You call Crew Scheduling. Hold time =?
 

I'm very curious to see what kind of hold times the different airlines have when trying to reach CS. I've had to call CS much more than usual the past 2 months due to no fault of my own. Out of 13 phone calls, the shortest hold time was 38 minutes. Longest was 1 hour 28 minutes. Airline is XJT. In the entire past year, my shortest hold time has around 25 minutes. So apparently, the CS dept. here is FUBAR in more than the obvious ways. I cannot afford to spend this much time on the damn phone waiting on hold!

This is for things as ridiculous as trying to get hotel information to getting them to restore rolled days off (yes I'm a lineholder and still getting them rolled!) to contacting them about trip mods, etc. Earliest phone call was around 230 am and latest was 11pm. It made no difference whatsoever what time of day it was, what the weather was, or day of the week. No matter what, I experience ridiculous and absurd hold times. For the two times it was to get what hotel they had for me, the departure times of the next days flights had to be bumped back because of being on hold so long.

Talking to my fellow crews, they have been experiencing the same things. So I'm curious what your experiences are trying to reach CS at your employer. I'm beyond fed up with this issue. Please tell me this isn't normal.

Comair anywhere from 0 at most times to about 30 minutes during the rush hour of 5-9pm during weather situations.

At SkyWest, I've had to wait a good long while if it's snowing in Chicago or something. Usually it's a few minutes. Occasionally they answer right away.

When Mesaba CS puts you on hold their music sounds like something from VIVID videos. Hellooooo Jenna!!!

I've waited 30 mins at Mesa before giving up, as that's the most I'll give them of my time.

Many times, in waiting so long, I will miss a DH they were supposed to list me on.

Should be a better way, but well never see it when we work for an airline that will spend $3 to save .75 cents.

If it's me returning a call I usually let it ring once then hang up and go play golf or go fishing.

At QX the worst I've ever had was about 5 minutes. Nowadays I just hang up and try again later. I'm not about to waste any cellphone minutes holding for CS!

We got a 1-800 number, I'll let that thing go all night if I have to....ain't my cash

Wow. I think the longest that I ever was on hold was about 7 minutes, and that was when the schedulers answered an asked us to hang on. ACA/IDE had a pretty decent phone tree the last couple of years before they shutdown...

It routed you through to the first available, and if you held for longer than 5 minutes, transferred you to voicemail where you could leave a message. Doing so was considered "legal" contact if CS didn't call back within 30 minutes or something like that.

Sounds like some of you guys need contract improvements! Until then, make sure that you document every call you make and how long you hold before you hang up. Personally I think that anytime you have to hold longer than 5-10 minutes (15-20 for irregular ops), you should be able to hang up without issues.

This is exactly what I suspected. I knew this couldn't be normal (well for XJT it is I guess). Management doesn't give a crap of course, it's been brought up repeatedly apparently to no avail. If it was a once in a blue moon thing I'd be ok with it, but this is the norm here, and like I said in the past year I've never had a hold time of under 25 minutes. Cell phone minutes aren't cheap! I'm already broke enough.

It's really sad that I actually want to be put on hold so I can listen to it... at least for a minute. See what you've done, now I can't get it out of my head.

Less than 5 minutes, on a busy evening.

I don't wait. It's not my job to waste my cell phone minutes for minutes on end waiting on a scheduler to free up. If they don't pick up, I hang up. It's never that important for me to speak to scheduling.

I like flying the trip with out calling them (especially if it just gets me to the overnight) if they don't answer. The phone call you get is priceless..

CS: Where are you?

Me: Where do you think I am?

CS: your operating flight XXXX at 2030.

ME: Wasn't that fligh tlike 3 hours ago

CS: yea

ME: Is it still here:

(pause) (pause) (pause)

CS: ah...no it showed it landed in EWR at 2220.

ME: Oh, i guess the CA didn't wait...what do you want me to do?

This is my favorite question from CS. That fact that they need to ask this proves to me they are the most incompetent employees in the company.

Next time they call me I should put THEM on hold and see how long they wait.

0 to 10 minutes......

Want to mess with them really good, get a good recording device and record the phone tree that you get when you call crew scheduling. When they call, pick up the phone and then playback the recording.

I got a crew scheduler to call and hang up 3 times one night (he was a friend, but figured that the phone system was malfunctioning- ended up calling me with his personal cellphone!) :D

Funny you say that. I actually flew with a captain that told me whenever scheduling calls him at home, he answers with "Captian Smith, Please hold". He then puts down the phone for a few minutes and walks away.

I can not wait to try this one.

If a hub is being slammed by weather it can be 15-20 mins. The vast majority of the time it is anywhere from 0-5 mins. I only call when I must, I will not call scheduling to remind them to do their job. Where I work schedulers and the company don't treat us too nice so we aren't very "willing" to go above and beyond when someone else makes a mistake. Many times it is easier to just speak to a supervisor when a new class of schedulers comes in b/c they will try some CRAZY stuff.

True story- happened a few weeks ago:
CS: "We show you did not check in this morning for your 8:30 report time. Looks like your first turn went out on time and you are on your way back to mem on Leg 4- just want to make sure you came to work so if you can call us back when you land and let us know you are here that would be great"

Me calling CS: "hey, (recognize its the same girl that called with the voicemail) could I speak with the supervisor"

Sup: "OMG please tell me she didn't call you"
Me: "Yep she did- wondered how the flights were going without an FO"
Sup: "I am soo sorry! You would not believe the stupidity in this room!"
Me: "Just out of curiousity- who did she think was flying in the seat?"
Sup: "She prob thought hopes and dreams- we are still struggling with her realizing we need 2 pilots for each flight and they can't be in the same seat to make it work"
Me: "Thats scary"
Sup: "Welcome to my world- have a great flight!"


Not word for word but basically what was said- truly amazing that any flight gets out!

QX is pretty quick. There are some new people in CS and they are actually nice but they are starting to grow some thick skin and get short with me. I will only wait about 5 minutes and then I hang up and if they want me to go on hold again I have them call me.

I do that with telemarketers, but I don't know why I never thought of that for CS!!

you have to have thick skin to work in there

http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/im...pload/rofl.gif I dont know why that is so funny to me.

Me too... I think that genius! Of course it sure wouldn't help with out hold times.

Surprisingly, it's not too bad at Trans States. Longest ever was maybe 10 minutes.

The obliviousness of everything is still there, and there's a lot of dumb stuff that gets schedules, but they usually correct alot there. We have a couple of schedulers there that when you call, and you hear "Hello, this is _______", I hang up right away and call back a couple of minutes later unless I'm in a good mood. Other skiiers know who I'm talking about ;)

worst ive had is 15 minutes but that was during a storm moving through the new york area. on average maybe 1-2 minutes at the most.

Just a minute or so most of the time at SkyWest...and even at Trans States, I don't think I ever waited for longer than 10 minutes...Gotta get XJet ALPA on that one, boys :D

Put your call forwarding to the crew scheduling number so when they call it sends it back to them and they get to sit on hold waiting for themselves.

That just made my night, very clever. :D:D:D

Oh they know. Crews have made sure they know, yet the problem persists, and persists, and persists... Get this: I had one fellow crewmember justify these absurd holdtimes by saying 'they have a hard job - you should visit them sometime and see!" Hmm, I worked in a call center in college, - and they would nail us to the wall if hold times went over 5 minutes. How hard the job is is irrelevant! This thread is great, as I've also had other pilots tell me that every regional is this way, which I disagreed with based on what friends at skywest have told of their wait times. Don't know why XJT can't figure this stuff out. Apparently it's rocket science. :mad:

Outsource to India. That should fix it. :rolleyes:

Ugh...don't even get me started on XJT hold times. Sometimes they pick right up. Other times I've waited an hour or more. I remember one day when I was trying to get released to days off, literally watching my flight home board up and push back while I was on hold. Missed my commute because CS wouldn't pick up. :mad:

Thats not all they need to get on.

http://www.islandmix.com/backchat/im...pload/rofl.gif My God I will try this, I'll report back with results.

I know it's been around, but I had to repost this!
http://www.ridgelines.org/downloads/...utsourcing.mp3

zoom you owe me a new keyboard :D

They're useless unless it comes to sending me junk email. Heck, they can't even get the company to pay us correctly. There's a few of us that are about to say F-it, and hire our own lawyer to deal with the payroll BS- since XJT ALPA is too busy writing up the "Crew Room Watchdog" or peddling insurance...

Thats the best thing I have herd here :D

Read the contract. If there is nothing on your schedule after your last flight after 15 minutes you are automatically released.