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

 

[azza_1992]

Can't seem to get through to HBA at the moment. Have tried 20 times over the past 3 days. Mix of 7:10am, 8:10am, 9:30pm, and 10:30pm calls.

Looking to make a few changes to partner-operated flights as part of a multi-city reward. Have tried with a couple of Fiji / SA but graciously wrapped things up when they appeared out of their depth.

 

[Ade]

Over what period will it be done?

The time period is split ...

CBR-MEL-SYD-OOL-MEL-SYD - done in 1 day

-BLR-MAA- next day

MAA-BLR- one day

SYD-OOL-SYD-MEL-CBR - next day

That's nuts - or maybe 'status run of the year . .

ha ha "that's nuts" or the local/native language equivalent - a very common reaction these days from my colleagues, my dad and my sister when I showed them the e-ticket

Btw, I'm working on another trip that will be much longer than this ... depending on when the policy changes, this in-design trip might be in J ... fingers crossed

 

[encryptededdy]

Can't seem to get through to HBA at the moment. Have tried 20 times over the past 3 days. Mix of 7:10am, 8:10am, 9:30pm, and 10:30pm calls.

Looking to make a few changes to partner-operated flights as part of a multi-city reward. Have tried with a couple of Fiji / SA but graciously wrapped things up when they appeared out of their depth.

Yeah I've been struggling to get through to Hobart these days too. Only got them 1/5 times. Very frustrating.

Also, hold times for WPs seem to be longer than late 2022 - I'm now waiting 5-10 minutes (which is fine, but not ideal) vs. the sub-5min wait times when I often called late 2022.

 

[kpc]

Tried to ring Hobart just then to get seats released but got South Africa....agent sounded blur and i asked her where she was....South Africa! Thanked her for her time and hung up. Rang again, got answered by an agent with a non Aussie accent so hung up....will need try another time

QFF Platinum requesting release of extra Classic award seats?

You can also try periodically calling to see if they'll release a seat and then change your existing booking to U class. You will come out ahead on points this way (82k + 5k change fee vs 31.5k + 69.7k upgrade) and earn SC via Points Club. Do you think the outcome is likely to change even...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[clifford]

I'm just a lowly Gold with Qantas and had to ring up today to get a reward flight (QF24) ticketed, as the credit card I had provided had been declined (I'd locked it since making the booking due to attempted fraud). Note that the ticket is manually issued by the Bangkok office and priced in THB, as the flight departs BKK (it took Qantas 2 weeks to get to this point, when the other airlines I deal with would have ticketed it immediately).

The first agent I spoke to (after about 5 mins wait) was an American (not Filipino) woman in the Manila call center. The conclusion she came to was that I had to ring the Bangkok office myself and sort it out with them. Great customer service I thought, and hung up.

The second agent I spoke to when I rang back was also in the Manila call centre, but this time was Filipino. She was the exact opposite. She took all of the relevant details, went away for a few minutes to review the situation, came back and asked for my credit card details and proceeded to ticket it on the spot. Excellent work, all done within 10 minutes or so, with the itinerary and ticket number being received a few seconds later.

Just shows that eventually HUACA can pay off, but unfortunately, can be very frustrating. Qantas does have some good people out there, but they can be masked by the others...

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Fri 21 Apr 2023
Time of call	Around the 2100 mark AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	0 minutes (immediate answer)
Call Centre (if known)	HBA
Matter resolved	Yes & No
Details	Called in to request 2x Y CR SYD-BNE for next week. Wanted one of two specific flights, but was advised almost immediately that those two flights are super full and there is no chance of requesting 2 Y CR seats. Went with the next best option, which was 30 mins after, no biggie. Approved instantly. Was advised that ticketing will be done and I should expect e-ticket in my inbox within the hour. Provided 5-5-1 as feedback.

Day of week	Sat 22 Apr
Time of call	Around the 0915 mark AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	~ 10 minutes
Call Centre (if known)	HBA
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Quoted the booking ref from QF app and explained that I have not received the e-ticket. Agent Joyce did a bit of checking and said that as this booking was made by requesting release of CR seats, there is an additional manual calculation that needs to be done before automated ticketing can pick it up and run with it. Joyce made the manual calculations and left it from where automated ticketing will pick up the PNR and proceed to issue. Was advised that e-ticket will be in my inbox between 15 mins to 1 hour. e-ticket received under 4 mins after the call was done. Feedback provided 5-5-3

 

[astrosly]

Yeah I've been struggling to get through to Hobart these days too. Only got them 1/5 times. Very frustrating.

Also, hold times for WPs seem to be longer than late 2022 - I'm now waiting 5-10 minutes (which is fine, but not ideal) vs. the sub-5min wait times when I often called late 2022.

This is my experience for several months now - only get HBA about 20% of the time. Lately the wait was 1-2 mins is more like 10-15mins experienced in the past couple of weeks.

And the variation of agent competency offshore is still an issue: I had to call three times to get someone who knew how to clear a cancelled bid upgrade to allow a classic upgrade request to be submitted, which took less than a minute when I got the right person (Wasim who I didn't ask where he was after the first two were definitely Fiji).

 

[Ade]

Day of week	Wed 26 Apr
Time of call	Around the 1945 mark AEST
Number used	13 12 11
Status	Platinum
Hold time	None (answered immediately)
Call Centre (if known)	HBA
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	Called to request release of 1x Y CBR-MEL 01/05 one way ticket. Call answered immediately, no wait time, went to HBA. Answered by a lovely agent, who was more than happy to assist. Request put in, approved immediately and we proceeded to points deduction and $ from CC. e-ticket issued within 30 or so mins.

 

[RichardMEL]

Thought I'd cough here that it seems like QF have changed the IVR a little bit overnight - at least that I called this morning (as opposed to last night).

Previously as soon as the system answered you could put your FF# in (followed by the #) and then pin etc. Now, that breaks things and you get a menu ("Press 1 for flight enquiries... 2 for QF club... etc") and once I pressed 1 I was prompted for FF details.

a small thing. a bit annoying, but something to take note of.

Anyway straight through to VIP Team with no wait so that was good

 

[tdimdad]

Day of week	Sat 13 May
Time of call	12:30 (AEST)
Number used	13 11 31
Status	Gold
Hold time	2 min
Call Centre (if known)	N/A
Matter resolved	No
Details	Called to request a change to an existing reward booking (SIN-TPE). I have an involuntary schedule change (by a day) in my existing booking and wanted to see what options the agent has available so I could fly on the original day booked. The agent was adamant that there is no availability and, in fact, the only availability around overall on those days is on the very connection I was moved to. I ought to have done my homework better because checking afterwards on the multi-city tool, there are seats available on 4 connections on the original date in J and 4 more mixed-class. It defies logic that the agent was unable to see any of them. An email to the rewards escalations team has been sent with some options suggested, let's see what they come back with.

 

[1022]

The escalations team resolved a similar issue for my partner a couple of weeks ago where Suva call centre staff were adamant they couldn’t see availability that was bookable online for a flight that needed changing. A phone call from Hobart came on a Saturday afternoon, about 5 days after sending off the request with a positive outcome.

 

[djkelly69]

Isn't the escalations email supposed to be for ticketing issues with partner airlines?

 

[andyrb]

I booked a return trip with Qantas a few weeks ago. Problem with the payment, so had to call Qantas twice: first to manually pay; second to confirm received and booked.

It took longer to get through the option menu at the start than to wait on hold to speak to someone. Actually impressed.

 

[tdimdad]

The escalations team resolved a similar issue for my partner a couple of weeks ago where Suva call centre staff were adamant they couldn’t see availability that was bookable online for a flight that needed changing. A phone call from Hobart came on a Saturday afternoon, about 5 days after sending off the request with a positive outcome.

An email to the reward escalation team worked marvels. A 27 hour turnaround (on the weekend). I missed a call but had a voicemail and a follow-on email with two new options. The voicemail was without a name but email was signed by Bessie who seems to feature in this forum as a Hobart team member. I can also see both new options tagged to my booking so looks like they placed a preliminary booking for those seats. Nice work.

 

[tdimdad]

Day of week	Sat 20 May 2023
Time of call	10:10 (AEST)
Number used	13 11 31
Status	Gold
Hold time	1 min
Call Centre (if known)	Fiji?
Matter resolved	Partially
Details	Called to book a new revenue flight. Redemption of a gift voucher and using a Qantas Pass as a partial payment (and intending to use a credit card for the remaining balance). When redeeming a GV online, it allows you to pay only using a credit card but you can't use a Qantas Pass, therefore the booking via the call centre. The agent was clearly out of her depth with this one. She tried first couple of times to push me to book online. When I insisted that I can't use the Qantas Pass there, she started to key in my desired itinerary. But she then was adamant that the Qantas Pass must cover the full cost (after the GV has been applied) and I can't use altogether three payment methods. This despite me having done a precisely similar booking a few weeks earlier through the same call centre. The agent called their support centre three times during the 30-min call. At the end, she managed to book my flights but without me paying the remaining balance. I queries twice if she's certain that the full cost has been paid for and she confirmed verbally. --> Lucky, the QF system automatically generated an email that a payment has failed, please contact us within 24 hours. I thanked the agent for her work and followed the email lead.

Day of week	Sat 20 May 2023
Time of call	10:40 (AEST)
Number used	1800 957 333
Status	Gold
Hold time	5 min
Call Centre (if known)	N/A (The Philippines would be my bold guess)
Matter resolved	Yes
Details	A follow-on call from the previous to sort out the outstanding part-payment and get my booking ticketed. This agent was an industrious one. She essentially re-did the whole booking, had no issues applying multiple payment methods, and the whole things was done in 15 mins. Ticket issued 5 hours later. Well worth a 5-5-1 rating at the end.

 

[Cheesey Mac]

Had to call because a flight change had affected a connection and got straight through, no wait, fairly straightforward change and all done in 10 minutes.

 

[Guvner]

1 hour and still waiting.

 

[Guvner]

Maybe this is the reason:

 

[milehighclub]

Maybe this is the reason:

View attachment 331268

Correct - all the phones are down, including operational ones for pilots and crew who need to call in.

 

[Guvner]

Correct - all the phones are down, including operational ones for pilots and crew who need to call in.

Jeepers, hard to fathom how that can happen with today's voice and data technology architecture standards.