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

 

[Nitro6333]

Surely people are booking award seats with OneWorld airlines, and the current strike rate would suggest probably half aren't being ticketed properly.

More than half. I have lost 2 of 3 OWA’s in the last 2 weeks and I tried multiple times before the flights were removed to get the tickets.

 

[exLXCXFF]

I understand that only HBA, AKL and Manila are able to ticket. Capetown and Fiji are not, and have not been trained to do so. You can imagine if there was a number to select for ticketing that went to Hobart, everyone would use it for any and every reason! Unfortunately, therein lies one of the problems. Why Qantas doesn't just train every call centre to do all jobs properly is a question that will never be answered.

I don’t think this is entirely correct. CapeTown can re-issue tickets after a OW schedule change (if the person knows how to do it). A lady did that for a Finnair flight and even sent me the amadeus extract before the actual eTicket arrived.

 

[Nitro6333]

I understand that only HBA, AKL and Manila are able to ticket. Capetown and Fiji are not, and have not been trained to do so. You can imagine if there was a number to select for ticketing that went to Hobart, everyone would use it for any and every reason!

Agreed but at the agents discretion they should ha the ability to transfer you to someone who can ticket

 

[eminere]

When are other Platinum members calling that they get through to someone in Hobart or Auckland? I keep getting routed to Cape Town.

 

[jpp42]

Try calling first thing in the morning, 7-8am, for an apparently higher chance of getting Hobart.

 

[encryptededdy]

Personally I've had the best luck calling 1-3pm east coast time :/

 

[BriarFlyer]

And my most successful time has been between 11.30am - noon (ETA: east coast.)

 

[levelnine]

I think it actually depends on what menu item you select.

If I select a modification to a domestic booking, I more often than not get a non-HBA agent.

If I select a modification to an international booking, I more often than not get a HBA agent.

Not guaranteed, but I think they route more complex calls to HBA agents if possible for Plats.

 

[ChrisMars]

I had very little success getting HBA in evenings. During th day, it s random for me. Always had to mod an existing international booking.

 

[TheInsider]

So the majority who need to be reticketed probably get screwed, yes?

What answer are you expecting? All I said was, that the majority of customers don't know what a 'ticket' actually is.

 

[RooFlyer]

What answer are you expecting? All I said was, that the majority of customers don't know what a 'ticket' actually is.

Not expecting an answer. Retorical question.

 

[eminere]

Try calling first thing in the morning, 7-8am, for an apparently higher chance of getting Hobart.

Personally I've had the best luck calling 1-3pm east coast time :/

And my most successful time has been between 11.30am - noon (ETA: east coast.)

I think it actually depends on what menu item you select.

If I select a modification to a domestic booking, I more often than not get a non-HBA agent.

If I select a modification to an international booking, I more often than not get a HBA agent.

Not guaranteed, but I think they route more complex calls to HBA agents if possible for Plats.

I had very little success getting HBA in evenings. During th day, it s random for me. Always had to mod an existing international booking.

Thank you all for the data points.

 

[JohnM]

I phoned the WP line today about 0900h WST with a domestic enquiry (we got downgraded to a whY-only bird CBR-SYD last week on a J points redemption PER-xMEL-CBR-xSYD-PER because the B717 was late and we would have missed our connection. I wanted a refund of points.)

Wait time <15 mins, given call-back option, which happened at about the nominated duration. I didn't ask, but pretty obviously HBA. Sorted.

 

[RooFlyer]

I phoned the WP line today about 0900h WST with a domestic enquiry (we got downgraded to a whY-only bird CBR-SYD last week on a J points redemption PER-xMEL-CBR-xSYD-PER because the B717 was late and we would have missed our connection. I wanted a refund of points.)

Wait time <15 mins, given call-back option, which happened at about the nominated duration. I didn't ask, but pretty obviously HBA. Sorted.

I had the same issue MEL-HBA a few days ago, but bird not late, just subbed to whY-only. About to make the same call.

 

[nolasyd]

Thanks everyone for the great insights. I just had my first QF Call Centre series of engagement post COVID over the past 3 weeks. We have an award flight (QF Classic) to the US booked in December, and I was looking to cancel the return leg and have the miles/fees refunded as we have booked alternate return flights. Who would have know that this request would have ended up being a 3 week process taking 6+ hours of time.

1st Agent - Fiji - Tells me that my best bet is to fly to to the US and then ring QF to cancel and refund the return once I am there. She indicates that I can't amend the the trip before I depart? This seems strange so I check on the QFF website which contradicts the agents and indicates "You can change date and time, class of travel, or cancel your Classic Flight Reward bookings up to 24 hours before departure of the first flight segment of your itinerary"

2nd Call - Fiji - I advise agent that I want to cancel and refund the return leg, and that the first agent told me I could not but that contradicts the QFF policy. She puts me on hold for an extended period of time then says she can cancel the leg. After about 45 minutes she says it is done and I will have a new itinerary in 24 hrs.

3rd Call - Fiji - after 3 days: I seem to start all over again with another agent who sees the return flight cancelled, but can't work out how to get things refunded. She even says it can't be refunded because I owe $250 in infant fees. I told her that could not be the case as I already had a fully ticketed return flight - fully paid - including infant. I read out all the ticket numbers. She has me provide my credit card number for fee refund over and over again (I must have provided it 5-6 times during the call). She then sends me a copy of the record from the GDS (the text looking version with no ticket numbers) - as we are about to disconnect for the survey she says she lots everything and has to re-do it again. She then blamed me for "being in the record." All I had done was pulled it up online to get the booking reference! Agent re-does the booking and says credit will come through in a few days - and miles will come later. New ticket should arrive in 24 hrs.

4th Call - Fiji - after a week of nothing - Agent puts me on hold for 20 minutes and comes back to say everything looks fine. He says I need to wait 10 more days for ticking and refund.

5th Call - Manila - after a further week of nothing - Agent says the record needs to be pushed to the ticketing queue. After looking at all my interactions, she says I need to hold to speak with a specialist. I get transferred to what seems to be an internal call centre as it opened with all kinds of jargon about ensuring you place the record request in XZY before calling

6th Call - internal NZ Support Call Centre - the agent was beyond incredible. She could not believe an agent transferred me to her as she is meant to be internal facing - but she was more than happy to help. She felt very sorry for the experience I had gone through - but even for her (she said she worked for Qantas for decades) it still took about 20 minutes to get things sorted. When the call was taking longer than she liked, she told me to go enjoy dinner and she promised to ring back when the ticketing and refund were completed. About an hour later, the phone rang and Hellen gave me the good news! She also put the ticket confirmation in the "urgent" queue so it would be emailed in the next 30 minutes.

All in all - an awful experience for such a basic request. That being said, Helen in NZ saved the day and I have to thank the Manila agent who accidentally connected me to her. From what I can tell, all the agents are very nice, but knowledge around re-ticketing or fixing complex ticket issues is well beyond the skills of but a few senior agents. Glad it got sorted in the end - but why such a simple request ended up being complex is beyond me.

 

[encryptededdy]

and I have to thank the Manila agent who accidentally connected me to her.

Haha, I was thinking this too.

It really seems like a lot of the time it's probably easier to explain your issue to the internal ticketing desk directly than to explain it to a call centre agent who then has to explain it to ticketing...

 

[nolasyd]

Haha, I was thinking this too.

It really seems like a lot of the time it's probably easier to explain your issue to the internal ticketing desk directly than to explain it to a call centre agent who then has to explain it to ticketing...

100% - it was so much more efficient!

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @nolasyd . That’s Qantas for you - the offshore call centres have been awful for years

 

[eric2011]

Hi, just want to let all the doubters know of a good experience with the QF service centre yesterday. I had a QF J points award trip to Sydney booked for next month. The flight time didn't really suit as my original flight had been cancelled a couple of months ago and I accepted the flight they offered. Also it wasn't able to be changed on line. As a NB I was expecting a long long wait so I called the 131313 number around 8.00am. Pleasantly surprised when my call was answered within 3 minutes. Don't know where the call centre was located but could clearly hear a rooster crowing in the background. Operator found 1 other U class seat on an earlier flight and moved me to it and no charge for assistance as it couldn't do it online. Ticket and itinerary came through this morning.
Overall a pleasant experience, like it should be.

 

[encryptededdy]

Day of week	Wed 12 Oct 2022
Time of call	08:30pm
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	60 seconds
Call Centre (if known)	Cape Town
Matter resolved	No
Details	Called to get a friend on a seperate booking (but same flights) sat next to me (she is not WP). Cape Town said this is not possible, but they could "link" the bookings, which they did quickly. Obviously I know it is possible to sit her next to me, so I guess I'll have to HUCA some other time.