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

 

[RAM]

This morning's news contained a lame grab from Tully about how it was such a priority to fix this yadda yadda yadda...

there's words.. and then there's actions....

Don't tell me that Qantas is about to become a political party?

 

[antycbr]

Not just music. I'm pretty sure I could ace booking wheelchair assistance online if I needed it. The nice lady on holding has told me how to do it about 30 times now.

The joke is that I didn't need wheelchair assistance at the start of the call, but by the end you do need it.

I'm calling QF for the third time (late December to cancel a booking, then early January because the late December call didnt cancel actually cancel the flights at all) and now in April to find my 100K points and $600 in tax.

I think my booking has never ticketed properly so the cancellation isnt working either. I may need ro resort to a chargeback to get something to happen.

Glad I am VA Platinum - especially with SQ and AC rewards available.

 

[isabelleeo]

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 025 396
1300 659 116

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

Thank you so much for posting those numbers. I called 1300 659 116 a couple of times today & both calls were picked up within 5 mins ! I was shocked !! They were both answered by the Cape Town call centre. My issues were sorted & my bookings were finally ticketed. Thanks again admin!

 

[RAM]

Y E S - it has finally happened - a travel journalist has spent nearly 10 hours on hold with Q!

Qantas phone call hold times: Customers spend hours waiting

Need to call our national carrier? You might want to settle in with a long read

www.traveller.com.au

A member of the Traveller crew needed to change a flight booking. That was not possible on Qantas' website, the only alternative was to contact them over the phone. Which she did, and hung on for a total of close to 10 hours.

I've had occasion to call Qatar Airways twice in the last two months to redeem a flight voucher. Both times I was on hold for less than five minutes.

According to some reports, Qantas downsized its call centre staff radically during the pandemic. Now that flights are back on, those staff are needed, but they've found other jobs. This was foreseeable.

Sadly misses that Q outsourced most of its CC capacity to South Africa & now Fiji...

 

[levelnine]

I got a call back today ... for a call back I requested 7 days ago.

 

[RAM]

I got a call back today ... for a call back I requested 7 days ago.

Winner, winner!

No chicken dinner though. Please post an update in a few days to let us know of you issue(s) is(are) fixed.

 

[jrfsp]

Media articles keep coming
https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...s/news-story/e4c69ce91f0cb00e1584ee4e701f28c5

 

[dylarr]

Ben Fordham also had another crack this morning. Audio is here:

Qantas customer waits on hold for EIGHT HOURS

Stories of lengthy wait times from Qantas customers continue to flood in after the airline admitted the delays were unacceptable. One customer was on hold for over eight hours just to have their issue heard. The call volume has tripled amid a travel rebound on the back of the pandemic. “Alan...

www.2gb.com

They refuted some of the claims that Tully had made the morning prior.

Great to see this becoming very mainstream now.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

According to the latest from Ben Qantas expects us to believe multiple people are blocking up the phone lines and waiting for hours… to ask whether they have to wear a mask on board?

The QF call-handling system could ask people if they are calling about mask rules and divert them to a separate recording.

 

[RichardMEL]

According to the latest from Ben Qantas expects us to believe multiple people are blocking up the phone lines and waiting for hours… to ask whether they have to wear a mask on board?

The QF call-handling system could ask people if they are calling about mask rules and divert them to a separate recording.

or put on the endless loop messages current travel advice regarding such things and a reminder that our call is important to them(cough).

While I don't believe this is the whole story, I bet you there ARE people calling about "Do I need a test to go to Brisbane?" "Must I wear a mask while on Botany Bay?" or "What if I get covid?" etc - I mean we hear reports of idiots calling 000 to ask where the nearest testing place is and so on.. but I don't believe this is tying up everything to that degree

and plus QF these issues were happening before the pandemic - just nowhere near as bad, but they were.

 

[DC3]

According to the latest from Ben Qantas …

Ben Qantas?

 

[Mattg]

Ben Fordham also had another crack this morning. Audio is here:

Qantas customer waits on hold for EIGHT HOURS

Stories of lengthy wait times from Qantas customers continue to flood in after the airline admitted the delays were unacceptable. One customer was on hold for over eight hours just to have their issue heard. The call volume has tripled amid a travel rebound on the back of the pandemic. “Alan...

www.2gb.com

They refuted some of the claims that Tully had made the morning prior.

Great to see this becoming very mainstream now.

So their call yesterday ending up with a 1:57 hold time, and that was calling at 7.30am which is generally the best time. A lot more than 25 minutes.

While Ben is refuting some of Tully's claims, can he also mention that Virgin Australia does in fact have a call centre in Australia?

 

[justinbrett]

Called at 0730 this morning, was quoted less than 30 minutes, call back offered.

Call back received at 0825.

Pretty good service IMHO.

 

[ChrisMars]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	1. 07:00 AEDT 2. 08:00 AEDT
Number used	131313
Status	WP
Hold time	1. Quoted 15 min. Waited 1 hour, could hear the ring, at which stage I should talk to someone, but no more sound, had to hangup and back in the queue 2. Quoted 30 to 60 min. Pick the call back option this time, got it 1 hour later.
Call Centre (if known)	I can't tell, but the agent seemed competent.
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Made some changes to two separate international award booking. Call duration = 25 min. I used to have to provide my credit card detail for changes in taxes, but this time the agent stated he has it on the system. Is that something new? The two booking got reticketed within 10 minutes, which was particularly important for my QR flight

 

[mbell1510]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	10:15 AEDT - off the phone at 7pm AEDT
Number used	131313
Status	NB
Hold time	1. Quoted 1 hour - 2 hour, but didn't get on the phone until six hours for an agent
Call Centre (if known)	I can't tell, but seemed like an offshore agent
Matter resolved	Yes after 8.5 hours
Details	Called up using my wife's Bronze status to redeem her flight credit as the flight credit price was different to the Qantas website. After 8.5 hours on the phone including just over 2 hours with the agent, they finally agreed to price match their website and issue the ticket.

 

[DC3]

So many reports of being unable to determine the Call Centre location (or maybe just not wanting to name it). The Call Centres are in South Africa, Fiji, New ‘Zilland’ and Oz, as far as I know.

Those accents shouldn’t be that hard to determine. Well, other than Fiji perhaps, as there are some variables in play. Maybe it’s poor phone reception/quality as well.

Kiwi accents are dead easy, as your typical Kiwi drops all of the vowels (e.g., when a Kiwi says “check-in”, or “chck’n”, we hear it as “chicken”). Oz is pretty obvious. Then there’s a good chance of getting the others correct, especially the ‘South Efrican eccent’. So, apart from a “ring-in” answering, is it really that difficult to work out who has probably picked up the call, even following a process of elimination.

Edited

 

[Rangalad]

So their call yesterday ending up with a 1:57 hold time, and that was calling at 7.30am which is generally the best time. A lot more than 25 minutes.

While Ben is refuting some of Tully's claims, can he also mention that Virgin Australia does in fact have a call centre in Australia?

IIRC Qantas is required to maintain an Australian based call centre under the Qantas Sale Act 1992. The HBA call centre would not exist otherwise.

 

[DC3]

IIRC Qantas is required to maintain an Australian based call centre under the Qantas Sale Act 1992. The HBA call centre would not exist otherwise.

Yes, but some may say that Hobart is overseas.

That reminds me to check my Australian passport for a trip to Tassie.

 

[Mattg]

Not sure if it's worth mentioning that this page on the QF website says to call 1300 722 040 for "urgent travel or Flight Credit queries".

 

[gourmet333]

I waited hours and hours to be connected to a call centre yesterday. The initial message said a 2 hour wait but it took 6.5 hours to be finally connected to South Africa. I lucked into someone who was able to assist me with both my queries:
1. Following up as to why I hadn’t received my points back after a cancelled rewards booking (my 3rd call in this matter) and
2. Assigning me a seat on my J class rewards booking MEL - LHR

An email was received this morning saying the money and points would be refunded. And I just looked at the booking and a seat has been assigned.
Good result but more than 6 hours on hold - disgraceful.