The Qantas call centre is absolutely shocking beyond description. They do not know the booking systems well and often hang up when your request is too difficult for them. This is pathetic for a supposedly "world-class" airline.
Perfect example:
Many of us had flights cancelled due to Covid.
I was taking my mother to the USA in June/July 2020, which was (at my request), refunded in the form of a flight credit, then issued as a Qantas Pass on 17/11/2021. She had a separate booking reference.
I also booked a flight in late July so that I could head up to CNS from down here in MEL for mid-November this year. Obviously, this flight kept getting cancelled and pushed forward due to QLD border restrictions.
I have spent so many hours on the phone with the most useless people I feel as if I want to cry. I have literally wasted that much time.
The first issue arose on 21/11/2021 when I attempted to cancel my CNS booking. I rang in the early evening. There was no wait time. The agent who took my call had the most indecipherable South African accent I've ever heard. . I wanted to cancel the booking and have the ticket re-issued as a flight credit so that I could rebook when the QLD Government decides that it's safe enough for vaccinated southerners to enter. As it happens, my mother (who had her own booking to Brissie), rang Qantas 20 minutes earlier to cancel and request a credit (also due to QLD border restrictions). She kindly sent me a text telling me that she didn't have to wait to get through, so I took my opportunity.
As the days went by, I noticed that my booking had not been cancelled.
I did have the opportunity to try again the other night when I was over at my mother's place. She could not see any flight credits on the screen (other than the Qantas Pass issued for June 2020 USA booking) and wanted to know where to look on the Qantas website so that she could use her flight credits from the cancelled Brissie flight.
That night, I witnessed a competent agent (rare) walk her through the process of using her Qantas Pass to rebook a flight to QLD. I witnessed it as I could hear the agents voice and I could see mum logging into the Qantas Pass on her laptop.
I made it my business today to have my CNS trip converted into a Qantas Pass because it had been evident to me that the woman I spoke to on the 21st November was completely incompetent, and did not cancel my flight as I had asked.
My first call today was at 16:43. The agent told me that I had already flown my mid-November MEL-CNS sector! I had to explain basic requests to him repeatedly. He told me that Qantas no longer issues Qantas Passes as of 30th September! He could only issue me with a flight credit.
What's the difference you say?
Well, according to this inept agent, in order to use a flight credit to make a booking, you must ring the Qantas customer contact centre. Ugh.
I explained the situation that occurred with my mother just days before. I wanted to be able to book online. After 35 mins, he terminated the call whilst I was on hold. This is shocking because you have no recourse except to ring them back and explain the same story to a different agent.
At 17:18, I immediately called back to attempt to resolve my query. I explained the situation to a different agent. He too told me that I had already flown one of my sectors (impossible because my flight had been changed from Nov 17 to Dec 15), so I asked if I could speak to his manager. He told me that his manager would call me back within half an hour. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet, nor will it.
Then I saw the flight credit appear, and at 18:04 rang up to make the booking. In the meantime, whilst sitting at the computer, I tried to see if I could log in to my existing Qantas Pass from last years USA booking using the card number, expiry date and password, however, the UATP login did not work! I wanted to raise this issue with the agent that was now booking my flight up to CNS in February. He put me in row 10, which I found weird because I am usually able to sit as close to the front of the economy cabin as I can (I usually try and pick row 4 on the 737's if possible). He said that rows 4-9 were blocked, but I could pay to sit in row 9. I don't know why, but I asked him how much it would cost to sit one row further forward (not that I would have paid extra). He put me on hold and literally 3 minutes later the call ended and went to the exit survey.
I made the booking with no seats selected and had not had my Qantas Pass login issue resolved.
Do these agents just not care, or are they under absurd time constraints? Do they actually know the QF systems? It is seriously maddening and it never used to be like this!
Aaaannnnnndddd POST! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, perhaps it was a good thing because just as I was proofreading my post I received a call from (02) 90671509. It was one of the 3 people that I spoke to today. He was quite a decent bloke I have to admit. He gave me some interesting information too. He told me that calls automatically time out after a certain period of time if they are on hold. I think he said an hour, but due to his thick South African accent, it could have been half an hour. It still doesn't explain why calls are terminated because my first call lasted 35mins 18secs and the other two were just under half an hour.
Anyway, I received the following outcome-
He was initially unaware that I had done this. Despite this new information, he really wanted to issue me a refund and cancel the booking. As I had already spent 25 minutes on the phone using my newly minted flight credit to book my flight up to CNS in February, I wasn't going to do that!
The gutsiest thing he said to me was "I'd like to be frank with you. We are trained and able to do simple things like make bookings and issue tickets, cancel or alter bookings but whenever a customer calls in with anything slightly more complicated than that I always transfer them to the frequent flyer team."
I respect honesty, so he put me in row 9 for no extra fee. Looking at the 738 seat maps I have no idea why Qantas would charge a Gold QFF to sit in row 9 when I could always pick row 4?
What's changed?
Regarding my Qantas Pass, he said he would issue me with a new login so I can get into the UATP portal to view my balance as per email.
It's funny how you measure the quality of customer service agents because here I am ranting about how terrible they were and suddenly I found myself calling this man sir and being extra patient, although he was really just doing what should have been done weeks ago.
Terrible.
