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
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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AFF Editor said:
I've written a new article which basically sums up the comments in this thread over the past 24 hours.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Qantas, Don't Blame Customers for Your Woeful Service!

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce this week apologised to customers for the long call centre wait times. Chief Customer Officer Stephanie Tully also emailed customers
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
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He's not taking your advice it seems.

www.smh.com.au

‘I’m not blaming them’: Qantas CEO walks back criticism of passengers for Sydney Airport delays

Alan Joyce angered passengers by saying they contributed to long queues by not removing laptops and aerosols at security. Chronic airport shortages meant several security lanes were closed.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
 
mouseman99 said:
I have a Qantas rewards flight in May to Europe. It was booked on Qantas via Emirates. I need to hopefully bring forward my departure date by a week (return flight date to remain the same) I cant do that online as it says I need to contact Qantas
Is that even possible over the phone or am I wasting my time trying to get through? Do I need to cancel and book a new flight (which I dont really want to do as its another $450) ?

thank you
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Phone before 8am. I've always been offered a call back.
 
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mouseman99 said:
I have a Qantas rewards flight in May to Europe. It was booked on Qantas via Emirates. I need to hopefully bring forward my departure date by a week (return flight date to remain the same) I cant do that online as it says I need to contact Qantas
Is that even possible over the phone or am I wasting my time trying to get through? Do I need to cancel and book a new flight (which I dont really want to do as its another $450) ?

thank you
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I'd be very wary of making voluntary changes to anything EK at the moment as you're on the hook for the difference in taxes and fees. With EK significantly increased their fuel surcharge you might be looking at an additional $1k per person one way
 
My 5-6 trips this year so far I've not noticed "inexperienced" flyers - even in the non priority (not policed) queues - most people doing the usual thing and pretty good. Now yes there was that SYD crush the other day but really? blame customers?

Well AJ how about you get SYD Airport to produce the security video footage to back it up showing all those dumbasses who are not "match fit" for security? It's not even like Oz security is that hard or onerous (like the TSA without Pre). I wonder how many lanes were open and so on.

Pretty lame attempt to shift blame - and on to your customers no less. Way to keep those few left (who have not lost their minds with the call cenre wait times) on side by having a go at them. I bet his marketing people are cringing
 
Port Power said:
Cancel, flight credit, waste $450? No, don't do that. Bite the bullet and telephone to change your flight. Perhaps use one of the numbers at the top of this thread as you flight is pretty soon.
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got through 3 times on one of the numbers. On each occasion they have cut me off and it went straight to the 'survey question' after 10-20 mins. with nothing resolved. Will have to try again early tomorrow. Its so demoralising.
 
Probably my worst Qantas call experience yet:
  • 80 mins on hold, using the Customer Care line number to follow up on a complaint I filed over a week ago.
  • Cannot find a "case number", refuses to progress if I don't have one.
  • I said I'd resubmit it now if agent can actually check if he can see it.
  • Agent trying weasel out of waiting, insists that I would get a case number once I submit and believes that there was a tech error when I submitted it that caused me to not get a case number.
  • I said is there another way to deliver my complaint verbally.
  • Dude said no, "we can only respond via email or by calling you directly"
  • I asked "then what is this phone number for"
  • Dude says "baggage.. and customer care", continues to insist on a case number.
  • Filed a quick scribble and submitted it. Surprise, surprise, no case number.
  • Agent didn't believe, tried it himself, he got a case number. Said he used the exact same options.
  • I said "WTH can I do if I keep not getting a case number?". Subsequently copy pasted my form input through multiple browsers, no case number either.
  • The guy refused to help any further, says I can call the Qantas head office.
  • Gave up, but not before asking which call centre. Cape Town.
  • Afterwards, I tried submitting the form, but not under the "Frequent Flyer" category. Finally got case numbers. Submitted 3 different feedback forms for good measure.
 
So here is an example of why someone would have to call for help. And no I am not an idiot - I regularly book flights on line, including multi-city flights.

This shot shows what happens when I try to book a 6 flight multi-city CBR-SYD-DXB-ZRH-DXB-SYD-CBR for December/January.

Multi city fail.png

But if I drop the CBR-SYD- CBR legs, it works

multi city.png


Now I've done a lot of looking at this, just in case it had a dummy spit because of the early departure at 0600 out of Sydney meaning that there are no connections from Canberra at that time of the day. However, there was a choice of other flights leaving later in the day, so I had a look at some of those, and then when I clicked on the one I thought I might prefer, this is what happened.


Multi city fail 2.png
For all sorts of reasons, I actually want my international connecting legs to be on the same ticket. So the only way I am going to be able to make that happen seems to be to call the Platinum Priority Line and wait 2 hrs+ to spend more that $17,000 on air fares with Qantas. What the actual????

And then to have it insinuated by Stephanie Tully that this is only happening because I am stupid or technologically challenged or something. That just takes the cake of disillusionment.

Mr Seat 0A and I have over 3 million points to use, and we are both LTG and I am currently a Platinum. I'd use the points to book flights, but I could not get business points seats for this route (practically never can, actually, seems like the Qantas-Emirates relationship is very bad), or for my February trip to Japan, so have had to pay for them. So all up, those 2 revenue trips are worth well over $26,000 to Qantas. Lucky I have my travel budget from 2020, 2021 and most of 2022 untouched to spend up.

They seem to have me captive because of the number of points I want to use, and I want to have status when I do use them. I am open to practical suggestions for alternatives - noting that VA just announced great domestic business class fares, a new VIP tier which is good for my domestic work travel. But I think I read that VA is not in *Alliance any more which makes it hard because most of my status earning flights will be overseas for self funded leisure and I really want to have status for those trips as we get older and the travel environment gets more uncertain, because I always (previously) felt well cared for as a Platinum and even sometimes a P1 with Qantas - although maybe that is an old paradigm as status really does not seem to amount to much at all. Arghhh. Not happy Stephanie.
 
AisleSeat said:
"Inexperienced travellers", "not match fit". They're not noobs; people just haven't flown for two years. Maybe QF can make a how-to video for them.
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Well, and another issue is that security practices are even less standard than they used to be. In CBR now, we have the high tech body scanners and so you don't have to take off shoes and belts etc if you have knee replacements like I do. You also don't have to take out your ipads here now, and some operators also don't make you take out your laptop. For a start, they could standardise the process here in Canberra. And then, once people are used to that new (and shock horror, actually faster and better for people like me) process here, it's not really fair to blame the customer who needs to check that in fact in Melbourne, you do still have to take off your shoes.

So really, yet again they are blaming the customer for things that need a system fix. I must have taken my industrial strength irrit pills today, because this whole debacle is really starting to rile me. It's so frustrating that there is no real avenue to bring it to the attention of anyone who could or would do something about it.
 
Seat0B said:
For all sorts of reasons, I actually want my international connecting legs to be on the same ticket. So the only way I am going to be able to make that happen seems to be to call the Platinum Priority Line and wait 2 hrs+ to spend more that $17,000 on air fares with Qantas. What the actual????
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Unbelievable their making platinum’s wait 2 hrs+!! I was lucky enough to get Hobart the other day in 15 min and only Bronze
 
Nitro6333 said:
Unbelievable their making platinum’s wait 2 hrs+!! I was lucky enough to get Hobart the other day in 15 min and only Bronze
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yes sometimes things work out! I waited over 50 minutes to link my booking to my husband's a couple of weeks ago. We have different bookings because I am travelling for a client and need a separate booking to support my invoice, but we wanted to sit together and I'm WP and he's LTG - so couldn't be done on line and had to call them - not because I'm stupid or love talking to Qantas representatives, simply because it was impossible to fix myself. I called before 7 am, waited 50 minutes and was served politely and efficiently by Hobart call centre.

I've had three Qantas initiated flight changes to my CBR-OOL flights for end of May - which now make the times unsuitable and need to be adjusted. Can't do that on line either - MMB says call customer service. Did that, put in WP FF# and the message said 2+ hrs wait time. I couldn't wait - had to work - wasn't offered a call back. So I just decided to not accept the change and will wait till closer to time to sort it out, hoping that in nearly 2 months from now, the call centres may have more staff - Ha! Ever the optimist.
 

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