Qantas flight credits a debacle of monumental proportions

It is a fiasco of monumental proportions, with numbers exceeding even Qantas CEO Alan Joyce's salary and bonuses.

There is something in the region of $600million owing to Qantas customers in Australia and overseas.

Across the world, an unending cacophony of angry and distraught customers is feeding into the headsets of call centre workers, as those who bought tickets in good faith try to get refunds for the flights they never took.

I am one of those customers. Sadly I don't have the warmth of $17million in share sales from long-term incentives, which Mr Joyce transacted in June 2023, nor can I look forward to a couple of million in bonuses.

But what I do have is a burning desire to ensure that when Mr Joyce departs Qantas, he hasn't got $1735.20 in his pocket that he owes me in flight credits.

Like many people in 2021, I saw a window of opportunity to get away and booked two flights to Cairns, but then COVID hit NSW again and we were persona non grata in Queensland.

The snap closure of borders during the pandemic led to mass flight cancellations with about $2billion in credits being issued by Qantas.

I was impressed when Qantas came back within 24 hours to provide the flight credit information for the cancelled flights.

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As time passed and I read about problems using the flight credits I realised I could have received a full refund.

In the meantime, my flights with Regional Express (Rex) were processed and refunds made without any problems. Rex promised to refund when COVID issues prevented travel and delivered on the promise without hesitation.

In April 2023 I spoke to Qantas about refunds and was told I was eligible and the refunds would be processed.

That was when the stories started and so did my growing frustration with a system that had the hallmarks of something designed to obfuscate and delay payment.

On April 9, 2023 the Qantas call centre told me the two Qantas passes would be refunded in one to two weeks. Some 20 days later I was told the two refunds would be processed in one to two weeks.

On June 2, 2023 the Qantas call centre told me the two passes would be refunded in 10 working days and then on July 29, the Qantas call centre told me it would take five to seven days to process one of my refunds but the other had been used. No evidence could be provided to back up this claim and I asked for an investigation.

On September 1 reached out to the call centre again, this time it was in South Africa where the lovely Phumi waded through my reference numbers to discover the refund from one of the passes had been paid back to Qantas, instead of me.

Meanwhile the other matter of the used pass was still under investigation and I have been told to call back in 72 hours.

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On August 24, 2023 Qantas reported it made an underlying profit before tax of $2.47 billion for the 12 months to June 30.

The debacle of the flight credits has resulted in the class action by Echo Law on behalf of Qantas customers who held tickets for domestic or international flights cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Echo Law said Qantas had enjoyed significant financial benefits at its customers' expense.

And that's without the hours of mind-numbing, repetitive elevator music callers must endure while waiting for the call centres to answer.

On August 31 Qantas announced it was scrapping the expiration date (of December 31, 2023) on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of travel credits following a public backlash.

"We consider that affected Qantas customers are entitled to compensation, even if they have used the credits they were issued," Echo Law said.

In September Qantas managed to return the money from one of my flight credits, six months after they first told me I was entitled to a refund.

Unfortunately, eight months after that initial conversation I am still trying to extract my money out of Qantas for the remaining travel credit.

On December 21 Qantas insisted they had paid me and so now I have filled in a complaint form and attached my bank statement following a search on the Qantas name to prove I have not received the money from them.

Have your say. Have you got flight credits or Qantas Passes you are still trying to use or get refunded?

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