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

 

[Quickstatus]

she insisted she couldn't see the options I was seeing online

Prima facie, it does appear so. I cannot imagine the airline can suddenly upskill all their call centre new hires.
Agent Functionality based on level of training.

Which means HUACAᵡ (ᵡ = number of HUACA)

 

[RooFlyer]

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 or the last flight". Qantas fans must be so proud!

I HUCA an hour later. I think Cape town again (Mr <firstname> etc). Grilled me with a whole bunch of 'security' questions. Was able to offer me one additional option over the first agent; not really what I was after, given the options apparently available (and visible on Expert Flyer)

I asked that, as a Plat, a seat be 'released' on the flights I could see online as already having Award seats available (never asked for this for a domestic before - I think it can be requested??). The agent had no idea what I was talking about. I told them I'd have to see if I could get some plans changed to accept the early flight (as a polite way to end the call).

 

[1022]

Surely a logical and straightforward solution to many of these issues is to have a more granular set of menu options (or voice recognition) at the start of the call so that simple stuff goes to inexperienced staff and anything more complex - e.g. making changes to award bookings - is answered by someone who knows what they’re doing and has system access to do it.

I don’t care if that is Hobart, Capetown or Timbuktu, so long as training thresholds have been met to be able to solve the issue according to triaged call routing.

Perhaps that’s much easier to manage from an HR perspective when you’re training and promoting and motivating your own staff with proper QC instead of the lowest bidder getting the contract and seeing people costs as a liability to squeeze and minimise….

 

[MJHoops]

Does the thread need to be renamed Qantas call centre experiences? Or a new one started? Genuine questions and I claim ignorance of etiquette here, sorry. I say this as the long wait time is only a (fairly small) part of the problem. I spend longer talking to the call centre than waiting

The posts here are now mostly about the quality of the service, hence prompting multiple calls (which takes a long time)

I have used “offshore” in previous posts as a convenient shorthand for the fact I am not speaking to a Qantas employee - I am speaking to an employee of an independent contractor. QF outsourced to save or at least try to save costs, but you lose control over quality in doing so as you have to rely on whatever KPIs are in your contract with Mindpearl or whatever the company is

This is a parallel issue as concerns swissport and baggage

 

[Quickstatus]

Perhaps that’s much easier to manage from an HR perspective when you’re training and promoting and motivating your own staff with proper QC instead of the lowest bidder getting the contract and seeing people costs as a liability to squeeze and minimise

That would be obvious but I suppose that may be a reason you, i and many here will never run an airline.

 

[dylarr]

Surely a logical and straightforward solution to many of these issues is to have a more granular set of menu options (or voice recognition) at the start of the call so that simple stuff goes to inexperienced staff and anything more complex - e.g. making changes to award bookings - is answered by someone who knows what they’re doing and has system access to do it.

This was supposedly the rationale for a IVR menu shake up last year:

Major Qantas Call Centre Changes

Qantas has overhauled its beleaguered call centre in an effort to improve the quality of the service provided. But there have been some teething issues,

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

In reality, and as has been shown time and time again in this thread, selecting 'Booking with Qantas Points' => 'International' from the menu options will still result in calls being put through to agents who have no idea what they are doing (e.g. the recent examples of people losing confirmed seats on partner airlines).

 

[RooFlyer]

I HUCA an hour later. I think Cape town again (Mr <firstname> etc). Grilled me with a whole bunch of 'security' questions. Was able to offer me one additional option over the first agent; not really what I was after, given the options apparently available (and visible on Expert Flyer)

I asked that, as a Plat, a seat be 'released' on the flights I could see online as already having Award seats available (never asked for this for a domestic before - I think it can be requested??). The agent had no idea what I was talking about. I told them I'd have to see if I could get some plans changed to accept the early flight (as a polite way to end the call).

OK, third call for my involuntary change HBA-xMEL-ADL (originally HBA-ADL direct).

Plat expected wait time 30 mins; answered after 40 min- a record for me (Apologies to those waiting much longer) - Cape Town again.

The agent was a bit lacking in skills, but tried hard and we eventually made it (I think!)

* Initially confused flight numbers with departure times "I'd like to go on QF1536" became a search for a flight departing at 15:36 "I'm sorry, I can't see any flight at that time"

* Successfully found a mid-morning departure for me (which is what I'm after) but its HBA-xSYD-MEL (ummmm. missing ADL??)

* "Your flight from Hobart is currently taking you to Melbourne. Why do you want to change that to Adelaide? OH! I see the next flight goes to Adelaide"

* I found a flight HBA-xSYD-ADL, yes, seats available , a bit earlier than the time I want, but OK. If I have to go via Sydney, I might as well spend some time in research there, so a long transit is OK; my preferred combination is for 5 hours transit. Her response: "Its a long lay-over I'm not sure if that's allowed." Me: "But my existing ticket is already a 'layover' in Melbourne of about 2 hours and this is an involuntary change". Her: "Yes, but this is a long layover, I'll have to check the Terms and Conditions if that's allowed" (FFS). Puts me on hold, then comes back to say that she will "allow" the "long layover".

She offered me several other options, but we agreed on the one I requested. Remarkable! Amazingly, all these flights and combinations are suddenly available!! Now it could be that the first 2 agents were only checking HBA-xMEL-ADL and not other routes, but I did specifically say each time that I'm happy top go via Sydney (for the above reason).

On hold for 10 mins while she 'ticketed' it; done successfully, and wow! eTicket arrives 5 mins later.

Total call time 2 Rieslings 1 hour (yes, I know, how abstemious of me). Count my blessings I guess, but I know that there will be at least another change to get thought before the day, in September.

The agent really tried hard but fair dinkum. With better training she'd be brilliant.

 

[clifford]

I HUCA an hour later. I think Cape town again (Mr <firstname> etc). Grilled me with a whole bunch of 'security' questions. Was able to offer me one additional option over the first agent; not really what I was after, given the options apparently available (and visible on Expert Flyer)

I asked that, as a Plat, a seat be 'released' on the flights I could see online as already having Award seats available (never asked for this for a domestic before - I think it can be requested??). The agent had no idea what I was talking about. I told them I'd have to see if I could get some plans changed to accept the early flight (as a polite way to end the call).

I received an email today indicating that the MEL-ADL sector of a WGA-SYD-MEL-ADL award J booking had been cancelled, and that I had been rebooked on an earlier MEL-ADL flight. Unfortunately this new flight departed before my SYD-MEL flight arrived (!). Why would they do that?

So I rang the 1300 659 116 number and was put through within a couple of minutes to a nice lady in Fiji (I asked where she was). I had done some homework and found that there was now no way I could get to ADL from WGA at an acceptable time that day, so I requested CBR-MEL instead of WGA-SYD-MEL. The agent was more than happy to oblige. If it had been Cape Town I would have just HUCA'd straight away. Not worth the grief IMO.

Unfortunately, the agent said she wasn't empowered to reticket the booking, so it had be be sent to a queue for ticketing "within 24 hours" (or never perhaps). The inconsistency with ticketing is mind blowing, as I've recently had other agents in Fiji issue the ticket whilst on the phone.

Oh well, it looks like another call to Qantas when the ticket doesn't issue. Let's wait and see...

 

[RooFlyer]

Why would they do that?

I used to think that impossible 'connections' like you describe were given as a placeholder making you have to call then to discuss complex options rather than giving you vastly different options for another day etc etc. Now I think its just Qantas IT incompetence, or management incompetence in not getting it fixed. Programmers! Just how difficult is it to 'code' an auto-e-mail saying "flight X has been cancelled, there is no straightforward way for us to route you on that day, please call us to discuss options" - as opposed to assigning a departure before your connecting flight arrives?

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Don't forget, its Alan who is running the joint, so nothing will make sense, except Financially, for their benefit.
4 higher up executives of QF will get shares bonuses, at our detriment.
The cheaper dom - int connections, esp at SYD, tend to be the ones with the shortest connection times, to solve this, we have to call QF up, and 95% of the time, we get the overseas call centre, who either don't answer, or not to our satisfaction, or argue with customers, ie, us.
Aim, most revenue, spend the least, keep the balance.
And use covid as an excuse for cutting staff, but really, its keeping money within the business, and not spending where we think/feel necessary, to them not so.
To us, having our calls answered in Aust is important, as a lot of us are based here, but to them, its cost savings thats more important.
And to discuss, you have to phone up their call centres, and as we know, only higher grade QFF members get the Aust call centre, other get the overseas ones.
And its all at low cost.
Someone would have had to approve it, either Alan, or one of his delegated officers.
Low cost, but high revenue, of course executives will get bonuses.

 

[djkelly69]

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

Early this year (when it was possible for non-Plat plebs to talk to them), a HBA agent told me they have access to 'different systems' to the offshore teams. This was specifically in regard to offshore agents not being able to see some award seats being available (although it eventually turned out to be a through-fare issue with QR).

 

[RooFlyer]

Early this year (when it was possible for non-Plat plebs to talk to them), a HBA agent told me they have access to 'different systems' to the offshore teams. This was specifically in regard to offshore agents not being able to see some award seats being available (although it eventually turned out to be a through-fare issue with QR).

That would make at least some sense if platinum and above status holders always reached Hobart when they called. Qantas has always discriminated in favour of higher status holders in respect to availability of award seats. But now Platinums at least are shunted it off to South Africa - the worst call centre - that’s another reason why the whole Qantas system is just broken.

 

[clifford]

Unfortunately, the agent said she wasn't empowered to reticket the booking, so it had be be sent to a queue for ticketing "within 24 hours" (or never perhaps). The inconsistency with ticketing is mind blowing, as I've recently had other agents in Fiji issue the ticket whilst on the phone.

Oh well, it looks like another call to Qantas when the ticket doesn't issue. Let's wait and see...

Wonder of wonders, it ticketed overnight (and appears to be OK). Oh, how could I have doubted you, Qantas?

 

[Seat0B]

Most inbound call centres cannot call outbound. It's not like having a phone you can just dial in and out of, it's complete automated, so this doesn't surprise me. They would also need to ensure the outbound call is recorded.

Well fine, but the staff should not promise to call people back if this is the case.

 

[MrJetset]

Well fine, but the staff should not promise to call people back if this is the case.

You missed the point. They can do callbacks as mentioned above, however it has to go through a process.

 

[Seat0B]

You missed the point. They can do callbacks as mentioned above, however it has to go through a process.

Thanks, I did miss the point you were making - but it still seems like that process is broken given the number of promised callbacks that just never eventuate. Yet another broken process.

 

[RooFlyer]

Most inbound call centres cannot call outbound. It's not like having a phone you can just dial in and out of, it's complete automated, so this doesn't surprise me. They would also need to ensure the outbound call is recorded.

You are talking about “ most inbound call centres”

Well fine, but the staff should not promise to call people back if this is the case.

You are talking about Qantas ones

You missed the point. They can do callbacks as mentioned above, however it has to go through a process.

Thanks, I did miss the point you were making - but it still seems like that process is broken given the number of promised callbacks that just never eventuate. Yet another broken process.

The tech and procedural abilities of ‘most call centres’ doesn’t inform us about how Qantas ones operate. There are plenty of examples here of call backs being made by The Qantas overseas ones. And plenty of not being made.

 

[MrJetset]

You are talking about “ most inbound call centres”



You are talking about Qantas ones





The tech and procedural abilities of ‘most call centres’ doesn’t inform us about how Qantas ones operate. There are plenty of examples here of call backs being made by The Qantas overseas ones. And plenty of not being made.

Fiji agents have said they have to get approval to call outbound and that they cannot call out of their own will.

I also have knowledge of call centre tech and the above two statements support my conclusion. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.

This doesn't excuse missed call backs. The Fiji call centre is a failure on almost every level.

 

[RooFlyer]

Fiji agents have said they have to get approval to call outbound and that they cannot call out of their own will.

I also have knowledge of call centre tech and the above two statements support my conclusion. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.

This doesn't excuse missed call backs. The Fiji call centre is a failure on almost every level.

I’m not doubting your knowledge or experience. Just saying that how call centres operate in general does not inform about the particular Qantas ones. Some agents at least appear to be able to call out at some time.

 

[ChrisMars]

Anyone having issue with the Qantas call center system this morning?
So far I got,
- 3 successful call that connected (but not to Hobart)
- two messages "your account has been locked"
- one "wrong pin"
- one " I didn't find that number" (qff)
- one call that dropped during ring time
- 3 calls with "welcome to Qantas" and that's it
- one dropped call during the "maybe recorded for training ... purpose" message
- One call where the SA agent couldn't hear me, which leaded to a call back within minute from that agent.
The last one makes me feel something is really wrong