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

 

[ChrisMars]

Day of week	Monday
Time of call	17:45 AEST
Number used	131211
Status	WP
Hold time	5 min
Call Centre (if known)	Very likely offshore
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Called to enquiry about a ticket that was siting in the queue since last week. Agent told it looks good no issue on this one, and that he will ask for immediate ticketing. He could also see I enquiry about this one last Wednesday. Told me to wait an extra 48h, and to call back if no news. 5 min later after the call ended, the ticket landed in my inbox. One less thing to worry about. I still have another one to get ticketed, but this one is a bit tricky and I would prefer to have Hobart on the line; so I'll try my luck later this week.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yeah. I also spoke too soon. The agent who "rebooked" on Saturday night/Sunday morning "didnt do it properly" (according to the SA call centre) and I got booted off the flight again 24hrs later. Making for another 1h15m on the phone at 0030 this morning.

Just an update - my experience hasn't been as positive as I would have liked.

Oh, Lordy. Sorry to hear that.

 

[RooFlyer]

Called to enquiry about a ticket that was siting in the queue since last week. Agent told it looks good no issue on this one, and that he will ask for immediate ticketing. He could also see I enquiry about this one last Wednesday. Told me to wait an extra 48h, and to call back if no news. 5 min later after the call ended, the ticket landed in my inbox. One less thing to worry about.

This could be an interesting one. When you say 'likely offshore' - maybe NZ? Else it might show that Fiji and Sth Africa CAN get eTickets issued without them disappearing into some queue to the rejection pile.

 

[ChrisMars]

This could be an interesting one. When you say 'likely offshore' - maybe NZ? Else it might show that Fiji and Sth Africa CAN get eTickets issued without them disappearing into some queue to the rejection pile.

I am not the best with accents, and I didnt ask because it was a low risk request. I should have asked, for our benefit. I think he just clicked somewhere to request 'immediate' action. The Hobart agent last week just told me it was sitting nice and safe in the queue, and to call back this week if no news, in which case it will be actioned.
Can't beleive we reached a point where we share those mundane info and experience, getting an itinary ticketed... Sad

 

[MJHoops]

I am not the best with accents, and I didnt ask because it was a low risk request. I should have asked, for our benefit. I think he just clicked somewhere to request 'immediate' action. The Hobart agent last week just told me it was sitting nice and safe in the queue, and to call back this week if no news, in which case it will be actioned.
Can't beleive we reached a point where we share those mundane info and experience, getting an itinary ticketed... Sad

I had a ticket issued 20 mins after a call to MNL (so I infer the MNL agent did this - the call dropped out before I got the email) and another ticket issued while on the phone to Fiji - I spent about an hour on hold while this was done

FWIW an agent in Fiji (who did not issue my ticket) claimed the ticketing team was in South Africa. Presumably though they are staff who we do not speak to when we get the CPT call centre

 

[Anna]

I had a perfectly ok experience yesterday when I needed to ring QF to ask why there were 2 different 'total price' lines on my eticket. I was answered quickly, the guy knew exactly what I meant and emailed me the carrier charges and full price breakdown and it was all sorted in less than 5 minutes. Totally unlike my diabolical experience in late March / early April (but the voucher I used up back then is still showing in my QFF profile as available to use Thanks CPT!)

Not sure which call centre I got yesterday. There was a lot of background chatter. The accent was not South African I don't think, but not Aussie either.

 

[Scr77]

Well bugger me! Had a cancelled reward flight and the system offered a new flight with connection of 60 minutes. Called 1300 659 116 at 9am Today and had zero wait time. Offshore agent was helpful and easily put me on an earlier flight. I nearly fell over when the eTicket arrived a few minutes later!

 

[RooFlyer]

 

[1022]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	9:17 AEST
Number used	131313
Status	SG
Hold time	0 min
Call Centre (if known)	Suva
Matter resolved	Yes - pending re-ticketing
Details	Called to cancel an outbound BA leg on a 2 sector multi-city open jaw classic reward but keep the return QF flight. Call was answered immediately. Clear line and the agent sounded confident and professional from the outset. (Sub-continent accent so could have been in any call centre really, including Hobart of course. I suspected Fiji given large Fijian-Indian population and she confirmed this at the end of the call when I took down her name and call centre location). I was clear that I definitely only wanted cancel the first leg and not lose the second. She repeated the request and dates, put me on hold for 5 minutes or so to recalculate taxes. Came back with a tax refund figure, asked me again to confirm I was ready to cancel one sector and keep the second then put me on hold again to do it. About 10 minute hold then confirmation that the booking was updated and that tax and points refunds would take up to 8 weeks. MMB updated correctly at that time. No mention of a point or cash phone change fee. She said it's gone back into the ticketing queue. I'm not too stressed that the new ticket didn't land immediately seeing as the remaining leg is on Qantas metal. My original seat request still shows in MMB so it doesn't look like that flight has been tampered with. I'll follow up in a week or so if it still hasn't been ticketed. All in all, a professional and positive experience with Suva - which of course should be baseline when calling QF. I've dealt with AA's Fiji call centre before and found them good, so it seems there's a pool of well trained airline reservations staff there. I was fortunate today to get a good one. Incidentally the reason to cancel the BA PE leg was that I found a surprising amount of J availability on SQ out of Australia with Velocity points so took advantage of their points purchase bonus offer that just ended last night...those QF golden handcuffs are starting to slip off...more and more...

 

[RAM]

Well bugger me! Had a cancelled reward flight and the system offered a new flight with connection of 60 minutes. Called 1300 659 116 at 9am Today and had zero wait time. Offshore agent was helpful and easily put me on an earlier flight. I nearly fell over when the eTicket arrived a few minutes later!

You're not smoking the teabags again are you?

 

[spade1686]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	17:30 AEST
Number used	131313
Status	Red
Hold time	5 min
Call Centre (if known)	Offshore
Matter resolved	Yes - Pending Reticketing
Details	Called to make a change to my classic reward booking on Qatar airways (i know! a bit risky considering all the issues recently but the opportunity was too good to pass up). Ran the agent through the requested changes and the agent confirmed availability, put me on hold for a few minutes and then advised of the further points charge as well as a small refund due to a difference in taxes. Confirmed that i wanted to go ahead, change took a few more minutes. Was advised that due to the ticketing office being closed, points charge and the new tickets being issued could take upto 48hrs (not sure if this is true?). Qantas MMB shows the changes (as well as the qatar website) but weirdly, i can't select seats. A bit anxious considering Qatar has tight deadlines around reticketing so might give another call tomorrow if nothing comes through overnight

 

[adenda]

Day of week	Friday
Time of call	13:18 AEST
Number used	131313
Status	Bronze
Hold time	A minute or 2
Call Centre (if known)	Highly suspect Fiji based on the level and nature of background noise (lots of giggling). Agent (Nish) didn't sound particularly Fijian though
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Called to enquire about availability of extra sectors for our OWA but stated upfront that I just wanted to know about availability and didn't want any changes made to my booking. Agent managed to find availability within a few minutes without putting me on hold once for 3 of the 4 flights I was after (despite flight 4 availability showing on QF, BA & JL websites). Agent asked if I wanted to add them to the booking and I said yes however I said I wanted to ensure that the flights were ticketed ASAP to avoid any issues with cancelled bookings due to slow ticketing. Agent immediately understood what I was talking about and said he would speak directly to ticketing team to get it done. Hung up and hoped for the best. To my surprise I got a call at about 8:30 that night from the agent who said he was speaking to the ticketing team as he was on the phone with me and they needed me to complete the APIS information on the QF website before they could ticket the booking. He then waited while I completed the info. Told me the I should receive an email shortly and hung up. Well I did receive an email confirmation (full itinerary) about 10 minutes later! Fantastic service the likes of which I thought only Hobart could provide - maybe things are changing?

 

[Port Power]

	Qantas MMB shows the changes (as well as the qatar website) but weirdly, i can't select seats. A bit anxious considering Qatar has tight deadlines around reticketing so might give another call tomorrow if nothing comes through overnight

I believe Qatar have different levels of J, one of which doesn’t include seat selection. I have the same problem with paid flights. I’m hoping that at initial check in I can have my preferred seats locked in. Otherwise I will ask in the lounge in Doha.

 

[Nitro6333]

I believe Qatar have different levels of J, one of which doesn’t include seat selection. I have the same problem with paid flights. I’m hoping that at initial check in I can have my preferred seats locked in. Otherwise I will ask in the lounge in Doha.

I’ve had to call Qatar cs to select seats several times in the past when it’s not working in Qatar mmb

 

[pauly7]

At the moment I’m really annoyed the Qantas call centre is answering my calls too quickly, they don’t even give me enough time to clear my throat before I speak

According to the herd on here I should immediately write to Alan Joyce to complain

Singapore airlines is still a disaster usually an hour. I’ve started using admin to deal with them.

Virgin is getting bad again, probably because of their cancellation issues of late.

 

[Mattg]

At the moment I’m really annoyed the Qantas call centre is answering my calls too quickly, they don’t even give me enough time to clear my throat before I speak

According to the herd on here I should immediately write to Alan Joyce to complain

Singapore airlines is still a disaster usually an hour. I’ve started using admin to deal with them.

Virgin is getting bad again, probably because of their cancellation issues of late.

It's great that calls are getting answered more quickly. But if they are not answered by someone who is competent and trained properly, what's the point?

Not saying all of Qantas' overseas call centre staff are incompetent - clearly some are not - but the number of mistakes being made and incorrect information being given is still unacceptably high.

 

[pauly7]

It's great that calls are getting answered more quickly. But if they are not answered by someone who is competent and trained properly, what's the point?

I’ve had no issues and glad you aren’t painting all oveseas workers as incompetent as the vibe in this thread from some is pretty disappointing…

 

[Scr77]

I’ve had no issues and glad you aren’t painting all oveseas workers as incompetent as the vibe in this thread from some is pretty disappointing…

There are positive experiences posted here about overseas call centres. From my calls, I actually think whats been reported here is pretty accurate. Thread started with long waits, then waits shortened with poorly trained OS staff added, now call times are very short and staff training or experience is improving.

 

[pauly7]

There are positive experiences posted here about overseas call centres.

That’s great to hear some balance is working it’s way in then. Hopefully turning vibe of this forum around a bit.

 

[RooFlyer]

That’s great to hear some balance is working it’s way in then. Hopefully turning vibe of this forum around a bit.

That sounds very Joycian. Blame the customers ...

The thread's 'vibe' and 'balance' will improve when Qantas stops - or hides - its contempt for its customers by adequately training its call centre staff to deal with at least basic requests and doesn't screw up or destroy so many people's carefully laid travel plans. Oh, and stop hanging up on people.

Fewer screw-ups - fewer complaints. Easy.