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

 

[HSB44]

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!

Can I ask What status do you have?
And what time was the call that got through to Hobart?

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @HECL Glad to hear you got resolved.

 

[HECL]

Can I ask What status do you have?
And what time was the call that got through to Hobart?

I’m only gold and I called right on 8am Sydney time. The first time someone from AA picked up and I politely told them thank you but I’ll try again.

 

[PeterA]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I rang earlier this morning as I needed to use several credit vouchers at once on an International booking. Got SA first up and was not impressed and said I'd ring back. Second call about 20 mins later was through to Hobart where I had this wonderfully helpful lady who knew exactly what to do and did it.

 

[HarryTheFlyer]

Day of week	Sunday 23 Oct
Time of call	7:15pm
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	15 mins
Call Centre (if known)	Manila or SA. Not 100% sure.
Matter resolved	No
Details	Qantas changed a flight booking BNE>MEL>DFW by bumping the MEL>DFW leg by one day, so we would have to overnight in MEL with the current booking. The agent couldn't find award availability on the new date for the domestic leg. That suited just fine as it was better for us to do BNE>SYD>LAX on the original booked date. The agent then proceeded to try to charge us the 5000 points change fee, but couldn't find any available flights anyway. Spent 15 mins to politely explain that the involuntary change means they are able to release revenue seats to accomodate our originally booked itinerary, but this confused the agent even more. Politely hung up and said we would try again later.

 

[Berlin]

I really admire people who can “hang up politely” after being treated so badly. Unfortunately, not everyone has such amazing temper control

 

[Blackadder]

I really admire people who can “hang up politely” after being treated so badly. Unfortunately, not everyone has such amazing temper control

Not sure getting angry at people who obviously don't have sufficient training, is the answer to the problem.

 

[Berlin]

Not sure getting angry at people who obviously don't have sufficient training, is the answer to the problem.

Probably not. But it most likely can't get any worse either and it helps calm my anger to get it out

 

[Danger]

Not sure getting angry at people who obviously don't have sufficient training, is the answer to the problem.

These people are the face (or at least the voice) of Qantas. In the absence of getting anywhere remotely meaningful with anyone that matters when something goes wrong, the lies, the misinformation, the incompetence, I don't have an issue expressing my discontent to call centre staff, onshore or off. These people should be a better position than the average travel to incite change, particularly when we know from repeated accounts on AFF that nobody else gets much traction without selling their soul.

 

[PineappleSkip]

nobody else gets much traction without selling their soul.

If you tried to sell your soul to CPT they’d bugger up to the transaction for sure, and you’d wind up stuck in purgatory forever.

Cheers skip

 

[HarryTheFlyer]

Day of week	Sunday 23 Oct
Time of call	7:15pm
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	15 mins
Call Centre (if known)	Manila or SA. Not 100% sure.
Matter resolved	No
Details	Qantas changed a flight booking BNE>MEL>DFW by bumping the MEL>DFW leg by one day, so we would have to overnight in MEL with the current booking. The agent couldn't find award availability on the new date for the domestic leg. That suited just fine as it was better for us to do BNE>SYD>LAX on the original booked date. The agent then proceeded to try to charge us the 5000 points change fee, but couldn't find any available flights anyway. Spent 15 mins to politely explain that the involuntary change means they are able to release revenue seats to accomodate our originally booked itinerary, but this confused the agent even more. Politely hung up and said we would try again later.

Day of week	Monday 24 Oct
Time of call	10:25am
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	10 mins
Call Centre (if known)	Manila
Matter resolved	Somewhat - See next table.
Details	Following on from the quote above, I called up and this agent seemed to know a little bit more about what to do. She was able to get a confirmed Award J ticket on the preferred route, but sent it to the ticketing queue and said it would be 2-3 days before it would arrive. (Sigh...) This was obviously better than the previous agent, but she also quoted me two incorrect refunds. She quoted $28.36 in taxes would be returned (which was the amount of taxes paid in the last transaction) and that 8600 points would be transferred back to my account when the ticket is re-issued. In reality it should have been 36,200 points refunded and about $11 in taxes. The new flights were appearing in MMB, so I left it at that wanting to try again later hoping to get Hobart. Ended the call on a nice note, but didn't leave a rating.

Day of week	Monday 24 Oct
Time of call	12.58am
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	5 mins
Call Centre (if known)	Manila
Matter resolved	No - See next table.
Details	Called a few hours later to confirm the points refund, and that the taxes would be refunded to the card on hand. This agent informed me that 27,000 points would be refunded and $28 would land back in my account. A bit better than the last agent's calculations, but still not correct. Decided that today wasn't my day and ended the call. No rating left.

Day of week	Tuesday 25 Oct
Time of call	8.23am
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	Answered immediately
Call Centre (if known)	Hobart
Matter resolved	Yes!
Details	Answered by the lovely Kate in Hobart and had a little dance in my chair. Expressed to Kate that I was glad that I got through to Hobart and she had a little chuckle. Explained the previous escapades. She could see the booking was setup correctly by the first agent on Monday morning, but was stuck in the ticketing queue because the points refund was incorrect. She advised me that the 36,200 points was going to come back to my FF account immediately, and tickets fully re-issued. She also moved Mr Harry up to the forward part of the J cabin to be seated together as we were booked on separate PNRs (initially different routes), and he's only PS. While I had someone from Hobart on the line I moved some flights around that I had on a revenue flex Y ticket because the loading was lighter in the C/D/I fare buckets to increase that chance of an upgrade. All done with no issue and turned out to be about a $24 refund from the original fare booked. Happy days. Thanked Kate for her time, ended the call and left a 5-5-1 rating.

 

[encryptededdy]

Thanked Kate for her time, ended the call and left a 5-5-1 rating.

I feel like when I get Hobart they never put me through to the survey, they just hang up after the call. I would love to leave a survey for them, but I never get the chance. Meanwhile, the other call centers almost always put me through to the survey.

 

[drron]

If you think that QF treats individuals badly spare a thought for travel agencies. They have a special line to fix their customer’s problems but only 1 at a time.
They have to ring Qantas Agency Connect which is available Monday to Friday from 9 to 5. If they are not in the queue by 9 then they likely will not be answered by 5.

Also only 1 question will be answered per call and only for flights in the next 2 weeks. If you are still on the phone at 5 pm the call is disconnected.
This was from an agent with nearly 40 years in the business and pre Covid the GM of a large travel agency. Not surprisingly the agency who she is working with now will not accept new customers who want to fly QF.

 

[ferntree]

Honestly, all the evidence seriously does suggest that Qantas really do want to drive customers away. Makes no sense at all.

 

[HSB44]

Honestly, all the evidence seriously does suggest that Qantas really do want to drive customers away. Makes no sense at all.

There must be method to the madness - Executive KPIs must be heavily weighted on cost cutting and light on customer satisfaction outcomes.

Post automatically merged: Oct 25, 2022

I feel like when I get Hobart they never put me through to the survey, they just hang up after the call. I would love to leave a survey for them, but I never get the chance. Meanwhile, the other call centers almost always put me through to the survey.

I've had some calls where it was clearly too hard for them (cough Manilla cough) and they tried hard to get me off the line by saying that they had submitted something to some team who would call me right back ... then they just say goodbye and hang on the line breathing hoping you will hang up so they dont get a bad survey.

 

[Berlin]

There must be method to the madness - Executive KPIs must be heavily weighted on cost cutting and light on customer satisfaction outcomes.

Post automatically merged: Oct 25, 2022

Yep- that's my suspicion too. Which also fits with the fact that only Platinums and above get through to Hobart usually- someone at Qantas must have come to the conclusion that losing some "lowly" customers is costing them less than employing more of the "expensive" Aussie based call centre staff.

I would think that even the reputational impact is bad enough to make them change ways but I'm not a Qantas CFO.

 

[HSB44]

Yep- that's my suspicion too. Which also fits with the fact that only Platinums and above get through to Hobart usually- someone at Qantas must have come to the conclusion that losing some "lowly" customers is costing them less than employing more of the "expensive" Aussie based call centre staff.

I would think that even the reputational impact is bad enough to make them change ways but I'm not a Qantas CFO.

If you look at their board, it's an interesting mix. You have Richard Goyder with a lot of wesfarmers retail background - you would think he understands customers?

And then they have Todd Sampson... Not sure if he has a core interest in customer service, or whether hes just an advertising and sales/marketing advocate...?

 

[1022]

Day of week	Tuesday 25 Oct
Time of call	9:30am
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Gold
Hold time	1 minute
Call Centre (if known)	Suva
Matter resolved	No
Details	After waiting a week for a promised callback that never came regarding ticketing of a couple of upcoming Int'l J classic awards (QF metal) in a few weeks, it was time to call again. First attempt the agent sounded hesitant and inexperienced just from the way they answered the phone so I hang up immediately. Second agent was able to quickly look up the two bookings, identify the problem with recalculating taxes in different currencies after itinerary changes and politely put me on hold while she spoke to "her support team". Came back after about 10 minutes to say the issue with both bookings has been untangled and they are in the manual ticketing queue. She said they would be ticketed within 48 hours. Overall the call was decent by recent (rock bottom) standards, however it's now 51 hours and no tickets and no sign of points or tax adjustments to suggest that any attempt has been made to manually ticket the flights.

 

[Sutty]

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 659 161
1300 025 396
1300 659 116

1300 025 390
1300 024 715
1300 659 115
1300 659 134
1300 659 502
1300 304 318

Hi is it possible to get a Hobart or Sydney number or the latest appreciate. Mike

 

[Scr77]

Hi is it possible to get a Hobart or Sydney number or the latest appreciate. Mike

All numbers now seem to route based on your FF status.