I am sorry to hear about your experience and I will do my best to answer your questions based of my experiences.
For starters, many agents (I don't know the percent) are not trained. And the number seems to grow as time goes. Some go by the word of someone else with more experience. The computer system is very much out dated and requires years of experience, and that is just with training, to know the command entries to find the answers to many questions that passengers may ask.
For years I was told to "use focus", a huge table of information, but the user has to have the command entries memorized to know how to use it. Being told to "use" it was not enough and my fellow coworkers were often too busy to show me how to look up the entries.
And then their is the passwords and silly rules of alpha characters the order they must go in. The rules made it very difficult to create passwords. I can only imagine what the online site is like for public use.
On the site for employees, once one is able to find the right password, their is a place for employees to voice their ideas and concerns for saving money. For years I submitted very good and valid ideas to the company and never once did I get a "thank you for your time." I sometimes wonder if the site was really real or just there acting as a placenta.
Technically speaking, it is not a legal requirement that an airline have an email address to receive complaints. But I do believe a valid snail mail address or P.O. Box is.
Depending on the nature of your complaint, you can file a complaint to the federal government. That usually prompts more responses. The Department of Transportation tends to cover most legitimate complaints. If it is an issue regarding the safety of an aircraft, then the Federal Aviation Administration needs to know about it. If it is about the screening process, then file it with the Transportation Security Administration.
As far as the phone number...well that is a sticky place to be in. Many people tend to loose their cool and want to complain if they don't get their way. And their is nothing wrong with that in itself, except nothing will probably be done about while the customer is hot and acting in an unreasonable manner. But then again, it seems many complaints are not answered by the website, according to many on this site. Their are 2 sides to every story. I believe their are competent people out there with the talent to take on such a job but the airline obviously has no interest in training or hiring such people.
I wish you luck on your future travels and strongly encourage you to not fly with the airlines until changes have been made. I also encourage you to write your congressman and demand changes in this industry.
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