I wonder if our Eurocontrol charges will decline in line with the proposed reduced level of service? Of course they won't!
The telephone help line is a service vital to the needs of us in the biz jet world, and especially to those who may not have the full support of an ops department. The staff are mostly helpful, and problems are generally solved in less than 30 seconds or so. Sometimes of course it is not possible to resolve delays, but immediate contact with someone enables us to convey the reasons and likely outcome to our passengers!!
What are we supposed to do now? Tell our passengers that everything will be taken care of as soon the crew nip back to the terminal to email Flow Control and wait for their reply?
Flowman, I appreciate that you are only the messenger, and I applaud you for working on something that may partly ease the situation, but I suspect that neither you, or those higher up in your food chain, have ever suffered the wrath of a passenger who has been given the news that there is no news!
And another thing! Why does your telephone help line answer immediately, and then pipe me a "thank you message" for calling, while I wait for someone to talk to? Did it not occur to the designer of that system that pilots would be calling from around the globe, using extortionate mobile phone rates? What is wrong with a connection ONLY when someone is ready and available to take a call? End of rant.