- Joined
- May 25, 2013
- Posts
- 1,794
Following the experiences people have recently shared about Qantas contact centre woes and extraorbitant waiting time even with top-tier status, it's interesting to contrast that with how my call to JAL went through. This without a JMB/JGC membership but with OW Sapphire coded into the ticket.
I have a return ticket from Australia to Europe, connecting in Tokyo. My outbound connection from Tokyo to Europe was rescheduled and I would have had a nearly 30 hour connection in Tokyo. But it also opened up an opportunity to see if I could connect a day earlier, i.e. the same day after arriving from Australia.
On Wednesday late morning I called their local 1800 number (which gets forwarded to Asia), waited for 15 mins and hang up, thinking I'll call them in evening. Called today (Easter Sunday), at about 4 pm AEST with the hopes not many would be calling at the same time but they'd still have adequate staffing levels. Call answered in 17 minutes. We spent 7 minutes going through the authentication and confirming what changes I want, and the agent checking if tickets are still available for the desired flight. Then she wanted to "talk to my local team" and suggested she'll call back. After 50 minutes she called (from a HK number) confirming the change has gone through, including my seat allocation and meal requests. That all is also visible through their MMB and seats in ExpertFlyer.
In other words, 80 minutes from start to finish, including the 50 min wait for the call back. While perhaps not record-breaking, a rather decent performance, after all.
I have a return ticket from Australia to Europe, connecting in Tokyo. My outbound connection from Tokyo to Europe was rescheduled and I would have had a nearly 30 hour connection in Tokyo. But it also opened up an opportunity to see if I could connect a day earlier, i.e. the same day after arriving from Australia.
On Wednesday late morning I called their local 1800 number (which gets forwarded to Asia), waited for 15 mins and hang up, thinking I'll call them in evening. Called today (Easter Sunday), at about 4 pm AEST with the hopes not many would be calling at the same time but they'd still have adequate staffing levels. Call answered in 17 minutes. We spent 7 minutes going through the authentication and confirming what changes I want, and the agent checking if tickets are still available for the desired flight. Then she wanted to "talk to my local team" and suggested she'll call back. After 50 minutes she called (from a HK number) confirming the change has gone through, including my seat allocation and meal requests. That all is also visible through their MMB and seats in ExpertFlyer.
In other words, 80 minutes from start to finish, including the 50 min wait for the call back. While perhaps not record-breaking, a rather decent performance, after all.
