Customers Are Waiting Hours For Support From Airlines: Here's Why

The travel industry was undoubtedly one of the hardest-hit sectors during the height of the pandemic. With travel restrictions firmly in place, airlines, and the hospitality industry as a whole, struggled to stay afloat. Because of this, many were forced to reduce their staff, even offering voluntary leave packages to encourage early retirement and temporary exits.

However, as we begin to see the travel sector return to normalcy, airline call centers are now becoming overwhelmed as they attempt to operate with fewer agents and increasing call volumes. This lack of staffing is causing unusually high wait times and keeping customers on hold for hours on end. 

A recent USA Today article details frequent flier Jay Groh’s extensive experience attempting to redeem a travel voucher from a canceled 2020 trip. After he was met with numerous error messages while booking a new flight to California, he decided to call Delta. During his first call, the wait was more than two hours forcing him to miss it due to a work meeting. On his second attempt, over a week later, the wait time more than tripled, reaching an astounding 7 hours and 40 minutes. Once he was finally able to receive help, through a representative on Twitter, the ticket price had already increased by $200. 

Upon investigating this painstaking experience, USA Today tried calling the customer service lines of the 10 largest U.S. airlines, only to find waits up to 8 hours and 31 minutes for Delta, with no callback option available.

But, to provide some perspective, Delta isn’t the only airline experiencing this influx of volume; the travel industry as a whole is finally seeing customers come back after a long hiatus. During the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, TSA screened 1.86 million passengers, marking the highest daily total since March 2020. 

While this is definitely a positive sign for the travel sector, many airlines are currently unable to provide the level of support they were operating with pre-pandemic. This leaves customers with fewer channels of support, forcing them to resort to social media and digital channels to serve themselves. When looking at JetBlue’s travel alert section on their website, one of their featured headlines ‘Skip the (phone) line’ deters customers away from phone lines completely, even stating, “Why call when you can click?” 

Although self-service options are never a bad thing, customers don’t want to feel actively discouraged to seek out more personal support. Additionally, in a case like Groh’s, the option to digitally book his trip with Delta was not even available — which means that during outages, airline customers are left with virtually no avenue of support.

What’s most troubling about these experiences, beyond the total lack of support, is the fact that airlines likely predicted this renewed influx of customers. Thought leaders consistently discussed the likelihood of increased spending on travel, ‘revenge’ retail experiences, and an emphasis on entertainment in 2021. Therefore, it seems as though airlines had enough warning about the potential of overwhelmed call centers. And while they may not be able to hire back all of the employees they once had, they should at least be prioritizing their digital support channels to ensure an accessible option for every customer.

Additionally, after a long hiatus, customers are optimistic about traveling and finally able to seek out the experiences they missed out on, which makes these planning and service difficulties even more annoying. Although customers may have been willing to put up with delayed support during the height of the pandemic, they likely won’t be as forgiving this time around after dealing with the process during initial cancellations. 

However, there is some hope for customers dealing with long wait times and support difficulties;  LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Report found a 9.1% increase in hiring in the travel sector during the month of May. And with travel companies offering signing bonuses, and perks for simply showing up to an interview, there will likely be increased support in the near future. 

But, in the meantime, companies must work to ensure more efficient and direct service options, whether it be through self-service, digital, or phone, during times of volume overload to establish consistent service. 

Photo by PEXELS