Qantas customer is put on hold for 15 HOURS

Qantas customer is put on hold for 15 HOURS, passenger, airline, travel nightmare PA

What's the longest you've been put on hold? We bet it's not 15 hours like one customer who called airline Qantas to confirm the travel details of his trip.

Australian business traveller Andrew Kahn used his mobile phone to call Qantas about his trip to New York from Adelaide and waited on hold for precisely 15 hours, 40 minutes and one second before finally hanging up, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Mr Kahn phoned the airline at 7.22pm on Wednesday about his flight on Sunday but after being on hold for a whole night, he eventually gave up at 11.01am yesterday.

He listened to the constant message telling him somebody would speak to him 'as soon as possible' and after hanging up Mr Kahn called again managing to speak to someone in customer service who said he was not even on the flight because of a code error in the ticket booking.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Kahn said: 'I wanted to find out what exactly they meant would be as soon as possible. I never got an answer. This is outrageous.'

The Qantas staff member told Mr Kahn: 'I've never seen this before in my life. For some stupid reason, this had led to this loop of you being on hold. What a saga.'

Another employee offered to reimburse his call costs if he emailed a copy of his call list.

The new product developer said: 'I hung up in the end simply because I had had enough.'

'I wanted to find out what exactly they meant when they said they would be with me as soon as possible.

'Outside of my determination to find out what exactly 'soon' meant, after already waiting for an hour or so, I did not want to lose my place in the queue.

He added: 'It is just about the worst customer service any customer could ever receive.'

The 15 hours wasn't a complete waste of time for Mr Kahn though as he said he managed to surf the net, work and read advanced masters level book Bazerman and Moore's 7th edition of Judgment in Managerial Decision Making.

Qantas says it had no record of any caller waiting 15 hours to get through to its contact centres and a spokesman said: 'In fact, our average contact centre wait time during that period was under a minute and the longest wait time was 17 minutes.'

'The passenger's booking had been cancelled due to a system error, but has now been reinstated.

'We are looking into how this could have occurred and apologise for any inconvenience caused.'

Has an airline ever put you on hold for hours? Leave a comment and let us know below.

Think this is bad? Check out the world's worst airlines in our picture gallery...

Revealed! The worst airlines in the world

No 9 Egyptair
 These less-than-glowing reviews on <a href="http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/iberia.htm" target="_blank">AirlineQuality.com</a> say it all: ‘…nothing could be as bad as EgyptAir. Dirty aircraft with disinterested crew. The toilets were filthy, food looked like leftovers from other airlines. The seating is exceptionally cramped and uncomfortable’ and ‘I find the staff on EgyptAir lazy and unprofessional.’ And apparently the seats aren’t cheap either!
No 8 Air China
 Old planes and unexplained flight delays were among the common complaints about this Chinese airline. Customers alternately complained that flight attendants don’t speak English (although some praising the communication skills). Other comments included criticism of the poor quality of the food and service.
No 7 China Eastern Airlines
 Oh dear, customers are not happy with their experience of this airline or its website. Shabby planes, flights being delayed, rescheduled or rerouted without notice or explanation. And the airline got the lowest score for its food. Altogether a big thumbs down from reviewers.
No 6 China Southern Airlines
 Chinese air travel isn’t coming off well according to Zagat findings. Customer comments on <a href="http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/c_sthrn.htm" target="_blank">AirQuality.com</a> on this airline’s service included: ‘…poor food, warm drinks, inadequate English language skills of crew (including nonsensical inflight announcements), non-reclining seats… All in all, quite an unpleasant series of flights’ and ‘Be careful to check and re-check your booking, as flight times can (and did) change without notice. You can miss your flight very easily.’
No 5 US Airways
 Described by one reviewer as ‘the airline from hell’, you’d be forgiven for giving it a wide berth unless it ups its game considerably! <a href="http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/c_sthrn.htm" target="_blank">Reviews </a>included: ‘First, the airline could not fine my reservation… then they determined that "someone" had canceled it in spite of my confirming it on their website’; ‘The worst thing was the attitude of US airways staff and the lies they told us. I wouldn't touch them again with a barge pole’ and ‘Most of the staff are rude and unfriendly… All in all a terrible experience. Never again.’
No 4 Aeroflot
 It was the terminal at the airport that came in for most criticism here. Customers commented on the poor bus transfer to the gate and unfriendly staff. Another criticism was that the elderly and passengers with children weren’t properly catered for. And one <a href="http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/aeroflot-2.htm" target="_blank">reviewer</a> said the pilot announced: 'Sorry, we do not fly today. The plane is broken'.
No 3 easyJet
 The general stampede for unallocated seats was a common criticism for easyJet. One customer complained: ‘It would cost the easyJet computer nothing to allocate seats and alleviate the impression one is fighting for a place on a bus that may be overfull’; another said: ‘My biggest concern was the feeling of chaos inboard. The safety demo audio was played at a very low volume, and people were speaking on their mobile phones during the safety demonstration, cabin crew seemingly not giving a damn.’ Other complaints include overbooked flights and disorganised service...
No 2 Spirit
 Lack of food on international flights, a poorly kept plane and bad service generally were all at the heart of the complaints by travellers. TOne passenger pulled no punches with the comment: ‘My trip from Lima, Peru to Boston was the biggest nightmare of my life next to getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled while conscious’; another, commenting on the policy of charging for hand luggage, said: ‘Robbing people as they board your airplane should really help your already abysmal tardy departure record…’ and a third summed up with: ‘They charge for everything, their agents are rude, and the flights are overbooked, late, not that clean, and just an awful experience.’  Biggest gripe of all was the charges the airline makes for hand luggage.
And the winner is.... No 1 Ryanair
 It was not hard to find reviewers with a poor opinion of the budget airline. An overriding impression was one of being ripped off.  As one customer commented: ‘I've concluded that Ryanair is nothing but a great big social experiment to see how arrogant an airline can get and how low customer service can be pushed before the said airline starts to lose money….We keep coming back to this horrid airline with its miserable service in hope that we'll save a Euro or two. Reality is that we probably end up spending more money than we would have if we opted for a better airline’, while delivered a damning verdict: ‘They have to be the most customer unfriendly company I have come across. Dirty plane when we eventually got on, tired looking and dishevelled cabin crew. What more can I say - a shocking experience that I never wish to repeat.’
No 10 Iberia
 Reviews on <a href="http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/iberia.htm" target="_blank">AirlineQuality.com</a> included this scathing comment: ‘Incredibly uncomfortable seats, poor food, rude staff who just wanted to get the meal service out of the way so they could stand at the rear of the plane and chat amongst themselves.’ Hopefully, the merger with British Airways will mean there's a hope for a rise in standards.

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The stag do
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The bag mix-up
 Just off the plane and eager to get on and explore the wonders of the exciting European city you've landed in, you grab your smart new case off the carousel and run to catch a taxi. A quick freshen up and change of clothes at the hotel and you'll be good to go. Until you open your luggage and discover that while the case is identical to yours, the contents certainly aren't, and you'll be wearing the wardrobe of an 11 yr old girl with a penchant for pink until the mix-up's sorted out.
The 'wonderful' view
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The hidden extras in the room
 Experiencing the local flora and fauna is a wonderful part of visiting a foreign country – tropical birds in rainbow colours, cute, furry creatures up trees and exotic insects in their natural habitats = all good. Cockroaches, bed bugs and rodents in your room = bad. If you'd wanted to share your bed with an unhygienic, hairy creature, you'd have taken the barman up on his generous offer.
The all-inclusive buffet
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The activity holiday
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The ominous sound of rumbling...
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 There's nothing like a mates' holiday in the sun, just two single friends, footloose and fancy free,  only sun bathing, the odd cocktail and harmless holiday flirtation on the agenda. So when your best pal turns up at the airport gabbling breathlessly about the 'amazing' new guy she met the night before - and then announces that he's 'coming with', you know you're in for a long fortnight...
The tin of sardines
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