Qantas contact centre hold times

Hello fellow FF,

Last night I rang 13 13 13 to have a natter with a Qantas staff member about a weird error when trying to book flights. I was on hold for 2h then cut off. Just now (its 3pm on a Saturday), and I've been waiting 1h and 55mins.

Does anyone have any insight into whats going on? I had a wee gander on their facebook page, and there are a lot of community posts on there about not being able to speak to a real human. I'm about to jump in my car and drive 2h to Cairns airport to speak to a human, legitimately lol.

Perhaps someone might be able to shed light on the weird error...

Trying to book CNS-AKL return for weekend 14 Feb returning 16th (fare = business saver). As you move through the booking process it eventually gives you your baggage allowance, with option to increase it in 5KG incriments.

The website does state that standard business class allowance is 40KG, but before I go to pay the preview is saying 2 bags for CNS-BNE and then 30 KGs BNE-AKL (and same weird error on the return).

I used to live in Auckland, so I am using the opportunity to bring back all of my old uni text books, some final bits of clothes etc and need every Kilo I can muster.

I am currently only a Bronze FF, but come the renewal date of July 1 for status, I will have just reached Platinum. Is there a priority call line once I am a premium, because Virgin is about to pocket $1500 really fast if someone doesn't pick up haha.

Cheers x

Once you reach platinum the wait is much shorter and a different number; mine is always in a minute or two and I have rung on behalf of my wife (gold) who has a different surname and they don't check the relationship. There is also some success using the chat function. Once you reach platinum you get three bags of 32kg as I recall. They have different weights for different sectors but the allowance for the longest/international sector applies. So I think you have 30kg and there may be a 2bag limit.

I often find very short hold times if calling after 00:30 QLD time.

Has this community section just become a place to rant these days?

I see the error that you are referring to. Even if you get to speak to a phone agent I don't think they would know what is going on with the website so you are probably better off using the chat function and get a transcript emailed to you which you can produce in case you have a problem later on. It looks like the correct allowance is 40kg.

As for the wait times, well Qantas doesn't hire enough phone agents so they can save money and they get away with it because Qantas passengers are generally very loyal and very forgiving.

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Yes, I have tried 3 times. First attempt was last Sunday am. Advised that it would be 25 min wait. I hung up after 50 min. Got through on second attempt after holding for over an hour, only to have the call cut out after a few seconds of chat. At the 3 try, the ‘call back' service was offered for the first time. They did call back in 50min after advising the call back would take 30 min. I'm FF Gold

Not a baggage issue but still a website error I incurred which I previously posted about on this community forum. Error coming up when trying to link my Jetstar flights with a Qantas digital lounge pass for Singapore. Countless hours and on hold over 3 months of trying only to be told "sorry sir I need to check with a dedicated team for this as it's a website issue and we will call you back"...they never called back..in the end 2 days before flying I took matters into my own hands - linked my pass and selected Perth airport from the list of options (SIN still wasn't available), received the email confirmation and PDF edited the lounge location to show Singapore.. needless to say I made sure I made it worth my while in the lounge during my transit...overall it was pathetic customer service from a business that made things more complicated when going digital instead of hardcopy passes only to not have all the kinks ironed out for their customers. I suggest you do the same and edit your baggage allowance if it's a website issue but rules show what your entitled to. Id then print that for backup to show at check-in.

Text them. It's so much better. I've literally had my flights reshuffled via SMS during weather-induced irrops over SYD, texted comfortably from my hotel room bed.

I have had success using the messenger function in the app. Huge delays at moment though due to Coronavirus disruptions.

Qantas would have the worst wait times of any company or government call centre in Australia. Mr Joyce should be ashamed of this shocking 'service'. Over two hours is a disgrace. I got through to Virgin Australia in five minutes!

I have that the Staff in the contract contact centres pleasant but badly trained .I tried the Qantas Chat today and it took three hours to get an answer to a very basic question and i was moved from operator to operator till the last guy at least made the effort

I finally received a refund of QFF for my first class seats (on Emirates metal) after ONLY two hours waiting for the call centre's operator to get to me on his/her queue. The overseas operator had to call Qantas reservations as well as Qantas Frequent Flyer department to sort it out while I waited patiently. Why was I directed to an overseas call centre when it was two of Qantas' Australian offices that had to sort it out?

However, I still have not received a refund for the fees and taxes so I'm back on the phone right now as I write this - in the mile long queue to ask where my refund is. What does Alan Joyce think about the tens of thousands of Qantas customers who are treated so poorly? Why doesn't he ring the changes and employ more call centre staff and make sure they are trained and can make decisions?