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
 
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I had the same thing happen last week, although as a Silver not Plat. The Cape Town agent insisted she could not see the options I had while doing a dummy booking. I pushed firmly for an escalation/supervisor, and after around an hour on hold, the agent managed to work with a supervisor to update my booking. I don't know where the supervisor was based, but it seems their is perhaps a system issue for front-line staff in CT?
Day of weekSunday
Time of call10:00 AEST
Number used131313
StatusSilver
Hold timeNone
Call Centre (if known)Cape Town
Matter resolvedYes, including re-ticketing, after 3 calls and 90 minutes all up.
DetailsCalled to make a simple change to an existing award booking SYD-MEL-ADL - essentially just wanted to bring the flights forward by one day. I had checked availability online before calling, and knew the routing I was after. The first two agents insisted there was no availability for the route - one even said "the call centre availabilities are live, whereas the qantas site availabilities are delayed by 2-3 hours".
The third agent also said there was no availability. Once again, I had to push for a team leader. Hold for about an hour, while the agent worked with the team leader to change and re-ticket the booking.
Once resolved, I asked the agent very politely why the CT call centre was unable to view all QF availability. She didn't have an answer.
 
Big early start to this morning:

Background: Youngest son booked a rewards flight to Singapore with Jetstar departing this morning 8.15am SYD - MEL connecting to Jetstar international flight 2 hours later. I was worried about the short connection but son quite blasé (obviously doesn't read AFF!) Son sends me a message at 4am received an SMS at 3.34am to say Jetstar cancelled the flight to Melbourne (I was already worried when he could not check in online yesterday). So he rings up, talks to a lady (I did ask where she was from, he had no idea where the accent was from) again not an AFF read everything person like his mother!) Complains she put him on hold for 5 mins (lol!) and then she says to him I can put you on the direct Sydney to Singapore flight departing 11.10am. Then puts him on hold again for 20 mins - he is texting me and complaining saying he might hang up. I say DON'T HANG UP! , she comes back on the line and says she will send through a new booking reference number. I say ask for the ticket pdf, don't let her off the line, he says don't stress mum I have a new booking reference. I try to tell him of all the horror stories I have read about, and he says well mum this is not one of them, and is getting quite cross with my nagging. Says he can see the flights in the app but no ticket number, so all good he might go back to sleep. I am now wide awake! I had transferred a lounge pass to him so I said you will probably lose that, he says I'll just cancel it and apply it to the new flight. I say I think it is 24 hours ahead of flight, next minute he says pass applied to new flight booking (lucky boy). Still no ticket sent through, he was getting tired of my questioning and now he was also wide awake, I say go to the airport 4 hours before, yes says he (of course didn't get there until 3 hours before). I don't hear anything from him for an hour or so, I'm doing mum stressing. Apparently went to the airport still no emailed ticket sent through tried to check in at the airport with the machine. To quote him: a woman walks past, takes my passport and came back with my ticket/boarding pass. He likes an aisle seat as he is very tall she says no its a middle seat in a bassinet row.

Finally sends me a picture of his breakfast in the lounge, says he will probably eat up as he lost his meal booking on the Jetstar flight. May even have a mimosa as "he's on holidays!" I look up the departing Jetstar flight, no Jetstar flight, its a Qantas flight I say, he says is it? He thought it would be a Jetstar flight. I say, so you will get a meal on the flight, free entertainment and no one reclining in front of you and row 23.
I say you have been very lucky, for this to all work out so well, with such short notice. He who has no idea what others have been through says "well they did cancel my flight, isn't that what they should do?" Yes I say with a big sigh! Have a great flight.

I am thinking is it too early for a whisky (for me)!!
 
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Another set of calls, another fiasco.

Simple award itinerary SYD-AKL-SYD round trip in November. Outbound booked on QF metal X, return on LA metal U class. Eticketed automatically in May when booked.

LA then changed days of operation of their service which meant our Tuesday departure was no longer possible. Automatically reaccommodated on Wednesday morning but I need to be back for work. X availablility on Tuesday's QF morning service so I thought I'd move our booking from the LA service to the QF service, suck up the Economy service and be back for work on Tuesday afternoon.

Called early July and spoke to agent who changed itinerary to desired QF/QF X services, took credit card for payment as QF taxes* are higher and advised of points refund. Said would ticket within 24 hours.

Ticket never arrived. CMT shows no eticket. Manage my Booking itinerary resend function generates a PDF that still has the QF X/LA U services and etickets.

Given had nothing particularly pressing to do today thought I'd give it a go. First agent was clueless so HUACA. Second agent spent more than an hour including a "I need to continue the call so will hang up and call you back" - which they did.

Much hold music from the 80s and occasional typing, plus a reconfirmation of the card number (no doubt so they can charge the full amount of taxes/fees/charges again).

After 50 minutes and promises that it was almost done, call drops out.

Call back, tell agent that this needs to be ticketed. They can't call ticketing, and the department that authorises points refunds (!) does not work on Sunday. Asked for a supervisor. Apparently there are no supervisors on Sundays (!).

🤡 show at Coward St continues full pace.

How do people who don't know how this works cope? I suggested to my partner that we screenshot the Qantas Manage My Booking page and rock up on the day of departure and make it the airport staff problem as probably 90% of people do.
 
I suggested to my partner that we screenshot the Qantas Manage My Booking page and rock up on the day of departure and make it the airport staff problem as probably 90% of people do.
Problem with that is that they'll sit you in front of a telephone in the check-in area and get you to call reservations to sort it out while the precious minutes to your flight tick away.
 
Problem with that is that they'll sit you in front of a telephone in the check-in area and get you to call reservations to sort it out while the precious minutes to your flight tick away.
Yep, I'm not going to let that happen to me, but I do wonder how often it is happening and the remaining frontline staff on the ground at the airport are dealing with passenger meltdowns.

There's some people who can just swim through life without sweating details like I do - sometimes I wish I was one of those people who didn't check bookings religiously...
 
Big early start to this morning:

Background: Youngest son booked a rewards flight to Singapore with Jetstar departing this morning 8.15am SYD - MEL connecting to Jetstar international flight 2 hours later. I was worried about the short connection but son quite blasé (obviously doesn't read AFF!) Son sends me a message at 4am received an SMS at 3.34am to say Jetstar cancelled the flight to Melbourne (I was already worried when he could not check in online yesterday). So he rings up, talks to a lady (I did ask where she was from, he had no idea where the accent was from )again not an AFF read everything person like his mother!) Complains she put him on hold for 5 mins (lol!) and then she says to him I can put you on the direct Sydney to Singapore flight departing 11.10am. Then puts him on hold again for 20 mins - he is texting me and complaining saying he might hang up. I say DON'T HANG UP! , she comes back on the line and says she will send through a new booking reference number. I say ask for the ticket pdf, don't let her off the line, he says don't stress mum I have a new booking reference. I try to tell him of all the horror stories I have read about, and he say well mum this is not one of them, and is getting quite cross with my nagging. Says he can see the flights in the app but no ticket number, so all good he might go back to sleep. I am now wide awake! I had transferred a lounge pass to him so I said you will probably lose that, he says I'll just cancel it and apply it to the new flight. I say I think it is 24 hours ahead of flight, next minute he says pass applied to new flight booking (lucky boy). Still no ticket sent through, he was getting tired of my questioning and now he was also wide awake, I say go to the airport 4 hours before, yes says he (of course didn't get there until 3 hours before). I don't hear anything from him for an hour or so, I'm doing mum stressing. Apparently went to the airport still no emailed ticket sent through tried to book in at the airport with the machine. To quote him: a woman walks past, takes my passport and came back with my ticket. He likes an aisle seat as he is very tall she says no its a middle seat in a bassinet row.

Finally sends me a picture of his breakfast in the lounge, says he will probably eat up as he lost his meal booking on the Jetstar flight. May even have a mimosa as "he's on holidays!" I look up the departing Jetstar flight, no Jetstar flight, its a Qantas flight I say, he says is it? He thought it would be a Jetstar flight. I say, so you will get a meal on the flight, free entertainment and no one reclining in front of you and row 23.
I say you have been very lucky, for this to all work out so well, with such short notice. He who has no idea what others have been through says "well they did cancel my flight, isn't that what they should do?" Yes I say with a big sigh! Have a great flight.

I am thinking is it too early for a whisky (for me)!!
Sometimes too much information gets in our way, doesn't it? You do all the stressing and son ignorantly breezes through! I am so pleased for him. He just doesn't know how lucky he was. Poor you.
 
Big early start to this morning:

Background: Youngest son booked a rewards flight to Singapore with Jetstar departing this morning 8.15am SYD - MEL connecting to Jetstar international flight 2 hours later. I was worried about the short connection but son quite blasé (obviously doesn't read AFF!) Son sends me a message at 4am received an SMS at 3.34am to say Jetstar cancelled the flight to Melbourne (I was already worried when he could not check in online yesterday). So he rings up, talks to a lady (I did ask where she was from, he had no idea where the accent was from )again not an AFF read everything person like his mother!) Complains she put him on hold for 5 mins (lol!) and then she says to him I can put you on the direct Sydney to Singapore flight departing 11.10am. Then puts him on hold again for 20 mins - he is texting me and complaining saying he might hang up. I say DON'T HANG UP! , she comes back on the line and says she will send through a new booking reference number. I say ask for the ticket pdf, don't let her off the line, he says don't stress mum I have a new booking reference. I try to tell him of all the horror stories I have read about, and he say well mum this is not one of them, and is getting quite cross with my nagging. Says he can see the flights in the app but no ticket number, so all good he might go back to sleep. I am now wide awake! I had transferred a lounge pass to him so I said you will probably lose that, he says I'll just cancel it and apply it to the new flight. I say I think it is 24 hours ahead of flight, next minute he says pass applied to new flight booking (lucky boy). Still no ticket sent through, he was getting tired of my questioning and now he was also wide awake, I say go to the airport 4 hours before, yes says he (of course didn't get there until 3 hours before). I don't hear anything from him for an hour or so, I'm doing mum stressing. Apparently went to the airport still no emailed ticket sent through tried to book in at the airport with the machine. To quote him: a woman walks past, takes my passport and came back with my ticket. He likes an aisle seat as he is very tall she says no its a middle seat in a bassinet row.

Finally sends me a picture of his breakfast in the lounge, says he will probably eat up as he lost his meal booking on the Jetstar flight. May even have a mimosa as "he's on holidays!" I look up the departing Jetstar flight, no Jetstar flight, its a Qantas flight I say, he says is it? He thought it would be a Jetstar flight. I say, so you will get a meal on the flight, free entertainment and no one reclining in front of you and row 23.
I say you have been very lucky, for this to all work out so well, with such short notice. He who has no idea what others have been through says "well they did cancel my flight, isn't that what they should do?" Yes I say with a big sigh! Have a great flight.

I am thinking is it too early for a whisky (for me)!!
One of those times where ignorance really is bliss…
 
And that’s basically the attitude of the vast non AFF travelling public. Best fare of day.

4am would be 6am AKL and 8pm CPT
HBA would still be closed.
Did he get resolution from CPT?
Son has just arrived, flight was full. Tired from the early start. I will check with him tomorrow where he thinks the call centre was.
 
I've given up trying to change our flight and logged a complaint/request through customer care. U seats on earlier flights are disappearing so I don't like our chances now, I think our plan will be to ask to be moved to an earlier flight at check in, in Y if needed, just to get to Syd earlier.
 
I think it’s an age thing??
Still don't think of all the negative consequences as we do - and have plan B through Z - accordingly. Risk reward ratio in their mind different… I can recall (and I shudder) risks I took travelling in Europe after uni (often solo)..
Number one son had same attitude - "You olds just stress too much." When I warn him about a 2 day AFL SYD/MEL weekend at start of the recent school holidays.

Got a call at 9.15pm on the Sunday night - 'They just cancelled my flight and said they might get me back on Tuesday if I'm lucky.'

Was it wrong to smile?
 
Three hours and counting across half a dozen calls and agents to make a simple booking with a Qantas Travel Pass that the system abjectly refuses to process, despite the balance on the pass being greater than the value of the flight.

The 🎪 continues.
 
Three hours and counting across half a dozen calls and agents to make a simple booking with a Qantas Travel Pass that the system abjectly refuses to process, despite the balance on the pass being greater than the value of the flight.

The 🎪 continues.
Plus ca change….Plus la meme chose!!
They dont want that kind of booking
— better you have to PAY EXTRA to get a ticket

Its all about the folding
 
Plus ca change….Plus la meme chose!!
They dont want that kind of booking
— better you have to PAY EXTRA to get a ticket

Its all about the folding
Alas. Here I was committing to not flying Qantas until this nonsense stops, but decided to book this flight to get the pass used up.

Problem is: I'm stubborn, so now it's the principle of the thing.

Joke's still on me. 🙃
 
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I Rang the QF Platiinum number yesterday afternoon to have a friends booking linked to mine and have his seat moved next to me. I only waited 2 mins on hold and was then answered by a lady who understood what I wanted. However, for some strange reason she had to call the 'Help Desk' to get the matter sorted. This only took about 10 minutes, but seemed very strange that she couldn't process such a simple request herself. Anyway, can't complain, all was done in a reasonable time.:)
 
However, for some strange reason she had to call the 'Help Desk' to get the matter sorted.
Do you know where the agent was located?

I called to do the exact same thing yesterday, got a NZ agent and they had to go into their 'seating system' to process the request. So she didn't have to call someone else, but had to access a separate system. If your agent wasn't in Aus/NZ, it makes me think that Aus/NZ agents do have greater access to systems than other agents.
 

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