Even Platinum Members Can’t Reach Qantas Anymore!

Last Monday, I wrote an article explaining how you could get better customer service from Qantas by taking advantage of the current Double Status Credits offer to reach Platinum status. The theory being that, as a Platinum member, Qantas would answer your phone calls promptly and at least provide a basic level of customer service.

Certainly, this used to be the case for Qantas Platinum frequent flyers. But Monday’s article attracted a lot of comments from current Qantas Platinum members, saying that they too are now waiting hours to speak to somebody at the Qantas call centre!

It is still true that holding Platinum status reduces the amount of time you’ll need to wait on hold when calling Qantas. In fact, Qantas still advertises “priority telephone service in Australia” as a published benefit of Platinum status, with the Qantas website saying that Platinum members can “jump the queue with priority service when you call us”.

Holding Platinum status also increases the chances your call will be answered by someone in Australia or New Zealand who is properly trained.

But it seems that nowadays, holding Platinum frequent flyer status simply means waiting 1-3 hours instead of 5+ hours to get through to an operator.

Here are just a few of the comments from Monday’s article:

Great article, thanks. Except given that even Plats are waiting over an hour on the phone, maybe the title should have been “How to get better customer service …”
– RooFlyer, 28 March 2022

I used to think that the best reason for keeping WP status was the reliable ability to get through to QF on the phone with at worst only a few minutes wait. Not any more. Over last Friday and Saturday I spent over 4 hours just trying to get through. Several times I had to give up and attend to other things…
I wouldn’t tell anyone that WP has an easy time getting through to QF on the phone right now 🙁 If this is the way QF is going to be now, my incentive to keep WP just evaporated.
– Anna, 28 March 2022

Yeah not my experience. My last three interactions required a 3:45hr, 2hr and 1hr wait. Sure It IS improving but it’s like saying my stage 4 cancer is now just a mere stage 1.
– newbuyer1976, 28 March 2022

A 2 hour wait time on the VIP line yesterday. Appalling treatment of “valued” flyers.
– JCD, 28 March 2022

Can confirm that, we waited 4 hours on Saturday afternoon/evening and gave up…
– Franky, 28 March 2022

Qantas Platinum One members can access the VIP Service Team

Qantas does offer one more status tier above Platinum – the ultra-elite Platinum One status which requires 3,600 status credits per year to earn or maintain. As Monday’s article explained, you could reach Platinum One status by booking around seven return Business Class trips from Brisbane to Christchurch (via Sydney/Melbourne) during the current sale and double status credits offer. This would cost around $7,231.

As a Platinum One member, you’d get access to the Qantas VIP Service Team which lets you bypass the regular call centre. There’s little doubt that this gives you access to much better customer service than would otherwise be available. But according to some current Platinum One members, even the service from the VIP Service Team – which used to be excellent – is no longer perfect.

There is discussion in the P1 thread on this site and other social media sites that the ‘excellent Qantas VIP Service Team’ is not as cracked up as first thought. Now that travel is back on the cards the VIP line can take up 30 minutes or longer to connect to the agents. There have also been reports that the VIP Team are not responding to emails and cannot deal with IRROPS, dealing with IRROPS was one of the benefits that most P1s that I know value.
Initially I promoted The VIP Team service offering but now I am reconsidering and wondering what value the VIP Team provide.
– Matt_01, 28 March 2022

This comment is backed up by many recent posts in AFF’s Qantas Platinum One Experiences thread.

Qantas, this is not good enough!

If anyone from Qantas management is reading this, it’s obvious that your airline’s customer service has some serious problems right now. If you don’t believe me, I would challenge you to call your own call centre right now and see if you find the service acceptable. Alternatively, just read the comments on literally any of Qantas’ recent Facebook posts. Your customers – some of whom are now former customers – are fed up!

When questioned, Qantas has repeatedly blamed COVID-19 and unusually high call volumes for the long wait times. This excuse cannot be used forever – the real problem is a lack of trained Qantas staff to handle all the enquiries.

Customers are tired of excuses. They want action!

Resolving these issues will require investment in hiring and training more staff at the Australian and New Zealand call centres, and it’s clear that Qantas doesn’t want to spend that money right now. But it’s urgently needed.

Fixing the many bugs with the Qantas website would also help.

So far, Qantas’ response to the ongoing call centre issues has been to expand the use of outsourcing to overseas call centres operated by Mindpearl, including the opening of a new call centre in Fiji a few months ago. This clearly hasn’t fixed the problem, as the Qantas call centre service is now even worse than it was last year.

Wages in places like Fiji may be lower than in Australia or New Zealand. But if the staff there are not trained to a high enough standard, take significantly longer to complete simple tasks and cannot competently assist with more complex requests, there is no net cost saving. All that’s happening is that loyal customers are getting pissed off with the awful service.

If Qantas can’t even answer the “priority” phone calls of Platinum members within an hour anymore, what hope does everyone else have?

Qantas has made a big deal of the fact it has been able to bring back more international flights following the reopening of borders, and that the Qantas Group’s domestic capacity is expected to reach 110% of pre-COVID levels over Easter.

That’s great, but Qantas has demonstrated no ability to actually service all of these customers properly on the ground with the resources it has allocated to this task.

Qantas management’s current strategy seems to be to hope that all the customers trying to contact the airline will just go away. At this rate, they might just get their wish.

Qantas is trashing its brand and losing customers every day that this madness continues. It’s simply unacceptable that anyone, let alone a Platinum frequent flyer, should have to routinely wait for hours on hold in the hope of possibly accessing basic customer service (if they get through to the right agent and their call doesn’t get disconnected).

There are lots of other airlines out there. If you don’t think the level of service Qantas provides to you is acceptable, it’s time to vote with your feet and your wallet.

You can leave a comment or join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.