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

 

[TheInsider]

I was trying to book a flight, but couldnt get past the name page cause of the error.

Well it seems like there are too many characters in the name field then. And the dob is the incorrect format.

 

[1022]

Well it seems like there are too many characters in the name field then. And the dob is the incorrect format.

I love the droll sense of humour that repeats the bleeding obvious that the chatbot provided to Johndoe - sans possible solution or workaround

 

[TheInsider]

I love the droll sense of humour that repeats the bleeding obvious that the chatbot provided to Johndoe - sans possible solution or workaround

Well not much detail is being given unfortunately.
Tbh I think the error code is self explanatory, but with out more info, how can we know?!

 

[johndoe]

Well not much detail is being given unfortunately.
Tbh I think the error code is self explanatory, but with out more info, how can we know?!

My point was the usefulness of the response.

This has not occured before (about the 9th time booking infant). Its a common issue Ive found out, but my booking is below the max no. Of characters (57) and the dob cant be entered in an incorrect format.

The support is rubbish of late unless you call and get Hobart (ive had to contact them for multiple reasons related to about 5 diff bookings lately unfortunately) I cant believe Qantas are paying for this service…do they even know?

 

[encryptededdy]

If you have a middle name in there have you tried dropping it?

 

[johndoe]

If you have a middle name in there have you tried dropping it?

Yeah I did try that just now out of curiosity and it seems to go to the payment page - thanks and will remember that next time. Was booking for better half and kiddo. I dont have a middle name and hadn't had this issue before when booking for or with them, but have since also learnt that Qantas operated flights dont need middle names (despite them asking for names as per passport). Too late, chucked them on Air NZ instead already (I know - downgrade but I aint flying! ha).

The "help" just wasn't very helpful.

 

[Anna]

Well it's apparently back to not being able to get through to the QF call centre, even as WP with a paid int J fare departing within 10 days. I have tried 4 times over the last 2 days, got hung up on once and had to hang up myself after 30+ minutes on hold each of the other times. I want to change the time of one domestic sector of my international itinerary and the website says I need to ring up to do it.

Clearly QF didn't have the nous to predict that the DSC offer would put extra strain on the call centre over this weekend. It's really quite sad how dreadful QF has become post pandemic . I'm certainly not feeling like I want to keep on paying through the nose for this sort of pathetic non-service.

 

[Franky]

Well it's apparently back to not being able to get through to the QF call centre, even as WP with a paid int J fare departing within 10 days. I have tried 4 times over the last 2 days, got hung up on once and had to hang up myself after 30+ minutes on hold each of the other times. I want to change the time of one domestic sector of my international itinerary and the website says I need to ring up to do it.

Clearly QF didn't have the nous to predict that the DSC offer would put extra strain on the call centre over this weekend. It's really quite sad how dreadful QF has become post pandemic . I'm certainly not feeling like I want to keep on paying through the nose for this sort of pathetic non-service.

Time to vote with your feet...

 

[Anna]

To complete the story. On the 5th attempt I got through after about 10 minutes on hold, the agent 'did stuff' at his end including putting me on hold twice, and eventually came back with 'I can change your dom flight at a cost of $250, regardless of the reason for the change being that a 90 minute int to dom connection at SYD on a Monday morning is 'optimistic' and 'aspirational at best''.

On the 6th attempt I got through to someone who sounded Filipina by her accent, who also 'did stuff' including 'I'm just going to do something to get around these married segements' and eventually I ended up with the dom flight I wanted and now I hopefully won't have the same experience as a friend who recently landed on QF2 then got to sit in the QP for 8 hours after not making the 90 minute connection to domestic on a Monday morning and no seats were available on any other dom flights until late afternoon

 

[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 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

Hi Mike
Can I please get your latest number please

Post automatically merged: Apr 13, 2023

Hi Mike
Can I please get your latest number please

Hi
Not sure if my first went through : could I please get latest contact number
Mike

 

[tdimdad]

Day of week	Thu 13 Apr
Time of call	21:20 (AEST)
Number used	131313
Status	Gold
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	Fiji
Matter resolved	Yes, though it took a while
Details	Booking a revenue ticket. Had to call because it was a gift voucher redemption for a multi-city booking (the online engine offers one-way and return bookings only for GV's) and a Travel Pass as a part payment. The call took altogether 40 mins. The agent ("Kasa"?) was very friendly and appeared professional. Of the recent QFF call centre interactions I've had, this was perhaps the most pleasant and low-stress. At first, I explained that I'm redeeming a GV for a multi-city and using a Travel Pass. Once she had keyed in the desired itinerary (10 mins), she had to redo it when she realised it was for a redemption (15 mins). The first draft itinerary she emailed from the system had a date error in a leg and the price was about $200 higher than what the online multi-city engine gave. She fixed the date details but got a higher price. However, she checked confirmed my pricing online and manually adjusted the itinerary to match it (15 mins). The standard "your ticket will be issued within 24 hours" closure and the ticket was in my inbox 10 mins later. However, I had to manually add the booking into my QFF profile online as it didn't pop up there automatically.

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Fri 14 Apr
Time of call	Around the 2100 mark, AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	Suva, Fiji
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Trying to price an itinerary online for my upcoming o/s trip. I was able to add all the legs that I needed (doing this as a SR as well) but throws errors at pricing. Called up the CC, call went straight thru to Fiji. Answered by a bloke, who sort of did not understand what I was trying to do. Perhaps, I could have explained it better? Anyways, he puts me on hold and 25 mins later the call got disconnected. So called again

Day of week	Fri 14 Apr
Time of call	Around the 2130 mark, AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	Suva, Fiji
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	As the previous call dropped - called again. Answered by Suva, Fiji, this time by a lovely lady, who understood what I was after. Puts me on hold a few times and emailed me 2 itineraries based on what I wanted.

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Sat 15 Apr
Time of call	Around the 1530 mark AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	HBA
Matter resolved	NA
Details	Asked the agent to check if a couple more legs can be added to the 2 itineraries that I had put on hold the day before. Agent puts me on hold, comes back and says that it's not possible. I was told that an itinerary can hold upto 14 flights and mine had only 11 in, at that point in time. However, given the fareClass for one of the legs was Sale fare, the system stopped the agent from adding a couple of Saver legs to the top & bottom of the trip. Anyways, I said OK and told that I will call later in the day to ticket & pay for the itinerary. The agent told that he will hold the booking until 2359 that night. I then explained that I will need to *copy* (for the lack of a better technical term) all the flights in this PNR to another PNR. I lost him at that point. He kept saying that he can't *copy* flights between PNRs. As my break was coming to an end, I said, I will call later in the day and explain what I was after.

Day of week	Sat 15 Apr
Time of call	Around the 1930 mark AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	HBA and what do you know, the same agent that I spoke with that afternoon
Matter resolved	Yes (or so I thought)
Details	Called around the 1930 mark to finalise & pay for the trip. Got the same agent, which was good, so no need to explain anything. Provided the PNR and asked the agent to *copy* the flights to another PNR. I then went to explain what I was trying to do and then the penny dropped. He was like oh yea, I get it now, let me put you on hold and get it done. He did not put me on hold, and we got to chatting, realised that he was originally from where I was, and we were talking about how things were in Western Sydney 10 years ago blah blah ... His shift was supposed to be done by 2000, but he extended it so that we can finish the booking. Anyways, 5 mins down, and he got all the legs ticketed and payment done. The amount quoted was lesser than I had calculated, but I proceeded to provide my payment details etc. Booking completed, e-ticket landed within 5 mins after getting off the phone. As I was going thru the legs I realise that a few at the end of the trip were out of order, and one leg was missing - which I thought explained the variance in price that I paid AND I had been charged a $45 service fee, which I shouldn't have in this instance ... So called again ...

Day of week	Sat 15 Apr
Time of call	Around the 2015 mark, AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	HBA
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Answered by Todd from HBA. Provided my PNR, explained what I'm seeing and he instantly realises what could have gone wrong. He also made a subtle, under-his-breath mention "a status run, I see" followed by a chuckle! He tried to price the missing legs & re-order the legs in the logical order - but the system wouldn't price. He had to put me on hold for over 30 mins and came back to say that the system won't let him to price it in the order I like - there were too many ins & outs from various ports, which effectively confuses the system. At this point, after 40 mins into the call, there seemed to be an issue with the QF Premium CC phone system. I was able to hear the agent, but not the other way around. The call eventually dropped at around the 45th minute mark, but Todd called back, I answered and could hear him, again, not the other way around. So call dropped again, called again, this time - everything worked and we could hear each other. Todd explained that the thing that I was asking to be done is NOT usually done by QF agents. It was something that travel agents external to QF can do, and if he were to do it the way I wanted to, he would be told off (the action is frowned upon). However, he spoke to his supervisor, who was happy to sort of make an one-time exception. This *change* cost me an additional $90. I then explained about the *service fee*, which Todd agreed was charged incorrectly and refunded it back to the same card. All in all, ticketing finally done and I got the e-tickets within the hour.

 

[tdimdad]

..."a status run, I see" followed by a chuckle!
the thing that I was asking to be done is NOT usually done by QF agents. It was something that travel agents external to QF can do...

Now, this must be one of the more interesting itineraries. Care to share for our enjoyment - and perhaps inspiration, too, @Ade ?

 

[Ade]

Now, this must be one of the more interesting itineraries. Care to share for our enjoyment - and perhaps inspiration, too, @Ade ?

Sure.

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD-BLR-MAA-BLR-SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR

I made a blunder in the return and botched it a bit. Should’ve done BLR-SYD-MEL-OOO-MEL-SYD-CBR, which would’ve given 50 more SC during DSC. But yea, kinda got distracted with other things and didn’t realise this until ticketing the second time .. so didn’t bother going back to change and might end paying more for the change …

 

[Mr H]

Sure.

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD-BLR-MAA-BLR-SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR

I made a blunder in the return and botched it a bit. Should’ve done BLR-SYD-MEL-OOO-MEL-SYD-CBR, which would’ve given 50 more SC during DSC. But yea, kinda got distracted with other things and didn’t realise this until ticketing the second time .. so didn’t bother going back to change and might end paying more for the change …

If you are doing that as a status run - i.e. you don't actually need these flights - I would have thought Qantas agents would be cough a hoop that their status programme is working to generate extra revenue and not muttering under their breath.

 

[Quickstatus]

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD-BLR-MAA-BLR-SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR

On a call centre time spent/sector I think you are on a winner. You know instead of hopping all over the place you can do a DSC SYD-JFK return which nets 1280SC!. Of course the $/SC might not be as good.

you don't actually need these flights

But if you can turn it from "don't need" into something that is work related the $/SC improves remarkably.

 

[Ade]

DSC SYD-JFK return which nets 1280SC!. Of course the $/SC might not be as good.

I'm assuming this is a J fare? My work only pays for Y (this policy will change soon to J though)

But if you can turn it from "don't need" into something that is work related the $/SC improves remarkably.

Agree ... If there is just cause, then I think, any $/SC is good

you don't actually need these flights

Actually, some of the flights I need. The ones to/from MAA and the ones to/from CBR-MEL are needed as they are for work. However, I was able to get the one-stop overs at no extra cost (SYD & OOL ones). So kinda worked in my favour. But I see what you mean.

 

[tdimdad]

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD-BLR-MAA-BLR-SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR

Maximising the "why fly direct when you can connect", huh? Very nice planning work from you, very nice indeed!

 

[RooFlyer]

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD-BLR-MAA-BLR-SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR

That's nuts - or maybe 'status run of the year . .

Over what period will it be done?