US Airways Not Answering Your Phone Call? Call Abroad for Better Customer Service

The US Airways U.S. Call Center is a disaster right now, as anyone who's tried to call 800-428-4322 or even the U.S. Airways Gold line or Platinum Preferred lines knows all too well. Now, of course there have been a slew of weather related cancellations this week, with US Airways' Charlotte hub a real mess.

But the problems with the US Airways U.S. Call Center are exacerbated by issues such as:

The U.S. Call Center doesn't place users on hold when the system is over capacity: you simply receive a message to call back later

There is no call-back option for U.S. Airways, unline for American (where you can enter your number to keep your place in queue–I used this option yesterday and waited less than half an hour for a call back) and United (see Get United to Call You Back and Save Time)

Not everyone whose flight was cancelled was able to rebook online–many folks were directed to call the call center number, further overloading the system

It's impossible to book Dividend Miles partner awards online. While American Airlines also requires you to call to book partners such as Cathay Pacific, Etihad, etc., at least some of American's partners, such as British Airways, Air Berlin, Qantas and Royal Jordanian are available for online booking. United enables most partners (except Singapore Airlines) to be booked online.

Here are just a few of the tweets I've seen over the past few days reflecting the frustration of long US Airways Call Center hold times:

Of course, there were many other tweets frustrated not just by long US Airways call center hold times but by poor customer service, intransigence and general incompetence:

The solution, if you're trying to reach US Airways by phone? Call a foreign call center. Here is a list of US Airways Call Center numbers around the world. If you have Skype or other cheap calling plan, it will be an inexpensive call, and avoid the frustration of being hung up on or waiting on hold for hours. Just note that these are not 24 hour call centers, so you may need to call a different region if the call center you call is currently closed.

Country	Phone number
Austria	0810 001172
Belgium	0781 50026
Brazil	0800 7611114
Canada	888-240-4770
Denmark	80-60-48-55
France	0810 632222
Germany	0800-7236-421
Greece	0080044143810
Ireland	1890 925065
Israel	972 3 7548 400
Italy	8488 13177
Netherlands	020 2013550
Norway	800-188-63
Portugal	808 200958
Spain	901 117073
Sweden	0850 163427
Switzerland	0844 805213
United Kingdom	0845 6003300