American Airlines rolled out a new automated phone system this morning. When you dial, there’s a new voice on the other end. And you have to listen to the entire recorded message – no skipping it by asking for an agent.

• It sounds like it’s AI-generated (but not Scarlett Johansson).

• There’s no skipping the message telling you every time, for instance, about how you can add a pet to your reservation online before you’re allowed to do anything else.

• The system no longer recognizes “agent” or similar request until the initial minute-long greeting is over.

As an Executive Platinum AAdvantage member, the system does route me directly to an agent rather than going through a menu of options. But first I have to listen to a full minute of irrelevant and useless dreck every time I call in now.

Thank you for calling American Airlines AAdvantage Executive Platinum Reservations. Your call may be recorded and monitored to ensure high quality service. Para Español, oprima numero nueve.

For faster service, especially when making or changing travel plans, try the American Airlines mobile app or our website at aa.com.

If you’re calling about travel booked through an agency, please contact the agency directly.

Thank you again for calling American Airlines. Did you know you can now do things like add a carry-on pet for flights within the U.S., request wheelchair service, and let us know about other special needs online? Go to aa.com to manage your trip and request additional services. You can also make changes or cancel your trip for travel credit if eligible.

Hi Gary, I’ve matched your phone number to your AAdvantage account. Please hold and I”ll get someone on the line to help you.

Your feedback is important to us. Please remain on the line after your call to complete a brief two question survey regarding your experience with our travel professional today.

Is the idea that some people might listen to this for the 300th time they’re calling American, realize they can self-service pets in their reservation, and not need an agent? And imposing this cost on every customer every time, which can no longer be skipped, seems worth that savings? Or is it just an internal effort to sabotage likelihood to recommend scores?

This may seem like a small item to some, nitpicking even. But to someone forced to call the airline quite a lot because they’re the largest legacy carrier in my home market and because their website and mobile app don’t do a lot of the things I need them to do (like process upgrades, companion certificates), this is a big deal. And for American customers – and even the country overall – this is a big deal.

I don’t know what American’s current call center stats are like, but some back of the envelope:

• American Airlines flies around 200 million passengers per year.
  
• If 15% of those need to call the airline (that wasn’t a bad industry average a few years ago)
  
• And 30% of those need to call twice
  
• that’s 39 million calls and 39 million extra wasted minutes. That’s 650,000 wasted hours. (If that seems like a lot, consider that many people call reservations about tickets but don’t actually purchase and they’re not included here.)

U.S. per capita GDP is about $77,000. That translates to an average wage of $33.65. The change to American’s phone system costs the public, therefore, around $22 million.

In fact, airline passengers skew wealthier than the country as a whole. So let’s assume an average income of $100,000 which equates to an hourly wage of $48.08. 650,000 wasted hours at $48.08 per hour is around $31 million.

American Airlines is imposing a cost of ~ $31 million on its customers by wasting a minute of every call telling them about the ability to book pet in cabin online, and that if they booked through a travel agency they don’t want you to be their customer service tax.

An American Airlines spokesperson offers,

We recently updated the prompts our customers hear when they call our Reservations team. These updates include a new message to make customers aware of our self service options online, which can save them time instead of waiting to speak with a travel professional, and updates to our technology to help route customer calls where they need to go to get them answers quickly. We’re listening intently to our customers’ feedback about this update and will continue to evolve to best support our customers.

Eliminate the madness. American Airlines needs to restore the ability to opt-out of these prefatory messages (“Agent.” “Agent.” “AGENT!!!”) immediately. That’s the feedback, and I hope they’ll evolve!