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

 

[sudoer]

It would be swell if people included the time zone when stating the time of their call. I'm not an expert but I think 11.15am, for example, occurs what, 24 times a day around the world?

Have edited mine but it also feels pretty safe to assume AEDT unless stated otherwise....

 

[Danger]

Have edited mine but it also feels pretty safe to assume AEDT unless stated otherwise....

I would have to wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree with that. Let's not act like Qantas and be all Sydney-centric. Or FlyerTalk where no world exists outside the US.

 

[Mr H]

It would be swell if people included the time zone when stating the time of their call. I'm not an expert but I think 11.15am, for example, occurs what, 24 times a day around the world?

More than that - some zones are on the half or quarter hour. But the point is well made. I assume Melbourne time unless otherwise stated as that’s the cultural capital of Australia.

 

[sudoer]

I can see both PNRs in my QFF profile, SGN-SIN-SYD is all confirmed but BNE-SIN is still sitting on "Requested" instead of Confirmed, so the droid likely said no. I have some backup dates ready to request instead, but I'm already back on hold at this point ... and continue to wait on hold for a further 30+ minutes just to be hung up on (sent straight to the survey) without any answer regarding the BNE-SIN flight. Clearly too hard to deliver a negative response?

So I called back..

Day of week	Sun 27 Mar
Time of call	8:55am AEDT
Number used	13 12 11
Hold time	Quoted less than 30 min, actual hold time 1h 05m.
Call Centre (if known)	Hobart I think
Matter resolved	Yes. The agent (couldn't quite catch her name but possibly "Anya"?) pulled up the booking and immediately confirmed BNE-SIN was declined by the bot. We tried another date which was showing I8, approved within about 30 seconds. CC details taken and ticketed within 5 minutes. She also fixed up my return leg which was approved but not correctly queued for ticketing by previous agent. Total time on phone with agent less than 5 minutes, and tickets received less than 5 minutes after call ends - the way it should be.

I would have to wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree with that. Let's not act like Qantas and be all Sydney-centric. Or FlyerTalk where no world exists outside the US.

Just being pragmatic about it. 81.8% of Australia's population lives on the eastern seaboard.. it's highly likely to be AE(S/D)T if no specific timezone is mentioned.

 

[Mr H]

Just being pragmatic about it. 81.8% of Australia's population lives on the eastern seaboard.. it's highly likely to be AE(S/D)T if no specific timezone is mentioned.

I think of it as the far right of Australia.

 

[Peasant]

Day of week	Sat 26 Mar
Time of call	~3:05pm AEDT
Number used	13 12 11
Hold time	Quoted 1-2 hours, callback offered and taken. Callback missed after 2h 25m
Call Centre (if known)	N/A
Matter resolved	N/A

Day of week	Sun 27 Mar
Time of call	~7:20am AEDT
Number used	13 12 11
Hold time	Quoted less than 15 minutes, actual hold 22 minutes
Call Centre (if known)	AKL
Details	Called to submit a couple of classic award requests during the DSC booking window. Fairly basic bookings - SYD-xBNE-SIN in U on one PNR, SGN-xSIN-SYD in X on another PNR (easter long weekend so all SIN-SYD flights were I0) At first the agent claims QF51 BNE-SIN doesn't exist, then admits they were searching for it wrong. Then asked why I was calling to book an award even though I'd already stated there were no awards and I'd like to request the seats. They seem perplexed so I explain the process of submitting the request to the droid for assessment, the agent seems vaguely aware of this but openly states they don't know how to process these and need to talk with their supervisor. After 10 minutes she come back to ask for all of the flight details once again, then I'm back on hold while they get their supervisor to look over the booking before submitting the request. After 5 minutes the agent takes me off hold to ask if it was a Points Plus Pay booking?! I'd mentioned it was classic award several times through the call so far. Back on hold for about 20 minutes while they construct the PNRs, then come back and say all approved, so we progress to payment.. "The SYD-xBNE-SIN flights will be $218 in taxes and 18400 points" - obviously I query this, the taxes sound right but the 18400 points would be SYD-BNE only. She goes off to check. I can see both PNRs in my QFF profile, SGN-SIN-SYD is all confirmed but BNE-SIN is still sitting on "Requested" instead of Confirmed, so the droid likely said no. I have some backup dates ready to request instead, but I'm already back on hold at this point ... and continue to wait on hold for a further 30+ minutes just to be hung up on (sent straight to the survey) without any answer regarding the BNE-SIN flight. Clearly too hard to deliver a negative response? Total call time 1h 35m - 22 minutes waiting to speak to someone, 10-15 minutes coughulative time spent talking to agent, over an hour waiting for the "premium desk" agent to figure out how to do their job. Experienced staff can process these requests in 3-4 minutes if you can get through to them. Even if they had to follow a manual/guide, SURELY this wouldn't take over an hour?! Anyway, back in the queue I go, praying I don't end up with that agent again. Current wait time "less than 30 minutes"

Do you know where your call was routed to?

My experience this morning was much better than yesterday. Called at 9:25am, offered a call back option, received a call back 1hr 20mins later from a typically fantastic HBA agent.

If only QF management agreed with us on outsourcing. Alas, easy to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing, isn’t it?

 

[DC3]

4 hours and still on hold….

Are you still on-hold?

 

[Le Clair]

Apologies in advance, I have had 2 days of the worse call centre experience ever at Qantas.

I needed a simple name change on a classic reward ticket First, LAX to SYD.
Callback service thankfully, quoted 1 to 2 hours, got called back in just under 3 hours.
Fiji.
Took at least 5 minutes just to get the message through that I wanted nothing more than a name change. Agent could not understand what I wanted and paused for at least 10 seconds after every sentence.
Agent: "Sorry sir, you can only make a name change to domestic tickets".
Me: "No, that's not correct, this is a classic rewards booking and name changes are permitted up to 24 hours before flight", which is in February 2023.
Agent: "Give me a moment"
15 minutes elapse.
Agent: Silence for 10 seconds followed by me, "Are you there?". Agent: "Yes". Me: "So what did you find out?". 10 second pause.
Agent: "You can't change a name on an international ticket".
So I read the Classic Rewards conditions to her again, slowly, followed by, "Give me a moment".
This dance continued for another hour exactly the same each time. Asked for supervisor and was told that it was the supervisor who gave her the information.
Then noticed while waiting for her to come back to me that a First classic reward ticket was, once again available, on the same flight and thought, "just let me make a new booking and simply cancel the other booking later.
Mistake.

 

[Le Clair]

When the agent came back, again and the same dance started, I simply thanked her for her time and her professionalism (It's not their fault) and ended the call.
Then horror, when I logged in to my account I found not only had the booking I had been wanting the name change on but the OTHER First booking that was also in my account for the same flight had vanished. She had canceled BOTH my First rewards bookings for the same date. That was why the Classic Rewards First redemption had suddenly reappeared while I was waiting for her and the second redemption had not reappeared.
So, after more than 4 hours and now having less than I started with, called back was told 3 to 4 hour wait and no offer of a callback. I called 13 13 13, 13 12 11 and 1300 025 396 and waited, and waited, and waited. None had been answered when I had to go to sleep 5 hours later.

 

[Le Clair]

Started at 7am this morning when I noticed that the second First Rewards ticket was, again, available. Tried to book it but on getting to the payment page, got the dreaded "Generic Error - Start Again message. After trying again 4 times over an hour, called 131313, offered a callback in 30 minutes to 1 hour, was called back just under 2 hours.
Note. I selected option 3 "I want to make a booking using points or a classic reward".
Fiji again with a woman's voice who sounded like she really didn't want to be there and no amount of cheering up I tried changed that.
Explained about the error every time I wanted to pay for the ticket - 3 times.
I went through the required itinerary over and over and over. I mean, how hard is LAX-SYD-BNE-HVB. I had dates, times, flight numbers and routing. She seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.
After at least 15 minutes she went away to "finish" the booking. I knew that the sectors were all available from the website.
20 minutes later she returned and after repeating the (very simple) itinerary said that would be $11,297.
Me: "No, I selected a classic rewards booking, you know, using points, that;'s why I selected 3 when I rang, to make a classic rewards booking"
Agent: "Oh sorry, give me a few minutes"
Click...beep...beep...beep. I was disconnected.

 

[Le Clair]

So I start again, this time 3 to 4 hours and no callback option, so I wait, and I wait...
At about the 4 hour mark, I try to make the online booking again - same result - Generic error start again.
4 hours 10 minutes, call answered. I presume Hobart or Auckland.
I said what I wanted, once.
I was ticketed in less than 5 minutes.
So what was that about saving money?
It took agents in Fiji over 5 hours of labour time to make the situation I called up for worse than it was when I started and an agent in Hobart or Auckland 5 minutes. At FJD3.20 per hour, my appalling experience cost Qantas FJD16. At AUD25 per hour, my excellent experience cost Qantas $2.08

 

[levelnine]

4 hours 10 minutes, call answered. I presume Hobart or Auckland.
I said what I wanted, once.

What an utter nightmare of an experience. Glad you got it resolved in the end.

 

[Berlin]

So what was that about saving money?
It took agents in Fiji over 5 hours of labour time to make the situation I called up for worse than it was when I started and an agent in Hobart or Auckland 5 minutes. At FJD3.20 per hour, my appalling experience cost Qantas FJD16. At AUD25 per hour, my excellent experience cost Qantas $2.08

What a nightmare, I feel for you! Unfortunately, your above calculation- while totally correct- is not how Qantas' bean counters will be seeing it. But even they might learn at some point- "insourcing" is on trend these days. Funny that.

 

[ScotchNavajo]

Day of week	Sunday
Time of call	11:31am AEST
Number used	1300 659 116
Status	Gold
Hold time	2 mins
Call Centre (if known)	South Africa
Matter resolved	Yes / maybe
Details	Needed to use multiple flight credits to make a booking. Spent a looooooong time on hold while she sorted it out, but she did seem to get it done - although while the booking is now showing up in my account, the flight credits are also showing as valid and I'm unable to access Manage or Seat Selection - just get an error message each time.

 

[Berlin]

Details

Needed to use multiple flight credits to make a booking. Spent a looooooong time on hold while she sorted it out, but she did seem to get it done - although while the booking is now showing up in my account, the flight credits are also showing as valid and I'm unable to access Manage or Seat Selection - just get an error message each time.

Just make sure the ticket is actually issued. I wouldn't trust those dummies at Qantas' offshore call centres...

 

[ScotchNavajo]

Just make sure the ticket is actually issued. I wouldn't trust those dummies at Qantas' offshore call centres...

Yep thanks - going to follow it up if it hasn't come within 24 hours. I've had a similar issue in the past and actually got it sorted at the airport while there for a separate domestic flight. So worst case scenario will do the same this time.

 

[TheInsider]

Yep thanks - going to follow it up if it hasn't come within 24 hours. I've had a similar issue in the past and actually got it sorted at the airport while there for a separate domestic flight. So worst case scenario will do the same this time.

Haha you won't be able to sort it out at the airport!

 

[Berlin]

I've had a similar issue in the past and actually got it sorted at the airport while there for a separate domestic flight. So worst case scenario will do the same this time.

Worst case scenario is that you realise too late that there’s no one at the airport to help you. Seriously wouldn’t risk it!

 

[jfl]

That's my feeling too. They're currently communicating higher up and I asked them to keep me on the line until it's sorted. 90 minutes in so far!

Flight still hasn't been ticketed, and now the QR FCO-DOH-JNB J leg has dropped off. Tried calling to fix and got through to SA callcentre straight away, but they hung up while I was on hold.

This is beyond a joke...

 

[RichardMEL]

re APIS.. you may not agree with it, but at least on flights to/from places like the USA, QF has not issued tix without it for years (pre pandemic). it's been a requirement for quite awhile. specially for certain destinations.

Just sayin'