Article: How to Get Good Qantas Customer Service for Under $3,000

[AFF Editor]

How to Get Good Qantas Customer Service for Under $3,000 is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

How to Get Good Customer Service from Qantas for Under $3,000

The problems with the Qantas call centre are well-documented on Australian Frequent Flyer and elsewhere. Unless you happen to have Platinum or Platinum

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[RooFlyer]

Great article, thanks. Except given that even Plats are waiting over an hour on the phone, maybe the title should have been "How to get better customer service ..."

 

[Anna]

I used to think that the best reason for keeping WP status was the reliable ability to get through to QF on the phone with at worst only a few minutes wait. Not any more. Over last Friday and Saturday I spent over 4 hours just trying to get through. Several times I had to give up and attend to other things. Finally I rang at 7.30am Saturday (ADL time), the call was answered around 8.45am and it took until about 9.20am before the issue was sorted out. Then I had to wait on tenterhooks to see if the correct travel docs would arrive by email, which thankfully they did within about 15 minutes.

I wouldn't tell anyone that WP has an easy time getting through to QF on the phone right now If this is the way QF is going to be now, my incentive to keep WP just evaporated.

 

[newbuyer1976]

Yeah not my experience. My last three interactions required a 3:45hr, 2hr and 1hr wait. Sure It IS improving but it’s like saying my stage 4 cancer is now just a mere stage 1.

 

[aikman]

The ultimate ancillary revenue - customer service for under $3,000. Ryanair should take note.

 

[AFF Editor]

Yeah not my experience. My last three interactions required a 3:45hr, 2hr and 1hr wait. Sure It IS improving but it’s like saying my stage 4 cancer is now just a mere stage 1.

If even Platinum members can’t get through now, may God have mercy on us all!

 

[Amanad78]

Great article!

 

[jfl]

All you had to do was spend almost $3,000, take several trips you didn’t really need to take, and contribute to the release of several tonnes worth of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Yup, hit the nail on the head.

 

[dylarr]

I had to use the schedule change number and not enter any frequent flyer details to speak to someone at Qantas (in Fiji) over the weekend as the normal number for platinums was over 2 hours wait. Has been getting worse for weeks so even for platinums it’s a disgrace!

 

[Bolt]

Great article, thanks. Except given that even Plats are waiting over an hour on the phone, maybe the title should have been "How to get better customer service ..."

Can confirm. Both times I tried to call. First time was in the afternoon, and I ran out of time after being on hold for an hour and a half. Second time was first thing in the morning, and I finally got to talk to someone after over an hour.

Can also confirm that there are zero reward seats from Brisbane to Bangkok in business throughout the whole year. So, I'm starting to question the value I've placed on those loyalty points and status points.

 

[blaz]

Why has Qantas removed the ability to email them, or the "call back' service ,I wonder? The only method now is by facebook messaging. They still take about two weeks to respond, but they do actually respond. Leave all your information and give them your mobile number. No good of course if the situation is urgent.

 

[Pushka]

I’ve hoping that with reduced service on the phone (I’ve had that too with WP last week and hung up) that having some status will work for me travelling on non Qantas planes. Emirates comes to mind.

 

[Matt_01]

@AFF Editor from your article "If you wanted to make it to Platinum One status, you could alternatively book seven return trips from Brisbane to Christchurch via Sydney, returning via Melbourne, in Qantas Business Class. That would cost you around $7,231 in airfares.

In return, as a Qantas Platinum One member you would get direct phone access to the excellent Qantas VIP Service Team, allowing you to bypass the regular Qantas call centre altogether!"

There is discussion in the P1 thread on this site and other social media sites that the 'excellent Qantas VIP Service Team' is not as cracked up as first thought. Now that travel is back on the cards the VIP line can take up 30 minutes or longer to connect to the agents. There have also been reports that the VIP Team are not responding to emails and cannot deal with IRROPS, dealing with IRROPS was one of the benefits that most P1s that I know value.

Initially I promoted The VIP Team service offering but now I am reconsidering and wondering what value the VIP Team provide.

 

[henrus]

I had to do a double take to check it wasn't April fools day. Nope... but I am looking forward to a customer service themed post on Friday.

 

[JCD]

A 2 hour wait time on the VIP line yesterday. Appalling treatment of "valued" flyers.

 

[redseason]

Sorry but paying that money (to the airline that is not giving any customer service) and wasting time and fuel just to hopefully get some sort of customer service seems ridiculous.
I don't understand why Qantas doesn't have some way of submitting a request online given the ridiculous call wait times. Last weekend I flew with my 3 daughters to Canberra for a family function but one of my daughter's partners couldn't come due to COVID exposure. Tried to cancel online but I couldn't find a way to cancel his ticket without cancelling all. Tried to call to cancel the ticket but wait time over 2 hours so finally found a Qantas staff member at airport who told us they had unlinked him from booking and cancelled but he was still showing on return ticket when I checked that night. Did the same thing at airport in Canberra on the return leg but points have not been returned so no idea if they did it right or I am going to have to try the 2 hour hold time to call to check. Just to further improve our experience Qantas only loaded 6 business class meals on the return flight when there were 10 people in business. If I didn't have so many QFF points to use I would probably try Virgin instead.

 

[Berlin]

As others have said, the issue with this article is that of recent, there seems to be no real priority for Platinums on Qantas' damn phone line anymore. It wasn't like this just two months or so ago so I'm unsure what's happened and whether it ever gets fixed. 1-2 hours seem to be standard recently, as a Platinum. And this still doesn't guarantee that you'll get your issue fixed as evident in many posts on this very forum.

 

[stm1sydney]

LOL, fancy being forced to pay $3000 for "good service" ... possibly. Maybe try an alternative airline?

 

[Jean Prouvaire]

there seems to be no real priority for Platinums on Qantas' damn phone line anymore. 1-2 hours seem to be standard recently, as a Platinum.

What's disappointing is that a wait time of 1-2 hours actually does seem to be the Platinum priority service level, with lower tier members regularly waiting well in excess of that.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Alternatively we can all run this Federal election cycle for the Kangaroo Party of Australia. Upon becoming elected an MP for your riding you'll then have access to QF Chairman's status and thus have access to not only substantially better customer service but also those VIP lounges at SYD and elsewhere.



Make Qantas Good Again!

-RooFlyer88