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

 

[ellen10]

Some of you my recall my post on sunday of my son's Jetstar SYD - MEL flight cancellation which was to connect to Jetstar MEL -SIN. He was very luckily transferred to a direct SYD - Sin flight that same morning (he is lowly bronze and the flight was on points).
That same morning he only received an email with a new booking reference and saying that the new ticket would be emailed within the next 24.
So with no new eticket, Mum stressed but son confidently went to the airport and is now enjoying his holiday in Singapore.

Interestingly, this morning 3 days later his new eticket PDF arrived in his email today for his flight last sunday. So was he lucky to get a boarding pass with just the new booking reference? Or is this how it works with last minute cancellations and new bookings?

 

[Mr H]

Some of you my recall my post on sunday of my son's Jetstar SYD - MEL flight cancellation which was to connect to Jetstar MEL -SIN. He was very luckily transferred to a direct SYD - Sin flight that same morning (he is lowly bronze and the flight was on points).
That same morning he only received an email with a new booking reference and saying that the new ticket would be emailed within the next 24.
So with no new eticket, Mum stressed but son confidently went to the airport and is now enjoying his holiday in Singapore.

Interestingly, this morning 3 days later his new eticket PDF arrived in his email today for his flight last sunday. So was he lucky to get a boarding pass with just the new booking reference? Or is this how it works with last minute cancellations and new bookings?

Eticket PDFs are purely decorative (although they can be a useful record if/when Qantas unilaterally cancels your booking). What matters is what is on the Amadeus system which is accessed using the six letter booking reference. You should always be able to check in using just your booking reference and name provided there is a ticket number in the system associated with the booking.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

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.

Follow-up:

I rang in early this morning and was connected straightaway to a helpful man with a rather thick French accent. I was very encouraged as he seemed very competent and like he knew what he was doing. However, he (like many others have recently noted) then had to contact the "support desk" to figure out what was the matter with the Travel Pass. Oddly, he asked if he could give me a call-back "in the next minute" and I wondered if that was his way of getting me off the line, but true to word, he called me immediately. It seemed odd to hang up proactively and immediately call me back. The line then dropped twice more while he was working with the support team but he dutifully called back each time.

Then, however, I suspect his shift ended because after all his efforts he suddenly suggested I call back later and gave up.

Annoyed, not least because the flight had gone up $50 and now required $40 additional from my credit card beyond the Travel Pass, I rang one of the numbers at the top of this page. I couldn't discern the accent (didn't sound to come from ANZ, Fiji or South Africa), but the agent cheerfully initiated the same process. I expected little but she came back and said it had worked and she somehow immediately was able to "call the ticketing team" to have the ticket issued.

Great!

Ah, except I see my credit card has been hit four times in slightly varying amounts of ~$40 as it appears (?) they fiddled around with figuring out the exact balance on the Travel Pass.

I immediately called back to be told the charge only appears on the ticket once and that the pre-authorisations will drop off. We shall see. Hopefully my next call isn't to AMEX.

 

[dylarr]

Oddly, he asked if he could give me a call-back "in the next minute" and I wondered if that was his way of getting me off the line, but true to word, he called me immediately. It seemed odd to hang up proactively and immediately call me back.

I’ve had an agent in South Africa do the exact same thing to me recently. I have no idea what the point of them asking to hang up and call you back immediately is. Maybe they are trying to cut their inbound call handling time down or something?

 

[Chrism13]

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.

No, I'm not sure where the agent was located, but there was an Indian accent, maybe Fiji??

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I’ve had an agent in South Africa do the exact same thing to me recently. I have no idea what the point of them asking to hang up and call you back immediately is.

I'm a privacy and cybersecurity lawyer by trade and my immediate thought was wondering if I'm being scammed.

Then again it was also a trial for my soul to have to read my credit card number out to half a dozen people multiple times over the last 24 hours.

Keeps things exciting.

 

[RAM]

I’ve had an agent in South Africa do the exact same thing to me recently. I have no idea what the point of them asking to hang up and call you back immediately is. Maybe they are trying to cut their inbound call handling time down or something?

Perhaps in their system they are now:

# Penalised for length of phone calls
# Penalised for length of time on hold ( )
# Able to count each call back as a separate call dealt with...
# Rewarded for cutting cost/capacity of incoming phone calls

As a result of all the bad media coverage Q has been getting on CC wait times - the straw finally got heavy enough?

 

[ellen10]

Eticket PDFs are purely decorative (although they can be a useful record if/when Qantas unilaterally cancels your booking). What matters is what is on the Amadeus system which is accessed using the six letter booking reference. You should always be able to check in using just your booking reference and name provided there is a ticket number in the system associated with the booking.

He was not able to check in online or at the airport himself. He had to get assistance from a staff member at the airport, who went away with his passport and came back with the boarding pass..

 

[Leroy]

Today's experience

On hold for 10 minutes, hung up straight away and through to survey.

Call back, on hold about 15 minutes. Get through. Am told to call another number. I refuse and explain this is the 4th or 5th time I've called about a cancellation Qantas made with no alternative offered back in March. Each time I've been told everything has been processed. It's yet to be processed. Since March they've held onto money and points that aren't theirs.

Currently on hold for the 3rd time this call. Been on hold for over an hour now.

I wish I could invoice them for my time. What a rabble.

Edit: 2 hours on hold then hung up on. Calling for a third time. Getting very hard to be polite every time I call knowing the fault doesn't lie with the Individual at Customer Service.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

I have (or had) an existing booking SYD-ADL-KUL-SIN-KUL-MNL-SYD in J, all on MH except for SYD-ADL and MNL-SYD on QF. Called through today to push out the KUL-SIN flight by one day. Again asked for it to be ticketed immediately, given MH remove legs that haven't been ticketed within 24 hours. After 2 hours on hold waiting for reticketing, the phone goes dead. I now check MMB, and all of the MH flights have been removed. Frustrating is an understatement. And the only solution? Another 2 hours on hold with this incompetent mob. How can it be that a simple change of date is so difficult...

 

[Mrmrbagley]

I am in shock
I got through in less than a minute at 10am this morning.
Did they solve my problem though - no - seems my shock has been mitigated

 

[Lynda2475]

I got through in less than a minute at 10am this morning.
Did they solve my problem though - no - seems my shock has been mitigated

There doesn't appear to be any lengthy wait to have a call answered anymore, since Fiji came online BUT now the calls take longer and multiple calls to get issues resolved. Capetown and Fiji are rarely able to solve an issue (they often make it worse) and when they can resolve it, usually takes hours being put on hold for lengthy periods multiple times.

I for one would rather wait on hold longer and if I could be guaranteed to get Hobart or Auckland so problems resolved correctly first time.

 

[Pushka]

Had to call again just now. WP. Flights booked Adl - Cbr two weeks ago for flight next Monday hadn't been ticketed. Had PNR etc and had selected seats. Answered within a minute and took a few minutes to ticket. Wonder what would have happened if he'd just rocked up to the airport.

 

[love_the_life]

Had to call again just now. WP. Flights booked Adl - Cbr two weeks ago for flight next Monday hadn't been ticketed. Had PNR etc and had selected seats. Answered within a minute and took a few minutes to ticket. Wonder what would have happened if he'd just rocked up to the airport.

Are you travelling as well?

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Had to call again just now. WP. Flights booked Adl - Cbr two weeks ago for flight next Monday hadn't been ticketed. Had PNR etc and had selected seats. Answered within a minute and took a few minutes to ticket. Wonder what would have happened if he'd just rocked up to the airport.

Do you know which call centre? Cape Town and Fiji do not appear to be able to ticket themselves - they have to call a 'ticketing' line, which seems to take ~60 minutes each time.

 

[Pushka]

Are you travelling as well?

Sadly no. Just an overnighter.

Post automatically merged: Jul 27, 2022

Do you know which call centre? Cape Town and Fiji do not appear to be able to ticket themselves - they have to call a 'ticketing' line, which seems to take ~60 minutes each time.

Sounded like a local. But he did take a while to come back to me now I think about it - call lasted 16 minutes I see.

 

[love_the_life]

Sadly no. Just an overnighter.

Post automatically merged: Jul 27, 2022

Sounded like a local. But he did take a while to come back to me now I think about it - call lasted 16 minutes I see.

Bummer - could have had a catch up. Sigh

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Sadly no. Just an overnighter.

Post automatically merged: Jul 27, 2022

Sounded like a local. But he did take a while to come back to me now I think about it - call lasted 16 minutes I see.

If it is the case that only local call centres can ticket themselves, begs the question why QF is not allowing overseas call centres to do the same. Don't trust them? Train them better. Systems aren't set-up appropriately? Don't go live with a call centre that can't provide the most basic of services.

8 hours on the phone to QF today, and I'm still trying to get my booking re-ticketed.

 

[adenda]

There doesn't appear to be any lengthy wait to have a call answered anymore, since Fiji came online BUT now the calls take longer and multiple calls to get issues resolved. Capetown and Fiji are rarely able to solve an issue (they often make it worse) and when they can resolve it, usually takes hours being put on hold for lengthy periods multiple times.

I for one would rather wait on hold longer and if I could be guaranteed to get Hobart or Auckland so problems resolved correctly first time.

Spoken to Fiji twice in recent days - both times answered very quickly - to check on seat availability for additional sectors for our existing OWA booking. No success either time but both agents managed to delete existing sectors from our itinerary! Fortunately was able to get them reinstated both times after frantically calling back. Surprisingly it was also Fiji that fixed the problem.
My advice is have your booking open on the Qantas website when calling and don’t hang up until you’ve refreshed the screen and confirmed that nothing has changed that you didn’t request.

 

[MooTime]

If it is the case that only local call centres can ticket themselves, begs the question why QF is not allowing overseas call centres to do the same. Don't trust them? Train them better.

Can you imagine the debacle if O/S call centres could ticket your flights.....my goodness, you'd book Paris or Rome & end up in Timbuktu or Albuquerque.

If you think QF couldn't get any less match fit, give the O/S pros this ability.