Qantas 1-800-227-4500 - does a human ever answer the call?
Sep 14, 2018, 7:57 pm
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
Qantas 1-800-227-4500 - does a human ever answer the call?
Been trying to reach Qantas thru the only number listed, but each time has to give up after 90 min hold still no agent other than robot message.
Is there any "secret" number one can reach a human agent?
Thanks for the help.
Is there any "secret" number one can reach a human agent?
Thanks for the help.
Sep 14, 2018, 9:24 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,022
If is about this flight you need to talk to AS, as it an AS award.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30201389-post1213.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30205152-post111.html
I doubt if a phone ticket agent will be able to assist with ticketing of partner award that has changed.
Note it is Saturday afternoon in Australia now. Maybe Monday before anything is done.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30201389-post1213.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30205152-post111.html
Did anyone have experiences on reticketing a AS QF award? How long it normally takes to get changed itinerary to reticket?
On Thursday around 6:30pm I called to change SYD-MEL segment from morning flight to late afternoon flight, on a SYD-MEL-LAX-FLL award. When the agent did the change she received a "Ticketing Error" from the system but after putting me on hold for a long time, she came back to tell me the change was done. But when I asked her the new eTicket numbers, she realized there was none - the booking is now in queue for reticketing according to her. I further asked exactly what that meant. She said it would mean manual reticketing.
On Thursday around 6:30pm I called to change SYD-MEL segment from morning flight to late afternoon flight, on a SYD-MEL-LAX-FLL award. When the agent did the change she received a "Ticketing Error" from the system but after putting me on hold for a long time, she came back to tell me the change was done. But when I asked her the new eTicket numbers, she realized there was none - the booking is now in queue for reticketing according to her. I further asked exactly what that meant. She said it would mean manual reticketing.
Note it is Saturday afternoon in Australia now. Maybe Monday before anything is done.
Last edited by Mwenenzi; Sep 14, 2018 at 10:41 pm
Sep 15, 2018, 12:22 am
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: SYD
Programs: QF WP/LTG | UA P
Posts: 13,530
If the issue is the amount of time it takes for ticketting, then the time can vary between seconds and many days (sometime weeks). But it happens before departure. Its frustratingly slow when you want it to be fast. This is nothing new to the phone agents.
The trick to getting priority phone agent attention is to have high QF status - the computer figures this out when you enter your QF FF number at the start of the call.
The trick to getting priority phone agent attention is to have high QF status - the computer figures this out when you enter your QF FF number at the start of the call.
Sep 15, 2018, 9:13 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
If is about this flight you need to talk to AS, as it an AS award.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30201389-post1213.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30205152-post111.html
I doubt if a phone ticket agent will be able to assist with ticketing of partner award that has changed.
Note it is Saturday afternoon in Australia now. Maybe Monday before anything is done.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30201389-post1213.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30205152-post111.html
I doubt if a phone ticket agent will be able to assist with ticketing of partner award that has changed.
Note it is Saturday afternoon in Australia now. Maybe Monday before anything is done.
If the issue is the amount of time it takes for ticketting, then the time can vary between seconds and many days (sometime weeks). But it happens before departure. Its frustratingly slow when you want it to be fast. This is nothing new to the phone agents.
The trick to getting priority phone agent attention is to have high QF status - the computer figures this out when you enter your QF FF number at the start of the call.
The trick to getting priority phone agent attention is to have high QF status - the computer figures this out when you enter your QF FF number at the start of the call.
Yes, it is the flight I posted questions on.
I am not trying to get QF to assist the reservation.
What I am hoping is to find out from QF whether said reservation has a VALID ticket attached - that is, the Ticket they see in their system, REFLECTS the new flight, and not the original flight. The phone agent generally can tell if a reservation has a VALID ticket or not.
(the step to verify with partner on proper ticketing is from experiences in the past, learned it from Air NZ long time ago when UA agent failed to reticket a reservation on schedule change. plus subsequent changes. When I called NZ to inquire something, the kind NZ agent told me that "You may want to call your travel agent to ticket this reservation. Right now, you have a reservation but NOT ticketed yet. You NEED a ticket to fly.")
Because AS is not on Amadeus system, I cannot even use Amadeus to check the 027 ticket details.
Long time ago on the Saudia airlines site it seemed it could pull up any ticket issued by IATA member. But that "safety blanket" was yanked away years ago so now we are really at the mercy of the competence of airline agents, and more importantly, we need to rely on our own knowledge and initiatives to protect our travel plans.
Right now the 3rd AS international agent insisted the OLD ticket numbers are the tickets that good for the New, changed flight. I have doubt on this because these tickets are actually issued PRIOR to the change, automatically by AS system on a 15 min schedule change of the departure time on the MEL-LAX flight, PRIOR to the change made on the SYD-MEL flight. So it can't be that.
The possible nightmare would be, we arrive SYD in the afternoon but were told we were treated a no show on our original 10am flight, therefore our next day MEL-LAX flight is automatically cancelled.... That would be a horrible thing to happen.
@og
Thanks for the trick. I do have a QF FF number but it is just at the member level, so not sure if it helps at all.
Last edited by Happy; Sep 15, 2018 at 9:37 am
Sep 15, 2018, 10:13 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
UPDATE!
Finally was able talked to a SUPER Knowledgeable, SUPER helpful and SUPER friendly AS International Desk Supervisor after the initial International desk agent was totally confused. After a long conference with her supervisor, I was put in direct contact with the supervisor who has been with AS for over 32 years... (so he has seen it all...
)
He was able to see the history of the ticketing - He said the Queue Desk has reissued the tickets on Sept 13 at 5:43pm PST.
I quickly realized that was just a "Revalidation" on a System generated Reticketing of the 15 min departure time change on the MEL-LAX flight that had arrived earlier at 3:13pm, but not a "Reticketing" to reflect the flight change on the SYD-MEL flight.
Before I finished my question on that, the supervisor already saw the issue - To paraphrasing his words "I see the Queue Desk validated it BUT WE NEED TO RETICKET IT SO THE PARTNER AIRLINES GET THE NEW TICKETS. Let me re-issue the tickets for you."
After putting me on hold for a while, he told me it was done, and confirmed he has sent a Confirmation to my email address in file. I asked for the new eTicket numbers and that are DIFFERENT from the last set - meaning new set of tickets is indeed issued! The Print Receipt now also shows the new ticket numbers. Yay!
I felt quite lucky that despite today's the initial international desk agent was quite lack of knowledge as evidenced by she insisted QF PNR code was all what I needed, (that told me immediately she needed more training, lol), she was willing to confer with her supervisor after I tried to convince her that wasn't the case because each and every change requires New Tickets on a Partner award. The senior supervisor was willing to talk to me to further clarify things. It only took 2 min before he fully understood where I came from, and proceeded to FIX it.
Whew. I truly feel for the general public who do not know much about the intricacy of the airlines procedures. That should explain why we often see people had to spend long time at the check in counter, due to things needed to sort out at last minute.
Finally was able talked to a SUPER Knowledgeable, SUPER helpful and SUPER friendly AS International Desk Supervisor after the initial International desk agent was totally confused. After a long conference with her supervisor, I was put in direct contact with the supervisor who has been with AS for over 32 years... (so he has seen it all...
)He was able to see the history of the ticketing - He said the Queue Desk has reissued the tickets on Sept 13 at 5:43pm PST.
I quickly realized that was just a "Revalidation" on a System generated Reticketing of the 15 min departure time change on the MEL-LAX flight that had arrived earlier at 3:13pm, but not a "Reticketing" to reflect the flight change on the SYD-MEL flight.
Before I finished my question on that, the supervisor already saw the issue - To paraphrasing his words "I see the Queue Desk validated it BUT WE NEED TO RETICKET IT SO THE PARTNER AIRLINES GET THE NEW TICKETS. Let me re-issue the tickets for you."
After putting me on hold for a while, he told me it was done, and confirmed he has sent a Confirmation to my email address in file. I asked for the new eTicket numbers and that are DIFFERENT from the last set - meaning new set of tickets is indeed issued! The Print Receipt now also shows the new ticket numbers. Yay!
I felt quite lucky that despite today's the initial international desk agent was quite lack of knowledge as evidenced by she insisted QF PNR code was all what I needed, (that told me immediately she needed more training, lol), she was willing to confer with her supervisor after I tried to convince her that wasn't the case because each and every change requires New Tickets on a Partner award. The senior supervisor was willing to talk to me to further clarify things. It only took 2 min before he fully understood where I came from, and proceeded to FIX it.
Whew. I truly feel for the general public who do not know much about the intricacy of the airlines procedures. That should explain why we often see people had to spend long time at the check in counter, due to things needed to sort out at last minute.