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

 

[Danger]

As a Platinum wanting to change an existing award reservation, I was routed to MNL on Friday. My call was answered by Mary. My existing one-sector reservation was PER-SYD in Y. I wanted to change that to SYD-PER in Y. She found the flight I wanted and told me it would be an additional $43.80 in taxes. When I asked her how much I had already paid, she said $43.70. When I queried why (a) she wanted to charge me double and (b) if I book the existing flight online, right now, I'd be charged just $43.80, she said the ADCOL of $43.80 was what the computer was telling her. I had her wait on the phone while I made that online reservation myself, paying, of course, just $43.80 and not $87.50. I gave her the new PNR and asked her to tell me what the charges were. She said $196.80! I lamented to her the incompetence of the offshore call centres and ended the call.

 

[HSB44]

But I already did purchase a replacement one way ticket for the return leg!!
I had to pay $10k for a new return flight via EK/Scoot.
Theyve already repriced the flight and calculated it at the lower price.

I just want to use my flight credit now to make a new booking - You cant advertise a flight credit and then not let your customer use it to make return bookings, and attempt to impose restrictive TandCs and hold them to the exact same segments and make them wait hours on the phone just because you are unwilling to issue the credit in a customer friendly manner. QF cant advertise a flight credit then, when I want to take up that offer, try to force me to finish off a zombie return leg.

Which other airlines do does this? Is that really standard practice?
My old QF booking is finished - ive lost value on it , and had to buy a separate $10k fare with another carrier - I just want to move on and use whats left on a new QF return flight (probably will be my last paid QF international flight based on this experience). Surely the travel credit should be a credit to purchase any other type of qantas fare that I want to?

So 4 calls and 4+ hours later - in the end I gave up, I booked a different itinerary that would suit Qantas.
Like others on here I feel really frustrated and disappointed, but I dont have the energy to pursue it.

 

[neokok]

Cape Town were useless for me yesterday as usual. Trying to book a domestic JAL flight. Returns an error when trying to book online, presumably due to $0 taxes/fees. Cape Town agent says they can't book the flight at their end, but happy to walk me through booking it myself online even after I told him I can't do that.

Called back and got Hobart. They were able to do it for me, though the eticket has no actual ticket numbers! May need to call back to double check everything is okay. Seems like domestic JAL flights are quite tricky to book — need to be manually processed.

Hi，I’m facing the same issue with you, reward JAL domestic through qantas. Are you able to confirm your ticket is all set now? I was connected to Fiji and wasted 2 hours on the phone then Manilla, half way through then line went off. Geez……

 

[kpro]

Got through immediately to Hobart this morning.

 

[Berlin]

Made the mistake of calling on a Sunday evening and ended up in South Africa. The lady answered the phone with "Qantas premium" which is laughable but was friendly enough and at least tried very hard. However, as expected, the failed miserably and my booking was in a worse state after the call than it was before and I was fleeced $50 that I shouldn't have been charged but I won't bore you with all the details.

Called again just now, ended up in Hobart straight away and the lady on the phone made an audible sigh when I started the conversation with "I've spoken to one of your colleagues in South Africa yesterday...". She fixed everything within 5 minutes, albeit the $50 that are somewhere gone into Qantas' abyss (or the 1.3 billion in profits rather...). Should have waited until today from the start- it is really not worth even wasting time with that bunch in off shore call centres.

 

[encryptededdy]

However, as expected, the failed miserably and my booking was in a worse state after the call than it was before and I was fleeced $50 that I shouldn't have been charged but I won't bore you with all the details.

This is a huge mood. I just can't bring myself to hang up on them when I get a... uh... suboptimal call centre answering the call, so I end up wasting 30 minutes of my time and sometimes breaking my booking.

 

[johndoe]

So much frustration, Im trying to get a double charge and “award assistance” points refunded (thanks Manila for screwing that up). Got Hobart last month, she tracked the money down in an unallocated account and made a note to refund points - but nothings been actioned. That was my 7th attempt since start of July - any tips to get this resolved? i have also tried emailing - got a “if you still require assistance, reply” email after 8 weeks, and now 6 weeks later still waiting….

 

[encryptededdy]

So much frustration, Im trying to get a double charge and “award assistance” points refunded (thanks Manila for screwing that up). Got Hobart last month, she tracked the money down in an unallocated account and made a note to refund points - but nothings been actioned. That was my 7th attempt since start of July - any tips to get this resolved? i have also tried emailing - got a “if you still require assistance, reply” email after 8 weeks, and now 6 weeks later still waiting….

Give you're WP, I would just try to get through to Hobart again. They've managed to fix a few refund problems for me, and they can usually call through to the team processing refunds and get it done immediately if it's stuck in the queue.

These days I have a >50% success rate of getting Hobart, so as long as you can deal with the awkward part of hanging up and calling again if you don't get Hobart, you should be able to get them on the line relatively easily.

 

[johndoe]

Give you're WP, I would just try to get through to Hobart again. They've managed to fix a few refund problems for me, and they can usually call through to the team processing refunds and get it done immediately if it's stuck in the queue.

These days I have a >50% success rate of getting Hobart, so as long as you can deal with the awkward part of hanging up and calling again if you don't get Hobart, you should be able to get them on the line relatively easily.

Thanks - will keep trying - just tried twice and got South Africa

 

[encryptededdy]

Thanks - will keep trying - just tried twice and got South Africa

Yeah I'd try outside of lunchtime

 

[Berlin]

Thanks - will keep trying - just tried twice and got South Africa

I got South Africa quite frequently too recently. I get the feeling they at least try a bit more and none of them kicked me out of the line.

Unfortunately they were as incompetent as ever and tried to lecture me on stuff that they did wrong. So my advise would be to not fall for the improved manners- they are still the same useless bunch as ever.

Haven’t gotten Auckland for a while, are they still around and is it a certain time window to get through to them? I always found them ‘good enough’ to deal with in the past.

 

[RooFlyer]

deal with the awkward part of hanging up and calling again

If I can pick the accent, I pretend that I can't hear and say I'll have to call back. If I then get the same mob, the problem persists. As some-one said, there's some poor South African in the Hobart Call centre who wonders why they get all the bad call lines

Edit: Wendy? ( see below)

 

[JohnM]

I had a bad experience with CPT last week. The racket in the background (people laughing, talking loudly) was dire and I could hardly hear what the agent was saying. I said I’d have to hang up. She said she’d call me back.

Of course, I’m still waiting…

Gave it 15 mins and called again. Very clear line, sounds like it must be HBA, but lady with a saffa accent comes on. Oh, no!

But - false alarm. It was the sensational Wendy, indeed with a SA accent, but in HBA.

My issue was a bit messy, so Wendy said she’d sort it and call me back. Sure enough, she did. All sorted. What an angel.

 

[HSB44]

I had a bad experience with CPT last week. The racket in the background (people laughing, talking loudly) was dire and I could hardly hear what the agent was saying. I said I’d have to hang up. She said she’d call me back.

Ive had that experience with both Fiji and SA - but not all the time...
Not sure if its an issue with individual's microphones or something? Or certain rooms are noisier than others?

At times in Fiji, it feels like its Friday night knock off time - the music is pumping and they are all chatting and calling across the room... it would be fun if they could actually help you

 

[dylarr]

At times in Fiji, it feels like its Friday night knock off time - the music is pumping and they are all chatting and calling across the room... it would be fun if they could actually help you

I've posted this same thing previously: Qantas Call Centre Long Wait Times

I don't care what they are doing as long as they can actually help but particular time it was difficult to hear the agent and they unsurprisingly didn't know how to fix my issue anyway.

 

[HSB44]

I got South Africa quite frequently too recently. I get the feeling they at least try a bit more and none of them kicked me out of the line.

My impression is that in SA, they have been doing it for longer (than Fiji, for example) so they are more jaded, less helpful, less patient, less willing to help, more arrogant ... but not necessarily better trained or skilled. In Fiji you still get some who, despite not necessarily having the slightest clue what to do, are nevertheless polite and willing to at least try to help

 

[johndoe]

Yeah I'd try outside of lunchtime

Got through eventually - 330pm AEDT. No hold. Guy was great, previous notes weren't actioned. Put me on hold and got the points sorted, told me he'd have to go on hold to get the $ sorted via NZ desk., and would call me back. Took him almost 90mins, fingers crossed the money shows up next week, will be 4 months by then to resolve.

He did comment on the frustrations they have with Manila/SA, not getting basics right, stuffing up ticketing details so they can' tbe ticketed etc. Qantas obviously need to sort this out - I can't imagine if I wasn't able to access Hobart that I'd be flying them to be honest. Even as a WP, I'm questioning why, now other airlines are starting to build capacity.

 

[1022]

Day of week	Mon 17 Oct
Time of call	09:17 am
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Gold
Hold time	Nil
Call Centre (if known)	Manila
Matter resolved	No
Details	Called to try to get two upcoming international J classic awards ticketed. Both on Qantas metal, both multi-city bookings that I made changes to previously. On one I cancelled one leg via the Suva call centre in mid-July ("it's all good and in the ticketing queue"). The other I changed online to switch one leg from BA PE to QF J when there was the little bump in availability during Alan's Great Apology in mid August. Initially I was slightly relieved to get Manila rather than CPT or Suva due to previous reports that staff there are au fait with ticketing issues. The agent took the details, seemed to grasp the issue and told me I may be on hold for a bit while she tries to sort it out. Promised to call back if there was a drop out. 50 minutes later she came back to ask if she can call me straight back. (Call length KPI not being met perhaps??). True to her word she called back to say she's still working with the "support team" to fix the issue and she'd call again later in the day. Around 5pm I had a missed call and voice mail to say it's still being worked on and she'd call again on Tuesday. It's now Thursday and no call back and two reservations for November which remain unticketed. Credit where credit's due, the agent seemed genuinely committed to trying to sort the problem which related to recalculating taxes in a different currency due to multi-city booking (albeit only two legs - an open jaw effectively). But a pox on Qantas for having such systemic issues with ticketing that require passengers to watch their bookings like hawks and tying up so much call centre and back office time. I'm a semi-regular redeemer of LifeMiles and have dealt with the Colombian call centre a few times. Honestly, they sort things more reliably and efficiently than QF, apart from the privileged few who can get through to Hobart.

 

[HSB44]

The other night, I had a nightmare where I was on a spaceship that crash landed on Mars without any fuel. We were desperately trying to use our space-comms unit to call for rescue, but it kept cutting out, and whenever we managed to get through to the space rescue call centre, the customer service agent was rude, couldnt find our space flight reference number, refused to help us, kept hanging up on us, and refused to escalate to his manager.

Honestly - this is what it has come to

 

[HECL]

Horrendous experience with overseas call centres, I found Fiji was the worst and would just hang up. Over four days and countless phone calls, the situation only got worse. Miraculously got through to Hobart and I almost cried I was so happy. Diane sorted out my tricky issue within 40mins and a new eticket issued within a few mins of call ending.

I can’t believe the service has become so terrible that you feel like you’ve won lotto when you get through to Hobart!