One of the more useful and underrated benefits of being a frequent flyer with status is getting a phone number to use that jumps the long queue. I can’t tell you how often passengers call up their airline only to hear a recording that tells them about “higher than usual call volume.” Only this is the usual.
Add in some bad weather and even status customers face longer wait times. Things aren’t as bad as they were during the pandemic, when airlines pushed employees to leave ‘voluntarily’ despite receiving billions in taxpayer subsidies to ensure they kept all of their staff working so they’d be ready to serve customers when customers came back. Back then Delta SkyMiles Diamond members waited up to 41 hours on hold to speak to an agent.
- Airlines do want to take care of their customers, especially when flights are being cancelled and people are missing connections.
- They’re pushing more digital tools and auto-reaccommodation, self-service options to let customers choose their own flights inside the airline mobile app.
- But they often still do need to speak to an agent. Nothing may be available. They may prefer an option not presented to them in the app. And there are ways to do this.
American Airlines still has foreign call centers, including English speaking ones like U.K. and Australia. These often do not have much of a wait time when U.S. reservations lines are overloaded, since the disruptions tend to be in the United States. (Delta now rolls its foreign English call centers into the U.S. queue.)
However American also has a special phone number for use by passengers during weather events and similar breakdowns. This is part of the Reservations Irregular Ops Customer Assistance Program and gates have “RICAP cards.”
They have this special number printed on them. But American Airlines doesn’t want customers to keep the number and use it in the future when they aren’t ‘eligible’ – so they keep changing the number. According to an internal employee memo dated July 7,
[These] are a great tool for our Customer Care agents to use during irregular operations to expedite customer rebooking options.
Important note: Our RICAP number changes occasionally. To avoid customers being given a number
that is no longer in service, check each gate and ticket counter position to make sure you have the right RICAP card with the QR code (example below) and dispose of all old stock
Agents are warned to only offer these cards “to customers who are impacted by a delayed or cancelled flight.”
Here’s the current sample, though note the number gets changed regularly.
Use the RICAP number responsibly, of course, during irregular operations events.
Here’s one potential solution to avoid abuse: generate a one-time code in the AA app for IRROPS itineraries and verify the code when customers call in (or better, the system should automatically recognize phone numbers if it’s linked to an interrupted trip). For customers who can’t use the AA app for whatever reason, hand out cards with one-time code or just agents give them codes.
Oh come on. . who calls. Use the app so much easier. It’s is the 21st century.
It’s all very well to say use the app but when my husband and I were delayed at PHL on Sunday, the app was down all day due to volume of traffic. Calls to AA Customer Service took 4.5 hours to get a return call. I am Platinum AA and even though hubby and I were travelling on different record locators and they were linked – when our flight was cancelled, AA put me on a later nonstop same day and him on a non stop 26 HOURS later. Lines were ridiculous at PHL airport, app didn’t work, customer service calls were hours later and I wish I had known about this special phone number on Sunday! Staff at PHL were useless, and I was the one who found a solution to get him home same day (albeit 12 hours later) – giving the staff the idea that they failed to come up with. Huge lines in the Priority queue at PHL and only two staff members on duty. I agree with the previous post, generate a one time code for those of us suffering from cancellations and make it only available at that time…..but that would take intelligence on behalf of AA……..
When using a one-time code, some phone systems will answer your call and transfer to a busy signal when all agents are busy. When you try again, your one-time code was already used one-time.
@Ken A: Have one-time code be accepted by the agent, who then invalidates the code. If there are any automated resolutions that the passenger accepts, the code may also be invalidated in that manner.
Not sure what this hubub is about “calling” someone. Just rebook your flight and take care of the service recovery on the back end. Same with hotels. I got walked at a Hilton because there was an area-wide power outage, and powerline crews had a contract for a certain amount of rooms, so I got bumped as a late arrival. Not happy, sure, but they arranged for and paid for my new stay at another property, issued 60K points after the fact, and gave me a $100 bill when I got denied at check-in. I didn’t have to “call” anyone. I just Ubered 3 miles down the road. What good does calling a call-center do?
This post just wants AA to look bad, really nothing wrong about changing numbers.