kop84

I'd image that wait times are being exacerbated by the retirement of a lot of experienced agents, yes a lot of people being new, and the biggest thing is the call times go way up because of ever changing Covid requirements. And I don't know if anyone's taken the time to read some of the Covid pages from various countries, but they can be very difficult to parse. Especially for non savvy travelers.

(This is not directed at the OP or anyone in particular) I used to work in a call center 10 years ago and what also hurts wait times is the longer the wait time, the longer a lot of people want to complain to the phone rep about the wait times. Every little bit counts when EVERYONE is doing it.

I don't know how many CSR's DL has total, but let me guess 3,000. If on average a call is 7 minutes, then in an 8hr shift everyone can take 68 calls. If on average an extra 1 minute is spent listening to complaining about hold times, that reduces the number of calls an individual can take to 60. Multiply that by 3,000 and that's 24,000 fewer phone calls in a day that Delta reservations can take...this is all back of the envelope math just to illustrate a point.

I'd also wonder how many calls are being extended because a caller has decided to complain to the phone rep about various mask mandates and vaccine requirements...as though the gal on the phone in SLC sets airline and US and foreign government policy.

Zorak

IMO although things were unquestionably bad for a long while in my subjective experience things are improving -- not back to where they were before, but it's getting better. We don't necessarily see it reflected on FT/social media because people are more likely to complain about bad experiences and less likely to report on routine things going well (which is human nature).​​

And disclaimer because this is FT, to be clear I'm not saying that all bad experiences have been eliminated, nor that people never post positive experiences.

MSPeconomist

My theory is that part of the problem is that DL doesn't have enough supervisors, ticketing specialists, etc. (which is related to the fact that many of the experienced and skillful agents having retired). When the ratio is wrong for the required tasks and skills of the call answering agents, they waste a lot of time on hold that could be better spent serving other customers. Maybe the optimal ratio has changed (due to having more new hires, more schedule changes, etc.) or maybe DL can't find enough people who are qualified to fill these positions. Another source of the problem could be that phone answering agents have been disempowered to do certain things to help customers.

steveholt

I have noticed much less competent work in the call centers by DL since the pandemic. I've also had issues with AA and B6 over that same timeframe.

Either way, even if the people in the call centers are less competent and it takes longer to get through to them, being rude to them is not going to be just as ineffective in getting what you want as it was with the more-qualified people.

kop84

Airlines in general lost a lot of experienced staff the past 24 months. It's got to be a pretty steep learning curve for airline CSR's. I would also say being rude is not only going to be self defeating on that call, but it's going to certainly influence people's decisions to quit and find a new job...only exacerbating the issue of a lack of experienced employees.

paterwdb

The other day I had an agent tell me the wait for the reissue desk would be over an hour. I needed her to reissue so I could check in and she finally said she would wait on hold and call me back when it was done - which was great. She called 90 minutes later and said she finally got it done.

I'm assuming she was taking calls during that time, but if not, that means it took that agent off the phones for 90 minutes just to do a reissue. So that certainly doesn't help hold times.

FlyBitcoin

Perhaps the ending of the $200 change fee has overloaded phone agents because people book flights knowing they can change later.
That often requires a call because they used a voucher (from the last one they booked and cancelled) and/or RUC's on the reservation and the app change button can't process the change online.

I'm more than happy to wait an extra 5-10 minutes on hold and keep the "no change fees" if they are related.

mikebor

Oh please no it isn't. I have asked that lots of times recently especially when the agents can't even uncheck you from a flight quickly. 1 agent took 20 minutes to figure out how to do it. Only 1 agent in all the times I have asked refused to answer me. The rest say yes or no and I usually wish them well with their training and tell them I appreciate their help.

Seriously calling that question rude? Give me a break.

flyerCO

I was talking with a ticketing global support agent recently. As we were talking he apologized it taking so long. He had only been with companyv6 months when was promoted to top tier aka "global/ticketing support." 6 months was the minimum because of how short staffed they are. No way to be trained at that level after 6 months of only entry level stuff.

MSPeconomist

True, although some people can learn certain things fast. Also, the agent might have come to DL with extensive experience as a TA or with another airline.

flyerCO

According to him, no. 6 months and pass a test of how to work in native legacy interface. (Not of policies, just how to use the command line level interface)

unitedbusiness

you are definitely NOT alone…after flying DL exclusively, I bailed a while ago and fly UA exclusively.
at the first few sign of cracks, I jumped ship. Now those cracks are now gaping holes!

Goodoldflyer

Yes, asking an employee if they're new is rude/insulting. It's a lose/lose. Either they ARE new, and are possibly self-conscious about it, or they're not new, and they're insulted by it. Plus, you come across as being condescending to the phone support. So really, it's lose/lose/lose.

Not recommended.

Be nice to the phone support. They're learning. And I might be their next call, so don't make them mad.


.

flyerCO

By asking if they're new, you can offer to help point them in right direction of information/policy/whatever. How you ask (tone) is really what determines if its rude or not.

SpinzCity

Speaking of gaping holes I went to look at my seat assignments for an international connection next week and my DTW-MSN leg is now missing. I used https://pnr.sh/ to see if it isn't just a DL website error, but the flight is indeed no longer in my reservation. Tried Twitter, and twitter sent me a link for the "24/7" desktop/Android chat function. I tried it in 3 different browsers and there is no chat (I have used it once in the past, and only got the runaround from the chat agent, and had to call). I guess I'll have to set aside a chunk of time, when it may be optimal for Delta, to call on this one.