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]

... so my point still stands about the inefficiency of the Mindpearl agents. Perhaps it comes down to permissions, training, systems (Amadeus vs Aqire), or a mix of all between the two agent types? Either way, the fact that the request they made could have been completed at least 10 times over with a premium agent is a terrible reflection on the Mindpearl agents.

They are just useless - comes down to the training that QF give them and then what mindpearl then trains their staff tbh.

As far as I know there are more staff taking calls at the moment, from what I've been told calls were around 10k ish a few weeks ago, now they are around 15k a day (calls actually answered). Info is very very limited and second hand though.

 

[Mr H]

Datapoint... I used the emergency number this morning at 6am. Got straight through to Auckland. I had a simple change that needed doing - changing a BA flight for a QR one, same class, same day, almost same time. The agent said this could only be done by a senior person and put me on hold while she waited in a queue. Half an hour later I was cut off.

 

[blackcat20]

Sigh. We've had a flight change due to a cancellation, been bumped to a later flight, and though the timing is terrible for travelling with two little kids, I cannot face the ordeal of calling to get it moved earlier (reward flight, can't change online as it doesn't have availability for the second leg).

 

[astrosly]

Sigh. We've had a flight change due to a cancellation, been bumped to a later flight, and though the timing is terrible for travelling with two little kids, I cannot face the ordeal of calling to get it moved earlier (reward flight, can't change online as it doesn't have availability for the second leg).

That is similar to my experience last Thu/fri. A very lengthy delay at SYD was on the cards. Luckily I could get moved to an earlier flight when I went to airport to sort it out

 

[Mr H]

Datapoint... I used the emergency number this morning at 6am. Got straight through to Auckland. I had a simple change that needed doing - changing a BA flight for a QR one, same class, same day, almost same time. The agent said this could only be done by a senior person and put me on hold while she waited in a queue. Half an hour later I was cut off.

The agent called back and said that although there are technical issues, she has reserved my new flight (shows up on Check My Trip but not yet ticketed) and promised that they would call me back today when the issues have been resolved.

 

[Berlin]

I seriously ask this question myself. How many Mindpearl agents would you need to hire to replace just 1 experienced HBA or AKL agent? And is it really working out cheaper?

I bet it is waaay cheaper. And from middle management towards, near everyone will know that it’s a pain to customers all too well. But hardly anyone will say it as they all get daily drips of Corporate Cool-Aid and internalised narratives like “It’s all the customers fault”, “We’re actually better than the competition”, “Our Net promoter score actually went up in the last quarter” [Triple eyes roll] and the likes.

I say this with such certainty as I’ve worked (and still work) my whole life in Customer Experience/ Insights/ Marketing of very similar companies. Needless to say, if I could start my life again, I’d rather study Medicine (or just chose to be reborn as a cat instead).

 

[blackcat20]

That is similar to my experience last Thu/fri. A very lengthy delay at SYD was on the cards. Luckily I could get moved to an earlier flight when I went to airport to sort it out

That might be a good option for us. We've got an overnight in SYD but I'd rather not arrive post 9pm with two kids 3 and under. Though I guess a least theyd sleep on the flight to LA.

 

[PlaneCrazy]

Sigh. We've had a flight change due to a cancellation, been bumped to a later flight, and though the timing is terrible for travelling with two little kids, I cannot face the ordeal of calling to get it moved earlier (reward flight, can't change online as it doesn't have availability for the second leg).

I've been through a similar situation and thought process in the last week. 10 hours on the phone across multiple calls, hung up on, told contradicting information and in the end an extremely poor outcome. This continues with IT issues so I can't access my new booking to at least try and assign a reasonable seat. I've stopped complaining and calling as I'm demoralised and beaten by the process. As a result Qantas will no doubt consider the problem "resolved" with another "satisfied customer".

I struggle to think of a company which is so arrogant towards its customers, accepts no responsibility, meanwhile touting itself as a premium service provider. On the flip side I've had recent emails from both Cathay and Finnair apologising for service issues, taking accountability and explaining what they'll do about it (including in relation to long call centre hold times).

I said to someone I'd hand back my LTG status if it wasn't in my best interest to have the ability to drown myself in cheap chardonnay on a red-e-deal once in a while. Obviously any meaningful bookings will be placed elsewhere.

 

[blackcat20]

I've been through a similar situation and thought process in the last week. 10 hours on the phone across multiple calls, hung up on, told contradicting information and in the end an extremely poor outcome. This continues with IT issues so I can't access my new booking to at least try and assign a reasonable seat. I've stopped complaining and calling as I'm demoralised and beaten by the process. As a result Qantas will no doubt consider the problem "resolved" with another "satisfied customer".

I struggle to think of a company which is so arrogant towards its customers, accepts no responsibility, meanwhile touting itself as a premium service provider. On the flip side I've had recent emails from both Cathay and Finnair apologising for service issues, taking accountability and explaining what they'll do about it (including in relation to long call centre hold times).

I said to someone I'd hand back my LTG status if it wasn't in my best interest to have the ability to drown myself in cheap chardonnay on a red-e-deal once in a while. Obviously any meaningful bookings will be placed elsewhere.

I would hate to risk our F seats to LAX (on top of long call times), hence just leaving it alone.

 

[PlaneCrazy]

I would hate to risk our F seats to LAX (on top of long call times), hence just leaving it alone.

Indeed. In the rare circumstance you can extract value from the QFF program, do it!

 

[jfl]

Day of week	Wednesday
Time of call	10:35am
Number used	1300 025 396
Hold time	2 minutes
Call Centre (if known)	Hobart
Matter resolved	Got through unbelievably quick! Trying to change two legs on a OW classic award - SYD-HND and HND-HEL-CPH to SYD-BKK and BKK-HEL-CPH due to risks avoiding Russian airspace and Japan's quarantine situation. Staff member put the flights on hold but was unable to ticket due to the FF system being down? They said they will call back before 3pm to resolve.

 

[dylarr]

Also posted in the IT gripes thread, there's a current system outage that means it's not possible to authenticate via FF # and PIN when calling, so those with status currently receiving no priority and a quoted wait time of > 2 hours.

Recorded message advises they are working to resolve the issue.

 

[Scr77]

“Thanks for calling Qantas. Your call is important to us, but the call back systems is stuffed. Oh, and the eTicket system is missing. Oh, and we haven’t bothered to train the overseas staff. Oh, and we’ve axed the txt message line, airport staff and nobody can be bothered replying to frequent_flyer emails……but other than that, it’s all good! Ops, we forgot to mention that we accidentally charged everyone’s credit card twice and it’s up to you to call your bank to sort it out! Damn, bugger, fruit….now we’ve lost the keys to the room that stores your frequent flyer number and pin.…soz“

 

[Ansett]

Also posted in the IT gripes thread, there's a current system outage that means it's not possible to authenticate via FF # and PIN when calling, so those with status currently receiving no priority and a quoted wait time of > 2 hours.

Recorded message advises they are working to resolve the issue.

According to the website is for Scheduled Maintenance. As if they would plan maintenance during the main business day

Frequent Flyer login​

Scheduled maintenance
Sorry, you won't be able to login online or via our Contact Centre at the moment. Please try later.

 

[jfl]

Day of week	Wednesday
Time of call	10:35am
Number used	1300 025 396
Hold time	2 minutes
Call Centre (if known)	Hobart
Matter resolved	Got through unbelievably quick! Trying to change two legs on a OW classic award - SYD-HND and HND-HEL-CPH to SYD-BKK and BKK-HEL-CPH due to risks avoiding Russian airspace and Japan's quarantine situation. Staff member put the flights on hold but was unable to ticket due to the FF system being down? They said they will call back before 3pm to resolve.

Got a callback at 1:30pm, and my alternative ticket has been issued. Thanks to changes in fuel surcharges it was an extra $150 for two adults and an infant, however completely worth it for peace of mind.

Femke from the Hobart call centre was extremely helpful!

 

[Ktan89]

Femke from the Hobart call centre was extremely helpful!

Good to hear. I've spoken to Femke in the past too, very helpful and she knows what she is doing!

I actually want to write something good about another rep I dealt with last week.
Neha from Suva, Fiji. She went above and beyond to assist me while multiple agents had "disconnected" my call and never called back.

My luck getting connected to HBA/AKL now days are gone. I haven't spoken to someone from there since mid last year I reckon. So every time I speak to a rep, I give them the benefit of the doubt and explain everything to them nicely but once they see my PNR or realise my request is too hard, the phone line happens to disconnect. Neha on the other hand pushed through, called multiple departments, fixed the booking and got it ticketed.

She took initiative and said that she wants to get this sorted out for me. During my initial phone call, she saw the system generating errors recalculating taxes and issues with currency conversions. She kept putting me on hold to speak to someone else but checked up every 5-10mins making sure I was still connected. After an hour she said she needs to reach another department but will have to call me back the next day since they were closed. I believe her.

The next day she calls me at 9:53am just to let me know she's on to it again and will call me back later. 1:25pm - missed call. 1:27pm calls me up again telling me she got it all sorted. happy days - I see my new eticket come through my email. After this she asked if there was anything else required, I told her yes and she was happy to help me change a flight on another PNR (simple return flight). After this, she asked again, "anything else I can do for you today?" and I gave her another OW PNR for early next year because I was thinking of making changes on it but didn't really have the new plans cemented so I told her don't worry about it in the end.
I just wanted her help on this.. haha.. but she was ready to assist, never said no and had the PNR pulled up and everything.

Now this is customer service.. not like my previous running with a team leader (post #789) who told me to call back and hung-up on me.

 

[RichardMEL]

(my empathy goes to all waiting for hours I promise you)

Last night I noticed a flight that I had been on which had been cancelled had magically returned to the schedule. Online change wanted a fare difference(which I disagree with as QF cancelled the original flight on me). So, I braved the call (yes, even as a P1). First attempt around 8pm AEDT, said wait time was "Under 15 minutes" but I had something come in I had to deal with so I dropped the call. Tried around 9:30pm, this time "Under 30 minutes" and decided to wait till after 10. Around 10:05pm it was back to "under 15 minutes" and was answered by VIP Team member (HBA) in around 12 minutes. Flight changed back quickly, after a quick review of the history, with no issue. Very helpful and quick and total time around 15 minutes.

I want to note that in the "good old days" a call would be picked up in seconds, not minutes and while I am so very very fortunate that the highest levels of status provide perks and yes real phone priority, you can only but wonder at the serious spenders who would think 12 minutes was totally unacceptable (though I suppose many delegate such mundane items to PA's and travel managers perhaps to deal with).

 

[aikman]

Platinum here. 51 mins on hold this morning to chase up a classic award refund I cancelled online 4 months ago. What a waste of 51 mins for something I should have never have had to call up for. Not sure how people are identifying the call centre location but the agent had what sounded like an Aussie accent.

 

[bam71]

Platinum here. 51 mins on hold this morning to chase up a classic award refund I cancelled online 4 months ago. What a waste of 51 mins for something I should have never have had to call up for. Not sure how people are identifying the call centre location but the agent had what sounded like an Aussie accent.

Damn, I should have given you my two PNR’s cancelled in December, still waiting. Sent an email to the frequent flyer team, only to receive an email back asking me to call 131313. As a lowly bronze, I actually thought I’d go through the process. Turns out, all the recorded wait messages said they’re only dealing with anyone travelling in the next 24 hrs and to call back at a later time. No way forward.

 

[Kendall Roy]

Another ripper experience with the Saffers.

Accidently removed some confirmed J Award legs I have for PER-DOH-FRA (QR) and can't get them back apparently due to "Non-ticketing" by QF.