Post Covid, I frequently get the Philippines call center when I call the UA Premier number. This never happened pre-Covid. While the Philippines agents are polite, they are clearly reading from a script, and have no ability to service any kind of complicated request and I'm often put on hold for several minutes while they try to find someone who can tell them what to do. I have emailed JoJo/Kirby a couple times about this, and not gotten any kind of response about why this change has been made, or if it's temporary or permanent. It's very frustrating, since I, like most lifetime members, only call the Premier desk when it's a problem we can't solve online on our own. I'm curious to hear what other lifetime and Gold members are experiencing and if anyone has gotten information from corporate about the situation. Thanks!

 

This is from 2006:
"At the end of the call I asked where the phone bank was and was told Philippines."
UA call center in the Philippines

 

I mean, it's been a few years since I've been higher than silver, most certainly well before the pandemic, but absolutely certain as a gold I've had calls go to foreign call centers sometimes - think India more than Philippines, but I think both.

 

I fell to plat this year, and many of my MP as well as UA calls have been going to the Philippines. Have started calling after 9 or 10 PM Eastern and have been getting US-based Agents who answer "premiere desk." Most recently, one solved my problem in 5 minutes after my spending upwards of 2 hours on the phone with Philippines-based MP staff who erroneously told me I needed to contact Lufthansa to get my proper PQP credits.

While I was a UA apologist back in the day, more and more data points this year are leading me to lean toward the free agent route. Philippines call center is one of them.

 

Agree. 1K last year, Plat this year. Mostly getting Philippines call center even as 1K. Thank heavens that UA’s IT is excellent. Though with a lap infant now I have to call more frequently (even to eg apply PlusPoints - not allowed online!).

 

Yeah I’ve noticed since I dropped to gold this year I’ve been having foreign call centers. Been a bit of an issue with the plus points questions I’ve had because they aren’t used to it.

 

I agree. Other than simple, cookie-cutter issues, my experience with the Philippines call center is poor. Chances are that 4 out of 5 times when I get the Philippines call center, my issue is not resolved and/or I'm given the wrong information. On a couple of occasions when getting the right information or getting things done right was critical to me, I've hung up as soon as I heard the call being answered by the PI call center. Another interesting thing I've noticed is that I get a feedback call far less frequently for calls handled by the PI center than for one handled by someone in NA. I always opt for a feedback call in the hopes that I can provide my honest feedback on the PI center, but that has happened only once so far. I'm eternally optimistic that if enough people complain, UA will do something about it. But in reality I don't think they care. What other choice do we have? Switch loyalty to another airline just because their call center is bad?

 

Ah the wonder of regional monopolies /s

 

Is there really a �Gold Premier desk�, or is it just an illusion? At 1K, there�s a 1K e-mail address and a �Premier 1K member assistance� number, which seems to go to senior U.S.-based agents most of the time.

Seems like 1Ks get priority with U.S.-based agents more often than not. GS callers get priority w/ U.S.-based �GS� agents who actually will pitch in on non-GS calls if available. Anyone else might get a U.S agent if they are not busy, otherwise they rollover to the Philippines call center, which I�m guessing is contract?

I also predict the overseas call center might be (at some point) mostly replaced by an AI system.

 

Every US based reservations agent is premier trained after a few months on the phone handling domestic calls. All US based premier agents handle both premier desk (silver, gold, plat) and 1k desk calls. There are separate phone queues for those two desks even though the agents staffing them, at least from the US, are the same. A handful of offshore agents also receive premier training, but I don�t know if they receive both �premier� and also �1K� queues, or just the �premier� queue and 1ks as a last resort overflow, but probably the latter, as in most cases it is actually US based premier agents getting domestic/international as overflow, not the other way around (ie domestic/international volume > premier volume).

GS calls will never overflow into premier or even 1k as those agents don�t have the necessary access to manage GS exceptions. If GS has to overflow it generally goes to �support�, the same �support� that premier calls when they need help. GS agents themselves may rarely get pre or 1k overflow but it is extraordinarily rare so as not to impair the GS queue wait times.

As for contract, there wasn�t anything previously, but since the May 1st IAM contract they now have 50% on shore call requirement. With a commitment to continue boosting their US staffing hiring another 300+ net agents this year still. Part of that though is staffing for many other desks is almost exclusively US based, and for agents to move between desks they generally need 6 months-1 year minimum in premier before they can go elsewhere.

and FWIW, its not just US and phillipines. United still has substantial contact center presence in Mexico, Brazil, Tokyo, and now South Africa, among what is probably more as well that I don�t know about.

 

FWIW while I am not a Premier anymore I recently had some issues I needed to call about because I could not sort them out online. The lady I talked to in USA call center totally botched it and I had to pretty much force her to call a supervisor and undo what she had done. A week later I had to call again, got someone who sounded like she was in a foreign country but she was able to listen to what I was saying and quickly resolved the issue for me. Sometimes it is just the luck of the draw.

 

Bolding mine. AI will absolutely soon replace many customer service calls, and other functions such as tech support and ticketing and baggage handling tracking/complaints. All airlines (and large businesses) will adopt AI to save significant $. Wall Street analysts are projecting AI can juice corporate bottom lines - by as much as 30% increase in profit. GS desk will probably be last holdout for live US agents.



When I was 1k for many years, I mostly got US call centers but 10% calls were picked up by foreign call centers.
GS call centers are consistently picked up by US agents, but Covid reorg resulted in some calls picked up by less well-trained new GS agents.
AI customer support desk will proliferate in near future, simply because AI support desk is even lower cost than the low-cost foreign customer service centers.

 

No, AI will not �soon� replace many customer service calls. There�s little an AI can do that a phone tree can�t. And anybody who thinks an airline can increase profits by 30% via cost savings has never looked at an airline�s cost breakdown. The average number of interactions that most customers have with a UA representative, per trip, has to be, what, 0.25? Maybe 0.5? As low as airline profit margins are, they�re not so low that eliminating one staffing position per thousand daily passengers will increase them by 30%.

I�m old enough to remember the last time AI was about to replace all of our jobs, in the mid 00s. And the previous time, in the mid 90s. And the time before that, in the mid 80s.

 

I've called the Premier desk as a Gold a couple times and reached a US based agent - if I am routed to the Philippines, I don't even waste my time, I either HUCA, or tell them to transfer me to a US agent or supervisor. The one time I had to deal with the Philippines to research an upgrade issue with EVA, it was a total disaster - they couldn't even comprehend the problem, and there is definitely an issue with a lack of advanced English skills.

It would be a deal breaker for me to book an important trip on UA and need to deal with an offshore call center to handle issues.

 

I�d put it another way - there�s little a phone tree can do that AI won�t be able to do. Maybe not �soon�, but there�s a ton of calls UA gets that probably will be handled by AI eventually. There will still be agents to handle some things, but AI will definitely be a customer- facing tool. I think �soon� is the hang up. 5 years? 10 years? 15 years? 25 years ago, if someone told me what I would be able to do now relative to travel online or w/ app, I�d probably have been a bit skeptical.

The last couple of years when I was working in oil industry, I was mapping oil/gas reservoir extents and quality using neural network tools and the results bore out better than labor-intensive iterative attribute modeling - and that was 10 years ago. I�m thinking the things I did then would be considered �quaint� now.

One thing that would change is �HUACA� - the first answer you get (if AI is done right) should be the actual answer, not an answer or outcome that varies by agent.