In the connected world of today, there are a myriad of ways to contact customer service at an airline. Whether you’re old school or bang up to the minute with your technology, you will have an option made to suit you. Short of morse code, of course!
Recently I had an airline proactively contact me thanks to something I wrote. My new frequent flyer card did not arrive, but I honestly didn’t mind since I’ll be going up in status in a couple of months time.
Making Contact!
When it comes to telephoning a company, you often have to wait quite a while. People still use this as the go to method of communication when they want something done, as it’s good to speak to a person in real time.
On the other hand, frequent flyers have been messaging airlines on Twitter for quite a while now. Feedback around the Internet suggests this generally gets a response and things are sorted out one way or another. No mess, no fuss!
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- Loving your work, Kimbers!
It was the Twitter team at British Airways that reached out to me after my post. They suggested they wanted to look into it for me, so I thought, why not! It’s the second time a pack has gone missing for me, so I figured it could be looked into.
After confirming my details via a private message, the Executive Club messaged me to say a new pack was on the way. Pretty good service all round really, especially as I didn’t ask for it.
What About E-Mail?
Try to find an e-mail address or an airline on their web site. Go on! You will generally find that an e-mail address is pretty impossible to find, and airlines actively shy away from having them available.
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- They e-mail you, never the other way around!
You will only start a back and forth with e-mail once you are already in the system. Either you made a call and they will follow up via e-mail or they will proactively contact you. Airlines definitely don’t like to be e-mailed and I can understand why – it can get fairly messy with morons and spam.
Overall Thoughts
Personally, I prefer to do everything online in the self-service portal. Manage My Booking is one of my closest friends when it comes to the whole travel experience. Having flights where I don’t have to contact the airline is ideal in my book.
When I do need to get something done manually, I will generally make a phone call. The only reason I do that is because I have a dedicated phone line as part of my frequent flyer status. My experience calling the normal phone number has resulted in waits up to an hour, so I can understand why people seek out alternatives like Twitter.
What methods have you used when contacting your airline? Which ones were good and which ones were bad? I’d like to hear it. Anyone used one of those instant message chat box things, for example? Facebook? Something else? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Ken Fielding via Wikimedia Commons.
I really haven’t had any issues before a flight where I needed to contact the airline where time is of the essence but I have had issues at the airport and I prefer to deal with a real live agent, even if it means standing in line. The personal touch has worked well for me and remember: always approach your agent with a smile and a word of sympathy for THEIR predicament. You have only yourself to worry about while they are trying to accommodate many others, Works like a charm in most instances.
I agree with you completely there. Being polite to customer service people pays off virtually all the time, one way or another. I used to work in customer service, so I know how difficult the role can be. Great advice there!
I used Twitter to connect with Jetblue when my initial flight delay made it a sure thing I would miss my second flight. And they followed up right away and got me a seat on the second flight. I called AA when I discovered to my horror that I had booked my ticket from Mazatlan to San Diego the day my cruise sailed, and landing AFTER it sailed! It took some time to get an agent, but he was very pleasant, and since I had booked with the airline, and was an AAvantage member, he changed my flight for free-I… Read more »
Really nice to see that JetBlue sorted you out quickly, and that American Airlines were flexible when it came to changing your flights for free. I think it’s great when airlines take into account the fact that people are human and also that operational delays aren’t the passengers fault. Two really good examples there! I have also had compensation once from British Airways when they didn’t load the business class catering on the flight, so I received most of my miles back that I paid for the flight, which was nice. I’ve heard Iberia can be difficult on that one.… Read more »