Flight 891 from Buffalo. This plane was delivered to Eastern Airlines on 11/30/1979 and transferred to Delta in 1991
Although it is frustrating at times, I understand when airlines have had to send jobs overseas to help them survive.
Delta, in a rare showing, is now doing the opposite — and at a good time nonetheless! They are no longer outsourcing their reservation call center to India and will be moving the jobs back to the US.
There will still be call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, but staffing would most likely be reduced there as well in the future.
When Delta outsourced their call centers to India in 2002, they estimated saving $25million per year, which is nothing to sneeze at.
However, customers made it clear they weren’t happy with the service they received from the call centers in India. “The customer acceptance of call centers in foreign countries is low, and our customers are not shy about letting us have that feedback,” said Richard Anderson, Chief Executire of Delta Airlines.
I would imagine the number of reservation calls has greatly decreased since 2002, with most people choosing to reserve tickets online.
Source: AP Image: AV8NLVR
Mexicana Airbus A320 in Las Vegas
If you read the main headlines of most new sources it seems the world might end soon with the Swine Flu outbreak. Although not as bad as the media hypes it, some are still concerned about travel. Because of this some airlines are waiving change fees for flights through Mexico.
It is estimated that about 1,600 have been infected and about 149 deaths in Mexico, and airlines don’t want to put people out for wanting to cancel or change their flights. The airlines that are offerring no change fees (with some restrictions of course):
– United Airlines
– American Airlines
– Mexicana Airlines
– Continental Airlines
– US Airways
– Air Canada
Hopefully this will all be over soon!
Source: AP Image: ~C~U~B~B~I~E~
Sometimes it is impossible to get customer service!
With prices going up and amenities going down, it shouldn’t be too surprising that complaints are going up. Airline complaints increased about 60% from 2006 to 2007.
While the complaints increase, more and more companies are cutting call centers, outsourcing, and automating, increasing the distance from the customer to someone in the company who can do something about it.
Christopher Elliot (former National Geographic Traveler’s reader advocate) lists the 8 most common mistakes people make when complaining.
1- Frivolous grievances: complaining about stuff that is not a big deal (not the right soda, someone was a little short with you).
2- Calling instead of writing: there is no record and normally nothing good comes from it.
3- Making a laudry list: too many complaints will just make you look like a complainer and people will stop listening.
4- Wasting their time: make sure it is worth they time to make a right from a wrong.
5- Writing long: keep your complaint short and sweet.
6- Not offering a solution: let them know what would make you happy to solve this problem.
7- Being impolite: you get more flies with honey than vinegar.
8- Threatening: saying you will never fly with the airline again will do nothing.
Just know that sometimes when you complain, you will be treated well and things will be made right. Others you will be ignored. Show how you feel by not flying that airline again!
Source: CNN Image: Schmidt-Family
Boeing 777 not looking so great
British Airways Flight 38 crashed in Heathrow Airport in London in January 2008. Luckily no one died and only 13 of the 136 aboard had minor injuries. The flight landed 1000 feet short of the runway due to lack of thrust to the engines, probably caused from ice in the fuel lines.
Upon landing, the landing gear collapsed and caused quite a mess.
Since then, the aircraft has been kept intact while investigating the accident. Even though the investigation is not completed, permission has been given for the airframe to be “broken up” and “sent for recycling.”
It is quite interesting to think what will happen to the airframe and in what future products it might end up in.
Source: Wikipedia & FlightGlobal Image: Wikipedia
Continental Airlines in Hawaii
Sometimes I come across stories that are somewhat interesting, but don’t know how to approach the subject and I end up moving on. This is one of those that I almost did, but I can’t help but making a post about it.
Imagine for a moment you are on a flight from LA to Honolulu for a nice little scuba diving vacation. You are in the middle of your in-flight movie wasting the time away. Then your seatmate stands up next to you and…well…starts to urinate on you. Then you push him to get him to stop, but he keeps going.
I wish this was a crazy fictional story, but this happened to a 66-year old woman on Continental flight 3. A 28-year old, well intoxicated gentlemen (well I guess not so much of a gentlemen) either couldn’t make it to the bathroom or didn’t care. Some-what luckily there was an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms agent behind this incident and was able to restrain the man.
He has now been sentenced to 3 weeks in prison and six months of probation after wards. This kind of story makes sitting next to a snoring person not too hard to handle!
THANKS FOR THE TIP CHRISTINA!
Source: Honolulu Advertiser Image: indyinsane