British Airways to close their Jacksonville call center by the end of 2013

Their callcentres in newcastle and manchester will handle the calls

Not having ability to deal with Executive Club support 24x7 isn't ideal (really like SQ's 24x7 KrisFlyer operation even though it's not a toll-free number and had a few agents with strong accents). So while checking on yet another system screw-up (email said no points refund even though it did happen) I casually mentioned to the agent that it's not convenient to have them open only until 8 pm EST. He agreed with me and eventually mentioned that soon I may be able to speak to someone 24x7 because they are shutting the call center down. I've called them half a dozen times over the last month or so and it's the first time I heard about it. Granted my requests were never super-complicated, but all agents were always very nice and helpful so I am extremely sad to see so many people lose their jobs. I didn't even realize the call center was in the US or was run by BA itself(thought it was outsourced to another company and probably located in cheaper Canada). Don't know if any BA folks will see this comment but I hope you will all find good jobs and the impact will be minimal. Sad that even crazy-high BA fees can't pay for US jobs :(

I worked at this call center for 12 years. In the last 2 years they put restirctions on our calls like you would not believe. We were only allowed an average 680 seconds per call (later dropped to 580 seconds) or ultimately face termination. Personally I was within 1 minute of their desired time allotment and was terminated..Nevermind that I got things solved and did so without errors. So all those times you were offered a call back..it was probably was to restart the clock on your situation. BA treats their people horribly. Even to the point of penalties if you have to go to the toilet. Please understand..the passengers were the high point of my day and I would do my very best to book your itinerary or solve your problem. I hope the next destination for your calls is better managed. Please address your comments to Keith Williams British Airways Waterside address in the UK. If he does not know how we (passengers and staff) are treated, he needs to know.

Purely costs it is cheaper to send your call to India to answer. So be prepared for that to happen and do not complain when it does. Regardless if the passenger is in First Class, or Business Class or any level of Gold tier status. Or go online and help yourself. Addressing hillrider- have you considered that Fly To Serve is an external motto? And the internal motto is quicker, faster and push the passenger to ba.com - Trust us that you will say good riddance to the other call centers lack of knowledge and wish that the US presence was still here. Or you could call IB in MIA for assistance by all means.

Thank you Mitch for saying we have some wonderful people in Jax. We really do!