American Airlines is eliminating 335 customer service positions in Phoenix, and will be handling most simpler calls overseas. More complex calls and sensitive issues will continue to be handled by Customer Success teams based in the United States. While many companies, including airlines, have been offshoring for decades, we have continued to see lower quality interactions when dealing with overseas call centers. We, in fact, had an excellent experience with an American agent based in Phoenix last year when a family member was stranded overseas in the middle of the night. To be fair, we have also had poor experience with US-based agents. There is nothing that prevents high quality service from being conducted overseas, but yet, consistently, companies do not invest sufficiently to ensure this occurs, because many companies consider service to be a cost, as opposed to a customer benefit that encourages loyalty.
For new bookings, consumers may want to try a third party firm. As we discussed previously you can call 1-833-727-1704 for a firm that specializes in booking American Airlines tickets.