Qantas : Been on Hold for 1 hour, 15 minutes and still holding

[Nigelinoz]

I have just seen a tweet that seems to allege that some people trying to rebook flights with QF due to ash cloud disruptions
have been on hold for 10 hours:shock:.
I hope that is an urban myth.
This is the tweet (It was in response to a tweet by Aus BT)

@AusBT Thx for helping out with information, much appreciated. Problem is qf call centre, impossible to rebook. People on hold for 10 hrs!

I won't post the username of the tweeter but it's on Aus BT's twitter timeline.
Cheers
N'oz

 

[dajop]

To be fair to the OP, a message suggesting there would be substantial delays is a really simple thing to reduce expectations/aggravation. I have rung call centres before (without realising there is a big disruption), where the first thing I've heard is "Due to major disruptions caused by XYZ , we are receiving unprecedented call volumes, and a long hold time can be anticipated If your call is not urgent please try calling back at a later time.", or something to that effect. Sometimes even a recording service for a call back. Simple communication goes a long way.

 

[medhead]

I can't believe you stayed on the phone so long. What is so urgent about printing the BP that it can't wait until your wife is at the airport? (ignoring that they can't do anything on the phone anyway)

Just realised this might sound a bit sarcastic. Not my intention, it is a genuine question on my part, if the OP wants to answer.

 

[Olivia7]

Yep I have been on hold for just over an hour too. I change my flights to an earlier date so that I could book another seat on the same flight for my boyfriend as well as travel with him. Change my own flight then went to book his and the website told me that flight was unavailable (I guess I took the last seat). Now the website wont let me change my flight again to something else. I also entered my frequent flyer number, but I'm still holding. Is it possible they have forgotten me and that I'm just permanently on hold? I don't want to have to wait all this time again tomorrow.

 

[Jobu]

Due to the personal nature of the phone call, one would expect the overwhelming response would be "as long as it takes"

However it seems this open ended [question] poll has attracted a number of AFF members who after 15 minutes of being on hold to cancel a flight, book a flight or resolve an issue would just hang up. Yeah right.

munitalP

Actually, the question was "How long is a reasonable time to be on hold for before giving up", nothing about cancelling or booking a flight. Given the OP then clarified that it was for printing a boarding pass, I would have selected "10 seconds".

 

[orac]

Re: Qantas : On Hold for 2 and half hours: Perseverance or Stupidity ?

Cliff, Re your poll I have not voted as I would say 0 - 15 min normally but longer under current circumstances.

This is about the extent of my patience as well regardless which company I am calling - be it Qantas or someone else.

By the time I get to the stage of phoning I am stirred up anyway so patience does not come to the fore

 

[PineappleSkip]

In my case, depends on whether I have to get through or don't.

In POM they give you the QF switchboard in SYD to ring after hours. On one 'must call tonight' change of booking situation I was on the line for about 35 minutes, maybe the first 25 on hold. On a mobile from PNG. However they very kindly rang back after I got the 'one minute of credit' warning. The call probably cost more than the rebooking fee.

This was comparable with my time at BNE DOM service counter yesterday am. Third in the SG/WP/J line but waited about 30 minutes there - appears the two spaces at the counter were taken up by people being rebooked. By the time I was at the front the line was back at the door - as was the main queue.

Cheers skip