Need to Call the Airline? Don’t Use the Phone.
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Here's your Money Briefing for Thursday, June 30th. I'm J.R.
How bad were June travel disruptions and why are airlines under strain?
Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Your summer vacation isn't supposed to include camping out at the airport or sitting on hold for hours because your flight's been delayed or canceled. After a series of missteps in the past few months, the airlines are facing a big test over the July 4th weekend and the summer travel season to solve passengers' travel disruptions efficiently.
time is of the essence, especially this summer. Planes are packed. So if you are sitting there and you really need to get to your destination for a special event or just your vacation, you really, really want to get that new flight resolved quickly.
And here's a spoiler alert that doesn't necessarily mean waiting on hold for hours for a customer service rep to pick up. On today's show, we'll check in with our travel columnist, Dawn Gilbertson, on the best ways that passengers can resolve disruptions to their travel plans and steps the airlines are taking to get people from point A to point B. That's after the break.
This podcast is brought to you by ReliaQuest. Cyber criminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation. ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense, AI that detects, contains, and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest, agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at ReliaQuest.com. That's R-E-L-I-A-Q-U-E-S-T.com.
The airline's promise 2022 wouldn't be like 2021, when many customers had to wait on hold for several hours to reach an airline representative. Well, if what customers went through earlier this month is any indication, this year might be just like last year. So what can passengers expect for the rest of the summer travel season? Wall Street Journal travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson has been keeping tabs on the airlines, and she's here with more. Hey, Dawn, thanks for being with us.
Thanks so much for having me again.
So, you know, Dawn, a lot of people's frustrations with reaching airline customer service stems from flight delays and cancellations. And many people said the number of disruptions over the weekend that included Juneteenth was the worst they'd ever experienced. What did the airlines say after that in terms of making improvements?
Well, you know, any time that there's a rash of flight cancellations and delays, call volume to airlines, you know, whether it's over the phone or you're reaching out on Twitter, et cetera, it always spikes. And what the airlines are telling us is, you know, we've been hiring robustly in our call centers, you know, which field all these different types of requests. But the volume is so high and the cancellations are so high, you know, those kind of are the perfect storm where travelers just, you know, find themselves on hold for hours.
Now, you're pretty keyed into the airlines. What's the outlook for July 4th weekend and the summer travel season for being able to manage delays?
Fourth of July is going to be a huge test for airlines. You know, it's typically one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year.
What should travelers expect for July 4th weekend and the summer travel season?
So airlines have been prepping for this for a very long time. You know, when they saw problems over Memorial Day and earlier this year, a lot of them proactively canceled flights. you know, so they didn't have to cancel them last minute.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:39
2
How bad were June travel disruptions and why are airlines under strain?
0:39–3:33
3
What should travelers expect for July 4th weekend and the summer travel season?
3:33–5:30
4
Why are airlines still struggling with call volume despite hiring more agents?
5:30–6:41
5
How are airlines using waivers and proactive cancellations to manage peak travel?
6:41–8:00
6
What alternatives to calling can passengers use when flights are delayed or canceled?
8:00–8:08
Speakers
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