Yesterday I spent hours (did I say HOURS?) trying to rearrange my air flights to New England. I had gotten a message from American Airlines that my flights had been changed and to call USAA as I had made the reservation using points. As luck would have it the first person to answer was new to the job and several times had to put me on hold to ask a question of her supervisor. I gave up. Second call was a 45 minutes on hold and then an hour & a half of unsuccessful flight options. I gave up. The third was just downright distressing. I was on hold for 2 hours (!!!!) with repeated canned music and the lovely message EVERY 30 seconds "We apologize for the delay. Please continue to HOLD. We will be with you momentarily. Thank you for calling USAA". It brought me to 'overload' and I had to hang up without even talking to a human. Yet another sigh.
Now I am sitting in front of my computer at 6:30am, beginning my day yet again on HOLD. It is an uncomfortable way to begin my day with an EVERY 30 second repeated message putting a distinct edge on my patience.
Update:
It is 9:09 and I have spoken to 3 people so far and am on HOLD for my third time!
At this moment I have been thinking about just going online and buying my plane tickets outright with the small hope that USAA will cancel my original flight and return the points to my account. Honestly, at this point I am a bit numb. Andy was very kind. He explained I had been sent to the wrong department and what I needed was Eagle Points and not Member Travel. Sigh. He waited online with me until we were back to Eagle Points. He explained that people who answer most often can't help directly, but that you have to go through a series of transfers. as well as telling me that he was 'only' Tier 1 support and he could not make the necessary changes. He waited online the 1/2 hour until I spoke with Alicia who was a Tier 1 employee and now I must be transferred to her supervisor, Tier 2. Will this person be able to help? I am almost 45 minutes into the wait. Sigh.
9:39...still on HOLD
Ahhhhh... connected with Tier 2 at 11:08am.
And the end of the story? 5 hours and 20 minutes later I have new confirmed flights. The trick will be that they do not get changed once again before I leave on August 10th. Now all I have to do is tweak the car reservation and get a night before departure hotel room. I certainly can't be as hard as the flight! Praying!!
And just so you know, you don't need a Ph. D in 'waiting science' to know how stressful my morning was.