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

 

[adenda]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	17:30 AEST
Number used	131313
Status	Red
Hold time	5 min
Call Centre (if known)	Offshore
Matter resolved	Yes - Pending Reticketing
Details	Called to make a change to my classic reward booking on Qatar airways (i know! a bit risky considering all the issues recently but the opportunity was too good to pass up). Ran the agent through the requested changes and the agent confirmed availability, put me on hold for a few minutes and then advised of the further points charge as well as a small refund due to a difference in taxes. Confirmed that i wanted to go ahead, change took a few more minutes. Was advised that due to the ticketing office being closed, points charge and the new tickets being issued could take upto 48hrs (not sure if this is true?). Qantas MMB shows the changes (as well as the qatar website) but weirdly, i can't select seats. A bit anxious considering Qatar has tight deadlines around reticketing so might give another call tomorrow if nothing comes through overnight

Try Cathay Pacific Manage My Booking. It will likely state that seat selection isn't available but will still give you the option of making a seat preference selection (Aisle or Window). If you do this it will assign you to some random seat. Curiously if you have say 2 travellers in your booking it will assign the second traveller a seat in a completely unrelated seat (ie. in a different row.)
Anyway once you've done this you have allocated seats that you should be able to change to your preference in another OneWorld website such as rj,com. This has worked for me on a few occasions with QR and AA.

 

[justinbrett]

I’ve had no issues and glad you aren’t painting all oveseas workers as incompetent as the vibe in this thread from some is pretty disappointing…

Completely agree. Some comments are borderline racist.

Plenty of incompetent Aussies.

 

[pauly7]

That sounds very Joycian. Blame the customers ...

The thread's 'vibe' and 'balance' will improve when Qantas stops - or hides - its contempt for its customers by adequately training its call centre staff to deal with at least basic requests and doesn't screw up or destroy so many people's carefully laid travel plans. Oh, and stop hanging up on people.

Fewer screw-ups - fewer complaints. Easy.

Sure thing, I’m glad you feel that way.

Doesn’t mean other people don’t interpret things people have said this thread in a different way, but being pounced on for having a slightly different viewpoint to the herd is sadly what this forum has descended to, which many have observed.

Completely agree. Some comments are borderline racist.

Plenty of incompetent Aussies.

Sadly I agree with you. But it seems quite acceptable which is even sadder really.

And yes many incompetent people in the world, every walk and race!

 

[RooFlyer]

If you make comment on others’ contributions here, chances are they’ll do likewise.

 

[jakeseven7]

If you judge others’ contributions here, chances are they’ll do likewise.

@pauly7 is one of our most valued contributors on this forum, given his line of work and who he has worked/works for is someone we actually want to stick around as his insider knowledge has been invaluable for many of us over the year.

Many valued contributors like him have left this forum for good over the past few months / year due in part to the increasing toxicity, whining and sniping by anyone who points out even a slightly different viewpoint to the pile on.

I also agree that with @justinbrett that certain posters in thread have posted thinly veiled racist comments about overseas workers and I also agree with @pauly7 that it is sad you can’t even point that out without being leapt upon and screeched at

 

[serfty]

[Moderator Hat]

The topic of thread is "Qantas Call Centre Long Wait Times".

Please stick to the topic.​

[/Moderator Hat]

 

[VPS]

just rang Qatar airlines - answered in 2 rings and very helpful person

 

[DC3]

just rang Qatar airlines - answered in 2 rings and very helpful person

Qatar? What about QF? Although, I think that question has been answered, upthread.

 

[VPS]

Qatar? What about QF? Although, I think that question has been answered, upthread.

just a comparison - that's all

 

[RooFlyer]

Got an email advising of a flight cancellation HBA-xMEL-ADL (this after HBA-ADL direct cancelled a month or so ago). Suggested flights unacceptable (went from early to last flights, will miss my Adelaide meeting).

Called (as Plat). Answered after abt 15 mins by Cape Town (by accent, and called me "Mr <firstname>")

I could see 4 different combinations of flights with Business Reward seats available which would be OK, and another 2 which wouldn't. The agent would only offer one of the choices - departing HBA at 6:05am; said they couldn't see availability on any other flights (except the one I was offered on line). I mentioned that I could see many others there on the web site. Agent wouldn't/couldn't offer them to me. Wouldn't couldn't escalate me (I've never asked for that before!).

So - anyone going onto the web site with some points can get a J seat HBA-xx_X-ADL, but me, with an involuntary change (and Plat FWIW) cannot?

I ended the call and did a dummy booking - yep, seat available to be booked.

What an absolute joke. Lets not call this incompetence, if the agent truly cannot see the availability that anyone can see on the web site. Lets call it plain coughry on the part of Qantas - "we'll cancel your flight, but keep available seats for new bookings and force you to go either OMG o'clock or the last flight". Qantas fans must be so proud!

Grrrr

 

[spade1686]

Day of week	Saturday
Time of call	17:30 AEST
Number used	131313
Status	Red
Hold time	5 min
Call Centre (if known)	Offshore
Matter resolved	Yes - Pending Reticketing
Details	Called to make a change to my classic reward booking on Qatar airways (i know! a bit risky considering all the issues recently but the opportunity was too good to pass up). Ran the agent through the requested changes and the agent confirmed availability, put me on hold for a few minutes and then advised of the further points charge as well as a small refund due to a difference in taxes. Confirmed that i wanted to go ahead, change took a few more minutes. Was advised that due to the ticketing office being closed, points charge and the new tickets being issued could take upto 48hrs (not sure if this is true?). Qantas MMB shows the changes (as well as the qatar website) but weirdly, i can't select seats. A bit anxious considering Qatar has tight deadlines around reticketing so might give another call tomorrow if nothing comes through overnight

Following up on this - no ticket came through overnight. Called Sunday afternoon (1/2hr wait), explained to the agent that i wanted it ticketed ASAP. He went through the booking while i was on hold and mentioned that the previous agent had not done everything correctly which he fixed up and said it would be ticketed in 24hrs (at this point i had been on the phone for an 1 1/2hrs) so i gave up.

Called again today (getting close to the 48hr mark which i know can cause bookings to fall off) - another 1/2hr wait. Ran the agent through the details who then put me on hold for an hour while he waited for the ticketing team to come back to him. They advised that the point difference for the booking change (18k) needed to be deducted from my account which needed to be done manually??. This took another hour to be completed (i assume by another team) and the agent offered to call me back when done but i insisted i was happy to stay on the line. Finally, after about 2 1/2 hrs, he was able to issue the tickets which came through immediately. Also worth mentioning that the call dropped off about 3 times and each time the agent called back

I have to thank the final agent because he stuck with it and got it done in the end but what a headache. I think if i had not followed up, no ticket would have been issued and i would have lost the seats as the first two agents had said to wait 24-48 hrs

 

[CaptainCurtis]

What an absolute joke. Lets not call this incompetence, if the agent truly cannot see the availability that anyone can see on the web site. Lets call it plain coughry on the part of Qantas - "we'll cancel your flight, but keep available seats for new bookings and force you to go either OMG o'clock of the last flight". Qantas fans must be so proud!

I had the same thing happen last week, although as a Silver not Plat. The Cape Town agent insisted she could not see the options I had while doing a dummy booking. I pushed firmly for an escalation/supervisor, and after around an hour on hold, the agent managed to work with a supervisor to update my booking. I don't know where the supervisor was based, but it seems their is perhaps a system issue for front-line staff in CT?

 

[DC3]

I think if i had not followed up, no ticket would have been issued and i would have lost the seats as the first two agents had said to wait 24-48 hrs

Yes, without manual intervention, I have found that the booking may not progress. Incompetence/laziness by some agents.

 

[blackcat20]

I had the same thing happen last week, although as a Silver not Plat. The Cape Town agent insisted she could not see the options I had while doing a dummy booking. I pushed firmly for an escalation/supervisor, and after around an hour on hold, the agent managed to work with a supervisor to update my booking. I don't know where the supervisor was based, but it seems their is perhaps a system issue for front-line staff in CT?

We escalated to a supervisor who said they should be able to access those seats, but couldn't. We were promised a call back that never came (again).

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I had the same thing happen last week, although as a Silver not Plat. The Cape Town agent insisted she could not see the options I had while doing a dummy booking. I pushed firmly for an escalation/supervisor, and after around an hour on hold, the agent managed to work with a supervisor to update my booking. I don't know where the supervisor was based, but it seems their is perhaps a system issue for front-line staff in CT?

+1. This has repeatedly happened to me both in cases of involuntary schedule changes as well as voluntary date changes where the selected new date shows no reward availability even though seats are available if starting from scratch. Given the amount of time it can take for points and charges to be refunded, cancelling and rebooking immediately isn’t always possible. I’ve never had luck with a call centre assisting in either situation. Another crock, imho.

 

[Quickstatus]

Incompetence/laziness by some agents

The Cape Town agent insisted she could not see the options

Could different Call Centres have different functionality available to the agents? The increase in staffing has to be matched with training. Perhaps some of the Call centres are at different levels of competency/training?
Will Alan confirm or deny?

 

[DC3]

Could different Call Centres have different functionality available to the agents? The increase in staffing has to be matched with training. Perhaps some of the Call centres are at different levels of competency/training

Perhaps different levels of incompetence/laziness.

 

[CaptainCurtis]

Could different Call Centres have different functionality available to the agents?

I'm beginning to suspect that may be the case. I could tell the agent really wanted to help (she took me off hold every 5-10 minutes to assure me she was still there and that she was working on my request with her supervisor), but she insisted she couldn't see the options I was seeing online.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I'm beginning to suspect that may be the case. I could tell the agent really wanted to help (she took me off hold every 5-10 minutes to assure me she was still there and that she was working on my request with her supervisor), but she insisted she couldn't see the options I was seeing online.

I similarly had an agent who clearly wanted to help a few weeks ago, even attempting the dummy booking herself to confirm the availability. Despite then escalating to a supervisor, she came back to confirm there was no way to get it sorted. She was able to cancel the existing ticket and immediately have the points refunded so I could rebook, though the taxes and fees took nearly three weeks.

 

[ChrisMars]

Got an email advising of a flight cancellation HBA-xMEL-ADL. Suggested flights unacceptable (went from early to last flights, will miss my Adelaide meeting).

Called (as Plat). Answered after abt 15 mins by Cape Town (by accent, and called me "Mr <firstname>")

I could see 4 different combinations of flights with Business Reward seats available which would be OK, and another 2 which wouldn't. The agent would only offer one of the choices - departing HBA at 6:05am; said they couldn't see availability on any other flights (except the one I was offered on line). I mentioned that I could see many others there on the web site. Agent wouldn't/couldn't offer them to me. Wouldn't couldn't escalate me (I've never asked for that before!).

So - anyone going onto the web site with some points can get a J seat HBA-xx_X-ADL, but me, with an involuntary change (and Plat FWIW) cannot?

I ended the call and did a dummy booking - yep, seat available to be booked.

What an absolute joke. Lets not call this incompetence, if the agent truly cannot see the availability that anyone can see on the web site. Lets call it plain coughry on the part of Qantas - "we'll cancel your flight, but keep available seats for new bookings and force you to go either OMG o'clock of the last flight". Qantas fans must be so proud!

There has been a few reports of this happening, including myself, for some simple qantas metal domestic award changes. Hobart call center could fix mine, the 4 previous offshore call center couldn't. What's strange is that offshore centre seems to see "some" availability, but obviously not all availability. AFAIK no-one understand why some seats can't be seen, while others are ok. Can't be married segments considering the scenario. All U / X seats should be treated the same.

I am wondering what would happen if one would ask to get the leg removed, and only then ask to add the desired leg back (instead of asking for a change).

Edit: In hindsight, I should have asked Hobart if the rebooking for my desired flight had anything particular that other call center might not be able to do. Hopefully someone will get to the bottom of this.