Qantas Call Centre Long Wait Times

My understanding (from unofficial sources) is that there is a pool of priority phone numbers that airport staff give to passengers which rotates every few weeks.

I will attempt to publish the currently active number(s) in this post:

1300 304 318
1300 659 161
1300 025 396
1300 659 116

1300 024 715
1300 025 390
1300 659 115
1300 659 134
1300 659 502

 

[robinsparkles]

It worked for me today, after taking an hour to get get through to Hobart rather than SA/Fiji. Perseverance is required.
From the look of other posts, it seems to be best to start dialling at 7am (rather than 10:15am as we did…)
It may help for your P1 friend to say somet like they are acting as your ‘travel arranger’.

Any P1s want to befriend me and my missing money problem? Calling at 7.01am is very easy with a young baby aka alarm clock

 

[ferntree]

[rant] This whole call centre thing is ridiculous and unacceptable. With Virgin i'm getting an average wait time of around 10 to 15 minutes, with Jetstar less. We're being gaslighted into thinking that if we get thru in "only" 60 minutes we're lucky.
Perhaps Joyce and co should spend less time on figuring out deals and bonuses for themselves and more on delivering for coustomers? [/rant]

 

[ChrisMars]

I tried to modify the domestic leg of my trip to europe, Qantas metal award. The award seats are there both on Qantas and EF (X4U4)
First call -> can't see any award. HUACA
Second call -> can't see any award, HUACA
Third call -> I lead with the fact I see the award on the website, before asking for the change. 30 min on hold, call drop to survey.

Fourth call is interesting: I feel the agent is going to try and help me, so I kindly insist after the first push back, indicating I see the award availability, I get put on hold for her to reach support, and return with: "Those award seats on that flight are only available for new booking and can't be used to modify existing booking" and also precise I could get the award for the 2pm service, which won't work to catch QF1, but anyway. I never heard that there was a distinction for new booking / existing booking with Qantas award, and it sound like misinformation, but then, why was the 2pm service doable on her system, and not the one I wanted. Strange. Anyone heard of that?

After insisted one more time, she got the support of the support team to get the requested change done, and I receive the text-only email new itinerary (not the pdf), which I think means it's correctly re-ticketed right? I wouldn't want to lose the BA flight after QF1.
Weird there was no tax recalculation btw.

Overall, waiting time ranged from 5 min to 20 min, which is good for WP.

 

[cbourl]

I tried to modify the domestic leg of my trip to europe, Qantas metal award. The award seats are there both on Qantas and EF (X4U4)
First call -> can't see any award. HUACA
Second call -> can't see any award, HUACA
Third call -> I lead with the fact I see the award on the website, before asking for the change. 30 min on hold, call drop to survey.

Fourth call is interesting: I feel the agent is going to try and help me, so I kindly insist after the first push back, indicating I see the award availability, I get put on hold for her to reach support, and return with: "Those award seats on that flight are only available for new booking and can't be used to modify existing booking" and also precise I could get the award for the 2pm service, which won't work to catch QF1, but anyway. I never heard that there was a distinction for new booking / existing booking with Qantas award, and it sound like misinformation, but then, why was the 2pm service doable on her system, and not the one I wanted. Strange. Anyone heard of that?

After insisted one more time, she got the support of the support team to get the requested change done, and I receive the text-only email new itinerary (not the pdf), which I think means it's correctly re-ticketed right? I wouldn't want to lose the BA flight after QF1.
Weird there was no tax recalculation btw.

Overall, waiting time ranged from 5 min to 20 min, which is good for WP.

Comical that this passes for service in World Class Australia

 

[aikman]

This thread has gone from calling at inconvenient times during the day to using secret phone numbers to asking Platinum members to call on your behalf.

I wonder what comes next.

 

[encryptededdy]

This thread has gone from calling at inconvenient times during the day to using secret phone numbers to asking Platinum members to call on your behalf.

I wonder what comes next.

Political Donations, not for lobbying, but to call the Chairman's Lounge phone line?

 

[sudoer]

Day of week	Sat
Time of call	1945 AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	5 mins
Call Centre (if known)	Unsure, sounded like Fiji
Matter resolved	No
Details	Needed to link two PNRs (one award booking 1 WP pax, one revenue 2 NB pax) and get all three pax seated together. Agent said they could link the PNRs but couldn't override seat map limitations for the 2 NBs. I insisted this is possible and that I'd done it several times in the past by calling, they conceded it might be possible but they weren't sure how to do it. I asked if it could be escalated, they said it's a 1.5 hour wait time for them to contact the "support desk" or they could submit a written request. Went for the latter as the flight isn't for two months and seating is pretty open at present. I will give it a week before calling again.

 

[blackcat20]

I tried to modify the domestic leg of my trip to europe, Qantas metal award. The award seats are there both on Qantas and EF (X4U4)
First call -> can't see any award. HUACA
Second call -> can't see any award, HUACA
Third call -> I lead with the fact I see the award on the website, before asking for the change. 30 min on hold, call drop to survey.

Fourth call is interesting: I feel the agent is going to try and help me, so I kindly insist after the first push back, indicating I see the award availability, I get put on hold for her to reach support, and return with: "Those award seats on that flight are only available for new booking and can't be used to modify existing booking" and also precise I could get the award for the 2pm service, which won't work to catch QF1, but anyway. I never heard that there was a distinction for new booking / existing booking with Qantas award, and it sound like misinformation, but then, why was the 2pm service doable on her system, and not the one I wanted. Strange. Anyone heard of that?

After insisted one more time, she got the support of the support team to get the requested change done, and I receive the text-only email new itinerary (not the pdf), which I think means it's correctly re-ticketed right? I wouldn't want to lose the BA flight after QF1.
Weird there was no tax recalculation btw.

Overall, waiting time ranged from 5 min to 20 min, which is good for WP.

Sounds familiar, but six calls in I'm yet to get someone to help me despite telling them I can see 4 U seats available and they keep offering me the 2pm as well

 

[martindagun]

Edit

 

[Port Power]

I tried to modify the domestic leg of my trip to europe, Qantas metal award. The award seats are there both on Qantas and EF (X4U4)
First call -> can't see any award. HUACA
Second call -> can't see any award, HUACA
Third call -> I lead with the fact I see the award on the website, before asking for the change. 30 min on hold, call drop to survey.

Fourth call is interesting: I feel the agent is going to try and help me, so I kindly insist after the first push back, indicating I see the award availability, I get put on hold for her to reach support, and return with: "Those award seats on that flight are only available for new booking and can't be used to modify existing booking" and also precise I could get the award for the 2pm service, which won't work to catch QF1, but anyway. I never heard that there was a distinction for new booking / existing booking with Qantas award, and it sound like misinformation, but then, why was the 2pm service doable on her system, and not the one I wanted. Strange. Anyone heard of that?

After insisted one more time, she got the support of the support team to get the requested change done, and I receive the text-only email new itinerary (not the pdf), which I think means it's correctly re-ticketed right? I wouldn't want to lose the BA flight after QF1.
Weird there was no tax recalculation btw.

Overall, waiting time ranged from 5 min to 20 min, which is good for WP.

It doesn’t sound like you were answered in HBA on any of these calls.

 

[ChrisMars]

It doesn’t sound like you were answered in HBA on any of these calls.

Indeed. Been trying again this morning, cause I didn't fully trust the request got processed correctly yesterday, plus I was hopping to get U instead of X on the domestic flight.
I still got this weird answer that they can't see the award seat, or on other calls, that those seats are not available when making changes, but just for new bookings. Plus I also got a drop call to survey too while on hold.

Finally got HBA, was anyway put on hold for 20 min to proceed the request until the call dropped . All good, I got a missed call back, with a voice message stating I got the U plus a few bucks back for tax adjustment.

Overall waiting time is fine, but that's pointless if one need to call 10 times before getting HBA to process the request correctly.

 

[blackcat20]

Those that HUACA, do you tell them or just disconnect?

 

[sudoer]

Those that HUACA, do you tell them or just disconnect?

Usually I'll say something like "okay thanks for your help, please don't make any changes to the booking - I will do some more research and call again later".

 

[cjd600]

Usually I'll say something like "okay thanks for your help, please don't make any changes to the booking - I will do some more research and call again later".

Yes, definitely don't want to give them any incentive for an 'accidental' cancellation

 

[BrettV]

Second time ever having to call Qantas. This time was to get a refund sorted after the rebooked service stuffing my plans up. Friday morning at 10am. Waited about 4 minutes, no issues with the refund being sorted. Was off the phone 5 minutes later and 24 hours later had the email saying the refund was all processed. Suspect I’m in the very small (and decreasing) minority with an efficient call centre experience…

 

[Mr H]

Second time ever having to call Qantas. This time was to get a refund sorted after the rebooked service stuffing my plans up. Friday morning at 10am. Waited about 4 minutes, no issues with the refund being sorted. Was off the phone 5 minutes later and 24 hours later had the email saying the refund was all processed. Suspect I’m in the very small (and decreasing) minority with an efficient call centre experience…

They do seem to have sorted the long wait times.

I suspect the vast majority of people have simple transactions - like your own refund - and the teams in various global cities are well able to process them.

The ones you read about here are from points nerds who are trying to push the margins of what is acceptable, trying to make the nth adjustment to a complex itinerary with multiple sectors on multiple carriers, presenting issues presented by married sectors, making adjustments necessitated by schedule changes and cancellations, and often not knowing how they want problems resolved. Throw in some inexperienced operators and some DYKWIA attitudes of some members and you have a recipe for pain. We may consume a lot of time and complain loudly, but we are not typical of most of the customers who call the support teams.

 

[blackcat20]

They do seem to have sorted the long wait times.

I suspect the vast majority of people have simple transactions - like your own refund - and the teams in various global cities are well able to process them.

The ones you read about here are from points nerds who are trying to push the margins of what is acceptable, trying to make the nth adjustment to a complex itinerary with multiple sectors on multiple carriers, presenting issues presented by married sectors, making adjustments necessitated by schedule changes and cancellations, and often not knowing how they want problems resolved. Throw in some inexperienced operators and some DYKWIA attitudes of some members and you have a recipe for pain. We may consume a lot of time and complain loudly, but we are not typical of most of the customers who call the support teams.

Nothing complex about mine, I just want to be back on the flight I booked rather than the 9pm MEL-SYD they moved me to and they still can’t manage it.

 

[sudoer]

Also nothing complex about asking for 3 pax across two bookings to be seated together.

Or booking a single leg partner award on NU which has constantly baffled all call centres except HBA.

 

[ChrisMars]

Those that HUACA, do you tell them or just disconnect?

I tell them thanks for trying nad finishing the call normally. Being rude wont make things any better, not their fault they get poor training and poor support.

 

[RooFlyer]

The ones you read about here are from points nerds who are trying to push the margins of what is acceptable, trying to make the nth adjustment to a complex itinerary with multiple sectors on multiple carriers, presenting issues presented by married sectors, making adjustments necessitated by schedule changes and cancellations, and often not knowing how they want problems resolved. Throw in some inexperienced operators and some DYKWIA attitudes of some members and you have a recipe for pain. We may consume a lot of time and complain loudly, but we are not typical of most of the customers who call the support teams.

I’m sorry, that’s pretty much just nonsense, and sounds a bit like the Joycian 'blame the customers'. And how do you know we’re not typical of what the rest the population is suffering? What I’ve observed is a whole bunch of newbies coming onto the forum with complaints and trying to find some help to get them resolved.