Contact Centre Madness = Unnacceptable

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for that reply. Very helpful. Does this work if I walk into the DOM terminal and walk to the automated check-in counter and put my bag on the belt with my Q bag tag on it? Will that trigger the system to check my luggage onto QF145 SYD-AKL? Or do I have to speak to an agent at the airport to do this?

I wouldn't want to drop my luggage off for it to be put on the DOM arrivals belt in SYD.

I would prefer to do it as if I was travelling DOM... IE using my phone and Q bag tag to get my boarding passes for the MEL-SYD AND the SYD-AKL flight and knowing that my luggage will be put through to AKL.

Cheers.

For a domestic to international connection you'll need to check in at the service desk at MEL. You'll also need to note the earlier check-in time for DOM-INT travel (45 mins?). AFAIK Q bag tgas don't work for international flights.

At check-in in MEL your bags will be checked all the way through to AKL and you'll be issued with both boarding passes. On arrival at SYD head straight to the free transfer bus.

 

[mviy]

They should give SG priority. Spent thousands flying QF and instead of the 2 minute wait time I got as a WP, over an hour estimate so far. Every time I call as a SG there's a long wait time.

Frustrating that LTP goal is set so unrealistically that that's not an option to get out of bad call wait times with QF forever.

All for correcting a mistaken booking within 24 hours. Booked dates I later realised I can't fly and the website says to call. They should have an option to do this online.

 

[justinbrett]

They should give SG priority. Spent thousands flying QF and instead of the 2 minute wait time I got as a WP, over an hour estimate so far. Frustrating that LTP goal is set so unrealistically that that's not an option to get out of call wait times forever.

All for correcting a mistaken booking within 24 hours. Booked dates I later realised I can't fly and the website says to call.

I’ve waited much longer than 2 minutes as WP

 

[mviy]

Well maybe a slight exaggeration but I always found it wasn't too long. Certainly always within 15 minutes which I think would be a reasonable max wait for SG, but QF obviously thinks different.

 

[RedSMS]

For a domestic to international connection you'll need to check in at the service desk at MEL. You'll also need to note the earlier check-in time for DOM-INT travel (45 mins?). AFAIK Q bag tgas don't work for international flights.

At check-in in MEL your bags will be checked all the way through to AKL and you'll be issued with both boarding passes. On arrival at SYD head straight to the free transfer bus.

On that note, I will end my call to the QF contact centre after 1Hr 50 mins. Thank You.

Question, when you say earlier check in time for DOM-INT travel (45 mins?) are you referring to the cut off time to drop your bags off, which is usually an hour for DOM..(Although in reality with DOM ive checked my bags in 20 minutes before boarding begins and have never had any probs.)

FYI my MEL-SYD flight is at 0730 and SYD-AKL flight isn't until 12:15 in the PM

 

[MEL_Traveller]

On that note, I will end my call to the QF contact centre after 1Hr 50 mins. Thank You.

Question, when you say earlier check in time for DOM-INT travel (45 mins?) are you referring to the cut off time to drop your bags off, which is usually an hour for DOM..(Although in reality with DOM ive checked my bags in 20 minutes before boarding begins and have never had any probs.)

FYI my MEL-SYD flight is at 0730 and SYD-AKL flight isn't until 12:15 in the PM

See here for latest check-in times: Check-in | Qantas AU

For domestic connecting to international, the latest checkin time is 45 minutes (at your point of origin). For purely domestic flights, latest check-in is 30 mins.

 

[Dr Ralph]

I think we can all agree that they are under the pump and they should be cut some slack.

Nope.

It's regularly this bad. Qantas just don't care.

 

[RedSMS]

Thanks to everybody who replied.

After 2Hr 18mins I have been told the following from a QF agent in South Africa.

Must check-in at the service desk to ensure my luggage goes through to AKL. Allergies are sorted and I will get a proper meal.... hopefully. Still showing up as A330 service. I am glad, but that took way too long.

I understand the backlog due to Corona Virus but it still isn't an excuse. They need to change this ASAP !!!

 

[mviy]

QF should put more people on the phones or fix their IT systems so that you don't have to phone for basic things anymore. Regular call wait times of over an hour for SG flyers is completely unacceptable. To get SG you can spend several thousand dollars with QF, but for high paying customers QF doesn't value their time much at all.

Then there's F flyers to LHR/LAX who are bronze and they have to wait as long as the Bronze flyer who flies a triangle economy route Red E-Deal once every several years.

Post automatically merged: Feb 25, 2020

I understand the backlog due to Corona Virus but it still isn't an excuse. They need to change this ASAP !!!

It's not just the virus or Double Status Credits. The call wait times were bad before any of this came along. This has made the wait times a little worse, but already starting from a very bad level.

The way QF should fix it is to fix their IT systems so that more can be done online. If less people need to call for basic things then they can improve wait times with the same staff levels.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks to everybody who replied.

After 2Hr 18mins I have been told the following from a QF agent in South Africa.

Must check-in at the service desk to ensure my luggage goes through to AKL. Allergies are sorted and I will get a proper meal.... hopefully. Still showing up as A330 service. I am glad, but that took way too long.

I understand the backlog due to Corona Virus but it still isn't an excuse. They need to change this ASAP !!!

I guess it's not your fault as the information you needed is probably not readily available on the website... but given the advice on AFF you still decided to hold. Multiply 'you' by many other people who don't need to call and you end up with a system overloaded for the staff they currently have.

Long wait times have been around for years now and QF doesn't seem to be doing much to solve the issue. There are at least two contributing factors... not enough staff, and staff they do have are not all trained to deal with the problems they are given. Even the most simple of questions/transactions can take a long time to get the right answer, or require multiple calls to get sorted... calls which could be going to help other people.

 

[RedSMS]

There's no point clogging up the lines and holding forever for something that won't achieve anything Aircraft change won't be influenced by your call. Baggage checking through won't change. Your seat allocation issues also likely won't change - all it means is that the seats available to your status level have been fully assigned, so you'll need to wait until all seating is opened up to everyone to select your seat.

Yes, but I am in the J cabin anyway and changed from 6F/K (I think... window seat on the right.)

 

[calmelb]

I had my first experience with long wait times. As a WP ringing on Sunday night (11pm) had to wait for 50 minutes, all to cancel a booking (made a mistake and wanted the fee free changes)

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Lucky for you all sorted now.

Today webchat was also quite clogged as well. Their responses (ie ”Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment”) made it feel like each agent was handling multiple queries at the same time.

 

[TheInsider]

Lucky for you all sorted now.

Today webchat was also quite clogged as well. Their responses (ie ”Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment”) made it feel like each agent was handling multiple queries at the same time.

They do, that's why so many business use this method now!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Thanks for that reply. Very helpful. Does this work if I walk into the DOM terminal and walk to the automated check-in counter and put my bag on the belt with my Q bag tag on it? Will that trigger the system to check my luggage onto QF145 SYD-AKL? Or do I have to speak to an agent at the airport to do this?

I wouldn't want to drop my luggage off for it to be put on the DOM arrivals belt in SYD.

I would prefer to do it as if I was travelling DOM... IE using my phone and Q bag tag to get my boarding passes for the MEL-SYD AND the SYD-AKL flight and knowing that my luggage will be put through to AKL.

Cheers.

No the automated system will not know about your other booking.
You will need to go to a checkin desk.

 

[mviy]

Getting close to the 3 hour mark waiting for someone to pick up.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Getting close to the 3 hour mark waiting for someone to pick up.

4hrs is the charm

 

[mviy]

They finally picked up the phone. Terrible service to make customers wait this long. If I have to wait this long as SG, either I'm not getting any priority over NB (which would be crazy) or I guess NB have to wait 5 hours?

 

[mrsterryn]

This week I had some very upsetting news which entailed changing flights...not once but twice
It was me who took the time. The Qantas staff (3calls ) were all incredibly sympathetic and fixed my flights approximately and kinda ignored (which on very grateful for ) my waffling and 'just cancel it all just do it " outbursts
All three of my calls took approximately 30 mins
I couldn't have done this on line nor via a web chat .
Sometimes ,ok often Qantas screw up things but ....sometimes they do it right
Btw I am platinum (WP) and I probably waited 20 mins which is new to me
I think only one other time and they offered a call back
Having worked in an environment whereby disasters (fire , floods or virus ) often impacted my staff and their workload , it also really affected our telephony system . It was especially difficult when people held on for a couple of hours and yet there was other avenues far less time consuming open to them
Ok waffling over ...for this post

 

[Mattg]

They finally picked up the phone. Terrible service to make customers wait this long. If I have to wait this long as SG, either I'm not getting any priority over NB (which would be crazy) or I guess NB have to wait 5 hours?

It's the latter, sadly.

Qantas has been telling people when they call up that they're experiencing "unusually high call volumes" since 2016. I understand that they're probably getting hammered at the moment with the coronavirus issues and DSCs on, but seriously, the problem has been around for years - ever since QF drastically cut its call centre staff.

The terrible service from the Qantas call centre is a major reason I'm not renewing my status with them next year. I didn't even book a single flight under DSCs. I'd rather give my business to other airlines instead.