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

 

[tdimdad]

Based on how bad this current Mindpearl operation is, and how non-existent qantas customer care is, I’d say the chances are less than zero.

Less than zero means negative territory. Is that you providing the recording for them to prove what you've said???

 

[N860CR]

Less than zero means negative territory. Is that you providing the recording for them to prove what you've said???

Ha yes perhaps.

I’d hazard a guess that qantas would refuse to listen to it (or not accept what’s on it) as they “didn’t consent”.

 

[MARTINE]

Ha yes perhaps.

I’d hazard a guess that qantas would refuse to listen to it (or not accept what’s on it) as they “didn’t consent”.

Perhaps next time in QF lounge sit next to a child playing with a loud device and no headphones .
Position next to said child and play your recording loudly all the while looking around in bewilderment!

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Wednesday
Time of call	1330
Number used	131211
Status	Platinum
Hold time	None
Call Centre (if known)	Most likely Fiji or South Africa, going by the accent
Matter resolved	Not Applicable
Details	Called to request 4x Y rewards seats MEL-SYD for 21Aug2022. The agent on the phone was helpful, but with the accent, had a bit of challenging understanding the questions. I think she had similar issues with my accent as well. So we both sort of agreed that we will speak slowly so that we can understand each other. When I told that I'm requesting seats, she asked for all the pax names (I didn't realise that we QF needs all pax names even for putting in a reward request, to be fair, I have never requested reward seats for anyone but myself, so it was new to me). After 20 minutes on the phone, the agent said that she has put in a request for the seats to be released and provided me with a booking reference. She also told me that a decision on the request will be made within 48 hours. And as she mentioned, today morning I received an email that there is a outcome on my request and to call 13 13 13 to discuss more. Before calling, I checked my QF app and I can see that booking reference sitting on My Trips page. So I was kinda sure that the request had gone thru. I'm on the phone with 13 13 13 now to pay the taxes & deduct the points

 

[RooFlyer]

Less than zero means negative territory. Is that you providing the recording for them to prove what you've said???

In a similar vein, a bank call agent once quoted to me their "terms and conditions" on the issue we were discussion. I then read out my "terms and conditions" which of course completely supported me. That actually bamboozled them for about 10 seconds, umming and arring before they realised what was up and said "we didn't agree to your T&Cs ..."

 

[RichardMEL]

I bet if it was the customer swearing at an agent they'd find the recording...

yes cynical I know. I'd definitely put in a complaint regarding both the use of language and then being hung up on for a reasonable request. Maybe nothing would come of it but gee seems one has to try. That's totally inappropriate.

 

[tdimdad]

When trying to optimise the call success as an SG (i.e. minimise the wait time and maximise the chance of getting someone competent & equipped on the line), what'd be the the best time of the week / day to call QF these days? Do we have some trends or gut feel about this?

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Friday
Time of call	0945
Number used	13 13 13
Status	Platinum
Hold time	None
Call Centre (if known)	CPT South Africa (I asked the agent)
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Before I say anything, EXCELLENT SERVICE FROM THE AGENT FROM CPT. Too bad I didn't get her name. I had requested 4x Y rewards seats MEL-SYD for 21Aug. Received an email today to call 13 13 13 to discuss the outcome. Called in, no hold time, went straight thru to an agent, who is SUPER helpful. Initially she had trouble understanding why I was calling because she could see the booking in My Bookings. But when I explained that this is a reward request and I still need to pay the taxes & points, she had a light bulb moment. Put me in a brief 20 second hold and she came back on the line and said that she will process the taxes component first and then the points component. The usual drill - card number, expiry, name on the card etc. Took about 2 minutes to process the taxes component. She then said that the points component is processed by a different team, who needs to log in to s system to get this done. So I was put on hold for over 30 minutes. The agent spoke to on the phone was very considerate - she kept coming back on the phone every 5-7 minutes to ensure that I'm still connected and kept apologising for the delay in processing the points. It's a nice thing that she made sure I didn't feel like I was waiting for a long time (which I did, but it was not as bad as I was doing a million other things in the meantime). All in all after 42 minutes and 15 seconds on the call (including the survey, where I gave all 5's) my CR booking was all sorted, seats selected & the "Travel Document" issued. Did not received the e-ticket yet. Was told this could take up to 24 hours.

 

[RooFlyer]

Before I say anything, EXCELLENT SERVICE FROM THE AGENT FROM CPT. Too bad I didn't get her name.

Good result. Dare I be a cynical old cove and say that they can be very efficient when it comes to taking cash/points from us?

 

[Ade]

Good result. Dare I be a cynical old cove and say that they can be very efficient when it comes to taking cash/points from us?

And might I say, good sir, you might be correct in your judgement

In any case, happy that I was able to get the seats released. Otherwise, flying MEL-SYD on the flight that I wanted would have been a good $1K+ fare for 4 ADTs. I also nabbed 4x CBR-MEL, which would have been another $1K+. So all in all paying only $400sh in the place of $2Kish ...

 

[Mr H]

I have criticised Fijian agents and have never had one really solve a problem for me. Until today...

... step forward Tim.

I had lost a fully ticketed award booking because a Qataria changed a flight and QF did not reticket it in time. I reconstructed the route using different flights. Multiple Fijian agents could not do this for me, and it was only when I finally got a South African agent that we were able to book the flights.

Then we entered the twilight zone of ticketing...

Multiple phone calls (always getting Fiji) and was told that they had to call the support team and the support team had to call ticketing. Promises to call me back that came to nothing, and agents giving up after too long on hold. Yesterday I thought there was a breakthrough when I got emailed an e-ticket, but it had no ticket number. Later that day, one flight on the booking got a ticket number but the others didn't - and that number disappeared after a few hours.

Today, I called again. The agent, Tim, understood the issue and said he was calling ticketing directly. There was a long wait on hold. Tim offered to call me back, but I begged to stay on the line. And after 1 hour and 44 minutes, success. I now have a fully ticketed itinerary. Taking off in 20 days - after two weeks in a very unpleasant limbo.

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Friday
Time of call	1402
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	About 4 mins approx
Call Centre (if known)	CPT South Africa (I asked the agent)
Matter resolved	Partially
Details	Called in to request 1x return CR CBR-MEL for mid-late Aug. The agent initially thought I was looking to book a $ ticket and said that there will be a $50 booking fee. I clarified that I'm looking to have 1 reward seat released and there were no reward seats for sale on the website, so no booking fee will be applied. She then understood and asked for the flight number I was after. After gathering the details she needed, she was able to book the seats right away. No waiting for 48 hours for the manual review. Must be lucky day, eh So after all that, she put me on hold and did not hear anything for over 25 mins. I could see the return leg reflected in My Trips in the QF app, but the onward leg had "Request" in the app, meaning, it was still being processed at that point in time. I kept asking if there was someone on the line, because I didn't hear anyone for the past 30 or so minutes. I waited another 5 mins before hanging up and I called again.

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Friday
Time of call	1445
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	None
Call Centre (if known)	HBA (I asked the agent)
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Continuing on my previous attempt to get the 1x return CBR-MEL reward, I called up the premium line once again and this time someone from HBA answered the phone. I explained what had happened a few minutes before and he instantly understood what I needed. He said "No worries, I can take it from here". Within 10 minutes all ticketed and payment done. The agent told me that there are some differences between the system QF uses in HBA and CPT and based on an indicator, the agent can say which call center had initiated a booking. I was told that that e-tickets should be in my inbox in approx 10 mins and they landed we within that time. All in all, a happy QF customer today.

 

[clifford]

I received an email from Royal Jordanian this morning advising of a "schedule change" to a Qantas booking. I checked it carefully but could see no actual change.

So I checked on the Qantas website and sure enough the booking was flagged, but the "changed" flights were exactly the same as the old flights. However, there was an "Accept Changes" button active, so I pressed it and lo and behold a new ticket was issued.

When I looked at manage booking on the RJ website, the only difference I could see was that I had been kicked out of seat 1A on the BKK-AMM flight and moved to 2K. So it appears that the "schedule change" was all about putting a (favoured) couple in seats 1A/B when they were already occupied...

Well at least I didn't have to call Qantas.

 

[Telemachus]

I have criticised Fijian agents and have never had one really solve a problem for me. Until today...

... step forward Tim.

I had lost a fully ticketed award booking because a Qataria changed a flight and QF did not reticket it in time. I reconstructed the route using different flights. Multiple Fijian agents could not do this for me, and it was only when I finally got a South African agent that we were able to book the flights.

Then we entered the twilight zone of ticketing...

Multiple phone calls (always getting Fiji) and was told that they had to call the support team and the support team had to call ticketing. Promises to call me back that came to nothing, and agents giving up after too long on hold. Yesterday I thought there was a breakthrough when I got emailed an e-ticket, but it had no ticket number. Later that day, one flight on the booking got a ticket number but the others didn't - and that number disappeared after a few hours.

Today, I called again. The agent, Tim, understood the issue and said he was calling ticketing directly. There was a long wait on hold. Tim offered to call me back, but I begged to stay on the line. And after 1 hour and 44 minutes, success. I now have a fully ticketed itinerary. Taking off in 20 days - after two weeks in a very unpleasant limbo.View attachment 286792

Well done on getting a good outcome in the face of serial setbacks. Impressed by your patience, persistence and resilience. Am also noting some welcome evidence that generalisations about the competence of all agents at particular CCs aren’t 100% supported by reported experience.

 

[N860CR]

Well done on getting a good outcome in the face of serial setbacks. Impressed by your patience, persistence and resilience. Am also noting some welcome evidence that generalisations about the competence of all agents at particular CCs aren’t 100% supported by reported experience.

From my recent experience, the Fijians do seem to get the need to immediately ticket and have some process for doing it. A South African remarked (more pleasantly than the previous one had!) “we’re not allowed to call them, we get in trouble”.

 

[RAM]

I’ve actually done it with qantas in the past where I was straight out lied to by an agent and it cost me a huge amount of money rebooking something. This was about 8 years ago and the call centre was in Australia. The end result was qantas telling me they “couldn’t retrieve the recording so can’t verify what was said”.

Based on how bad this current Mindpearl operation is, and how non-existent qantas customer care is, I’d say the chances are less than zero.

..and the immediate response is "Please put that in writing for me to forward to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.'

Could be worth $50,000 or more in 'enhanced costs' for Q.

Touch wood - so far I have never had a 'we lost your call', or 'we cannot find it.' There have been several times I requested it from dealing with JetStar. Q company secretary always likes being provided an audit trail (or perhaps hates being provided...).

As long as you note down date, time, name of CCA, length of call, and ideally any particularly good words/phrases used - then lost calls not a problem. Getting the CCA to spell their name 'so you can forward positive customer feedback at the end of today's call' - often seems to generate a more positive interaction.

 

[Mr H]

I received an email from Royal Jordanian this morning advising of a "schedule change" to a Qantas booking. I checked it carefully but could see no actual change.

So I checked on the Qantas website and sure enough the booking was flagged, but the "changed" flights were exactly the same as the old flights. However, there was an "Accept Changes" button active, so I pressed it and lo and behold a new ticket was issued.

When I looked at manage booking on the RJ website, the only difference I could see was that I had been kicked out of seat 1A on the BKK-AMM flight and moved to 2K. So it appears that the "schedule change" was all about putting a (favoured) couple in seats 1A/B when they were already occupied...

Well at least I didn't have to call Qantas.

I am sure you are already doing this, but please check that all of your flights are ticketed on CMT. My travails started with something very similar - turned out one of my QR flights was in the process of being cancelled but this did not show up immediately - so it looked like the flights I was accepting were the same as the ones they were replacing. The 'revised' booking did not ticket and I lost half the ticketed flights. If I had been aware of this as a possibility, I would have seen as soon as the ticket numbers disappeared and been on to the call centre to get ticketing to happen.

 

[squid01]

A week or so? Our flight it just two weeks away.

Was it from the Aus or NZ call centre? Or just a competent operator from offshore?

 

[paul66]

Week three of me phoning every day to get my booking ticketed. Today the operator said that there was an issue due to the backlog and I should wait a couple more weeks. I said that I had this happen before and lost my flights as they were canceled by the other airline. She said that if this happens I will get an email saying they have been canceled. I told her I did not want to live in fear of a canceled booking wrecking my holiday. I asked her to try and get it ticketed. She told me that she was only allowed to do this if the flight was imminent and that I must just wait. So it seems like they have dropped the line that they will ring you back (which they never do) and now are being more truthful - basically there is nothing they can do and the risk of your flight being canceled is of no concern to Qantas. If this is a permanent feature of Qantas reward flights then rewards tickets will only be useful for flights where you have absolutely no concern if it gets canceled or you are happy to pay for the canceled segment at any cost. Unbelievable attitude to loyal customers who collected points in good faith.