EDIT: Geez, I just realized I commented on the wrong post! Please disregard for this particular issue, but I'll leave it here anyway in case it can help anyone else.
Just a quick note that might not be any help, but who knows. I used the chat feature today to ask a question about EZAir. I entered my name, etc. with my question and waited for an agent to join the chat. When they did, it was clearly an automated message that said something to the effect of, "This is Jolene, blah blah blah, our system is currently down. Please call ... for help with your booking."
I got distracted and started doing something else when I heard the chat window "ding." I had a message from another rep that said, "Hi mamafun, I see you are still in the chat, was there something else we can help with?" I typed my question again and got an answer right away.
So maybe that "system is down" message is just a way to try to weed down the number of chats?