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

 

[levelnine]

Qantas starting to feel the heat. An email from Stephanie Tully presumably sent to all QFF members.

Plenty of customer blaming in it, as we've come to expect from QF:

We know that some of our customers would prefer to speak to a real person to have their questions answered, and we understand that, however in the majority of cases customers do have the option to use qantas.com to book flights, including using Flight Credits, and make changes to their existing bookings. More than half of calls we are currently receiving can be resolved online, so we are developing a series of ‘how to’ videos to help explain the most common questions received by our contact centres that can be resolved on qantas.com.

 

[Must...Fly!]

All that does is highlight very poor management. Surely more assistance to customers who apparently can do things online would've been realised a long time ago and not just in reaction to poor media coverage? We know it's all spin anyway but this just reflects even more poorly on the standard of management at the airline IMO

 

[ANstar]

How many times have AFFers posted that they would love to be able to make their own changes on line? Even prefer to! And that they should be able to, but Qantas IT is so antiquated? Yet in the article, Alan Joyce states, “Nearly 60 per cent of the people that ring the call centre could be doing that on the website or in the app because there’s a lot more functionality." Does he not actually know what his own business can and cannot do? Pretty poor of the boss!

I couldn't even cancel my award ticket online as the option was greyed out and said to call the contact centre... I mean come on get the basics right.

 

[SydneySwan]

We have found that a way to avoid having to phone Qantas is by not booking flights with them in the first place. All our domestic flight bookings this year so far have been with an airline that seems much easier to deal with and cheaper too - starts with V.

 

[MooTime]

That email is just embarrassing.
Blaming the people then claiming in hiring more staff, yeah in places with minimal training which solves nothing.

All the focus is on marketing, everything else a distant last!

 

[astrosly]

Qantas starting to feel the heat. An email from Stephanie Tully presumably sent to all QFF members.

Plenty of customer blaming in it, as we've come to expect from QF:

Indeed, I didn't know whether to laugh or throw up reading this email. Seriously, do they really think people aren't using their website functionality and call because they want a human to talk to??!

 

[Mark1966]

In case you missed the email -

Dear xx_X,

Australians have waited a long time to get back in the air, so the last thing you want is to wait hours on the phone to talk to our contact centres.

Our recent call wait times have not been acceptable. We apologise to you, and all our customers who have experienced challenges in getting through to us, and want to reassure you that we’ve made fixing this issue a top priority and we know we need to do better.

We now have more staff in our contact centres than before the pandemic, but call volumes are at an all-time high – from an average of 7,500 calls a day to 14,000. With border restrictions easing across the world, each change brings more calls.

The time our agents are talking to each customer has increased by an average of 50 per cent as people rearrange travel plans that are up to two years old.

Each month we are recruiting and training more people, and we’ll keep hiring more people and investing in better technology so it’s easier to talk to us, which will mean we will see improvements each week. In the meantime, we hope you can be patient with our dedicated Qantas staff members; our wonderful frontline staff are doing all they can.

We know that some of our customers would prefer to speak to a real person to have their questions answered, and we understand that, however in the majority of cases customers do have the option to use qantas.com to book flights, including using Flight Credits, and make changes to their existing bookings. More than half of calls we are currently receiving can be resolved online, so we are developing a series of ‘how to’ videos to help explain the most common questions received by our contact centres that can be resolved on qantas.com.

Thank you for your continued support, loyalty and, most of all, patience. We look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

Warm regards,



Stephanie Tully

Qantas Group Chief Customer Officer

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Does anyone have her email address? I would love to send a 'how to' not acess my lounge passes online video. It shouldn't take a 4-hour call to link a lounge pass to a booking.

 

[Must...Fly!]

The time our agents are talking to each customer has increased by an average of 50 per cent as people rearrange travel plans that are up to two years old.

That is a problem entirely of Qantas' own making.

 

[Mattg]

That email is insulting, to say the least. I get that they had to do something, but all I see is more excuses, empty promises and - it gets better - blaming customers for Qantas' problems.

Telling me that I can do things online, when your website is broken and doesn't let me do so many basic things, is not helpful.

I am not booking any more flights with Qantas until this is fixed.

 

[ChrisMars]

Does anyone have her email address? I would love to send a 'how to' not acess my lounge passes online video. It shouldn't take a 4-hour call to link a lounge pass to a booking.
View attachment 274511

This one is likely an issue with cookies, I have that frequently. Have you tried from an incognito browser window? If it works then clearing the cookie should reolve that.

 

[NM]

Qantas starting to feel the heat. An email from Stephanie Tully presumably sent to all QFF members.

Plenty of customer blaming in it, as we've come to expect from QF:

Hopefully there will be a "How to video" titled "How to have your award flight booking ticket issued or re-issued in a timely manner so the booking is not auto-cancelled by the operating airline via qantas.com web site". I would like to such a button on the web site.

 

[AstroBBoy]

Does anyone have her email address? I would love to send a 'how to' not acess my lounge passes online video. It shouldn't take a 4-hour call to link a lounge pass to a booking.
View attachment 274511

I've had this a lot, and noticed that clearing all my browser cookies/cache quite often fixes the issue.

 

[WeeWillyWonka]

I appreciate the sponsored ad from Virgin in between some posts in this thread

"Virgin Australia - "Back to Holidays" Network-wide Sale!"

 

[aikman]

I can see infrequent flyers falling for that email but surely anyone with status knows better. I can't believe they sent out that email. They are so out of touch.

 

[astrosly]

That email is insulting, to say the least. I get that they had to do something, but all I see is more excuses, empty promises and - it gets better - blaming customers for Qantas' problems.

Telling me that I can do things online, when your website is broken and doesn't let me do so many basic things, is not helpful.

I am not booking any more flights with Qantas until this is fixed.

Me too, I didn't book any flights during the DSC offer last week as I didn't want to waste any more time with Qantas when flights and bookings are being changed constantly and I have to call to resolve taking 1-2 hours each time. I am currently in the process of cancelling a June flight with Qantas.

 

[dylarr]

That email is a masterclass in how to gaslight your customers.

 

[ANstar]

I wonder how long it is before the re instate award change fees to help reduce call centre wait times.

 

[Must...Fly!]

They are so out of touch.

Really, I think this is the crux of the matter. I'm not going to pretend that being an airline executive over the last 24 months would have been anything but extremely difficult. However, some airlines have clearly been able to keep up with expectations of customers through the majority of that time, some much bigger than Qantas - such as AA. Others haven't (another good example being SQ).

This problem is hugely significant for the airline and the way that e-mail reads, it seems like the management can't quite understand why the customer is having problems - and thus it must be the customer's fault. It is likely some combination of upper management being foolish, middle management telling fibs to cover up their own shortcomings and a general contempt for paying passengers - and that attitude at Qantas long pre-dates COVID.

 

[gfraser]

I would have thought a company as big as Qantas would be Proactive rather than Reactive!