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Last year, Qantas trialled a new system in its call centre that identified repeat callers and matched them with a more experienced agent. This was done in response to complaints about inexperienced offshore call centre staff being unable to resolve more complex issues.
Qantas’ main call centres are located in Hobart, Auckland, Cape Town, Suva and Manila. Unfortunately, as many Qantas customers have experienced, the quality of the service provided varies significantly between the different locations.
Qantas Platinum One and Chairman’s Lounge members have direct access to the Hobart-based VIP Service Team. But for everyone else, the call centre you get depends on the luck of the draw. Qantas Platinum frequent flyers have a higher chance of reaching the excellent Hobart or Auckland call centres. Others are more likely to be connected with someone in Cape Town, Suva or Manila.
After failing to get a resolution on the first call, some Qantas customers with more complex issues were having to call back multiple times about the same thing. Realising this, Qantas trialled new technology to triage repeat callers, connecting them to an agent with more experience and training.
My recent experience trying to book a Classic Flight Reward
I recently wanted to redeem my Qantas points to book a Classic Flight Reward ticket from Buenos Aires to Auckland, flying with Qantas’ partner LATAM Airlines via Santiago. The flights I wanted had plenty of reward seat availability. But I could not book online as Qantas’ website doesn’t allow bookings originating in Argentina.
The only way for me to book this was to call Qantas. But each time I called, even as a Platinum member, I spoke to a contact centre agent in either Suva or Cape Town who told me that the flights I wanted did not exist. One of them even told me that this was impossible to book because they were “not sure whether Qantas flies domestically in Argentina”.
In the end, it took me five hours and seven phone calls in a row to make this booking. Despite all of this, Qantas even charged me a 7,700-point Reward Assistance Fee – which they eventually refunded after I complained.
I’m quite confident that an agent in Hobart or Auckland could have completed this booking in under 15 minutes. But no matter how many times I tried hanging up and calling again, I never got through to either location. Some of the Suva-based staff even agreed that I should speak to someone in Hobart, but could not transfer my call.
Qantas has stopped triaging repeat callers
Most Qantas customers who are calling repeatedly within a short time are not doing so because they have nothing better to do. It’s usually because their request wasn’t resolved on the first call. This is exactly the point of Qantas triaging repeat callers to agents with more experience.
But Qantas is no longer doing this. A Qantas spokesperson told Australian Frequent Flyer that the triage system was trialled in 2023 when the airline was experiencing a significant volume of calls, many of which related to complex bookings or rebooking processes.
Since then, Qantas says it has invested heavily in training and resourcing for its contact centres. The airline also says that its contact centre consultants can escalate calls to a more senior or experienced supervisor, or to a specialised team, at any time if required.
Separately, Australian Frequent Flyer understands that Qantas has recently been pushing its contact centre staff in some locations to try to finish calls in under 10 minutes. This could unfortunately create an incentive for staff to simply end complex calls, rather than taking the extra time to properly resolve them.
What to do if you can’t book online or over the phone
So, why did it take seven calls for a contact centre agent to see the flights I wanted to book in their system?
Qantas told us that certain types of bookings – such as my LATAM reward booking out of Argentina – require contact centre agents to use an exception process. But in my experience, most of the offshore agents didn’t know to do this and simply told me there were no flights.
We asked Qantas what frequent flyers should do if they encounter this problem. The airline suggested asking to speak to a supervisor, as supervisors should be across the correct procedures.
Qantas bringing bookings from more countries online
Currently, it’s only possible to book flights originating in around 50 countries on the Qantas website, including just one country in South America (Chile). It’s not even possible to book flights online out of Sri Lanka, Qatar or Morocco – which are all home to Oneworld airline hubs.
Qantas told us that the Points of Sale available on its website cover the vast majority of bookings that its customers make. A spokesperson said that customers could make bookings from other locations through Qantas contact centres, with service fees waived.
Qantas recently improved its website to enable frequent flyers to combine Classic Reward and “cash” bookings into a single ticket. During this process, the airline had to take some points of sale offline. However, Qantas is continuing to add ports back onto its website “based on customer demand”.
“The business is currently assessing bringing additional South American ports back as an online sales option,” the spokesperson told us.
Qantas’ call centre review is ongoing
Over the past year, Qantas has been investing heavily in training its contact centre staff. It continues to look at ways to improve customer service as a matter of priority.
“We’re also reviewing our call centres more broadly, with extra training for agents and considering whether we bring more of this important task back onshore,” Qantas’ new CEO Vanessa Hudson said last November.
Australian Frequent Flyer understands that this review remains ongoing. The possibility of bringing a lot more of this work back onshore is still on the table.
