Long wait times for US Airways? Try this.

The other day, I needed to call US Airways for something and after jumping though the various prompts, was informed that they were too busy to take my call and to call back later. Then, they hung up on me. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one to experience this, and it appears a common theme on American’s Twitter account.

There’s an easy way to beat the 3+ hour hold time, though. Call American.

American agents to have much shorter hold times than their merged partner, US Airways. Each time I call, I speak to the Executive Platinum desk and ask to be transferred to the US Airway’s Chairman’s Preferred desk. In less than 5 minutes, I’m transferred over.

I’ve heard similar reports for calling the other elite desks – Platinum and Gold. They have access to back lines at US Airways, and apparently can transfer customers over faster than by just calling the US Airways line, elite or not.

If you don’t have elite status with AA, I’d still recommend dialing their general number, as hold times still appear to be much shorter than AA.

Has this worked for you?