[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

How does the writer know that the person he spoke to was an Indian.

You're absolutely right. He DOESN'T know. Indeed, for me, an Indian accent is almost indistinguishable from the accent of an eastern European speaking English. What that writer DID know was that he was dealing with a strong accent which rendered all, or parts, of the conversation difficult to understand. Thus, a US-based airline setting-up a call center in Ireland (where English is one, of two, official languages) will probably experience the same number of complaints (about understanding the agent) as would be the case if the call center was in Poland. I think I read, on this board, that one of the US-based airlines has a call center in Poland. Speaking for myself, I would GLADLY pay up to $10 extra, to speak with a USA-based call center if the alternative was someone in Poland or India.