate to still get really good agents via the Plat line (sounds like a lot of MN from the accents) though many in this thread are reporting that’s become inconsistent as well.

volabam

Did the callback to get help booking with a companion pass (after April 18th, natch). Took less than the promised 15 minutes and had a very helpful agent.

BigFlyer

You are correct - it seems to recognize my number, but it treats me worse when I use a number associated with my account than the number in my profile:

Using Number in my Profile:

• Wait of two hours 39 minutes.
• No offer of callback or texting representative

Using Number NOT in my Profile:

• Gives me option of support by text message (system will text me back).
• If I decline text messaging option, then I am told there is a 2 hour 38 minute wait.

When I used the text messaging option, I was with a representative in about 20 minutes.
I testes this a few times and the results were consistent.

Take away message: If you are Silver, don't call from the number in your profile.

MSPeconomist

Does the same recorded voice answer both ways? Earlier DL was experimenting with a new phone system and some calls got the new one while other times the older version answered. The options were different depending on which system answered your call. Could this be the explanation for your experience?

PHXflier

According to my experience in the past few days, sometimes you get the option for a callback and sometimes you don't... Seems to be random. Also, wait times depend a lot on the time of day. Early morning (9 am or so in Atlanta) yields the least wait times; evenings are worst.

BamaGirl

I am so sick of having to wait hours to either have a call answered or returned (as a DM) trying to same day change or cancel a ticket because I used an ecredit to purchase the ticket. My latest aggravation was Friday night--quoted 2 hours 27 minutes at 11:45pm EDT. Finally answered at 3:28 am. I have tried the messaging--the worst. And the call back-2nd worst-in my experience, I have gotten much better customer service from AA as a non-status flyer, than from Delta. It is beyond time for Delta to make the website functional for simple changes/cancelations.

Keyser

Delta would make life so much simple for themselves if they had better IT.

Was affected by a schedule change that now had me leaving 3 hours earlier than my originally booked flight. This did not work for me & I could see options online where I could change to a flight that left 25 minutes after my originally booked flight & got to my destination around the same time as my original arrival.

Of course, Delta would not permit me to do this online so I had to call. I was quoted a call back in 54 minutes & received it a little over 2 hours later. It then took the agent less than 5 minutes to make the change.

dmarge18

I've seen times improve this week (8-20 min vs 2 hrs), but I continue to see about double the estimated/given wait for a callback.

BigFlyer

I didn't pay attention to the voice.

However, I did try a few times and it was consistent that when I called from the number associated with my account I was not offered the messaging option, and when I called from a different number I was offered the callback.

There was also no difference in the projected hold time for a human with either number, so apparently Silvers don't get any priority whatsoever by virtue of status. Also in case anyone might think that Million Miler status gives you any additional priority - I can assure you that it does not.

PersonalFlotationDevice

Today I called to refund a ticket I had purchased, which flight was cancelled due to weather in the NE area.

While on the Acela, called the Diamond line, told 18 minute wait, declined the call back. About 25 minutes in the music/message interludes change and told me it would be 22 minutes, as if I had just called.

I hung up, called back, asked for call-back, and got an agent ~20 minutes later who quickly resolved it

I can't shake the feeling that some IT glitch brought my first call back to the end of the queue...

PersonalFlotationDevice

So an update, something is weird with our DL friends:

• I called the Diamond line, mainly to have my new AirPods discharge their battery while I was doing something else
• Declined callback, the estimate was 43 minutes
• 20 minutes in, I was offered the call-back option with a wait time of 58 minutes

From Erlang queue theory only 3 reasons can make the initial estimate less, in absolute terms, than a subsequent estimate. Either DL:

1. Assumed average call time with agent of say 5 minutes, but actual calls during wait took say 10 minutes (handle time)
2. Assumed that say 5% of callers might hang up by some point (not linear), but instead fewer hung up ahead of me during wait
3. Assumed that say 100 agents would be available, but later only say 80 were during wait
4. [Other] A caller's place in line is somehow bargled, Ockham's razor I think points to incompetence

I vote for #4. Especially after 1 hour 6 minutes into my call I was told the wait is now 1 hour 4 minutes!

dmarge18

This is 100% of the time for me now (wait keeps growing)