MELBOURNE: An Adelaide businessman says he was put on hold for 15 hours by Qantas as he tried to confirm his flight.

Andrew Kahn waited on hold on his mobile phone for 15 hours, 40 minutes and one second as he tried to get through to Qantas, "The Age" newspaper reported.

Kahn called Qantas at 7.22pm on Wednesday trying to confirm his travel arrangements for a trip to New York on Sunday but gave up at 11.01am on Thursday after his call was not answered.

"I hung up in the end simply because I had had enough," Kahn told the newspaper.

Kahn said he called back only to be told a code error meant he was not booked for his flight.

He said his experience showed Qantas was disconnected from their customer care and maintained he would not travel with Qantas again.

Qantas told the newspaper it had no record of any caller waiting 15 hours to get through to its customer care centers.

A Qantas spokesman said the airline's average waiting time was under a minute and the longest wait time was 17 minutes.

The airline said Kahn's booking had been cancelled because of a system error but has now been reinstated.

The airline apologized for any inconvenience caused. 

- Bernama