Qantas Refund Black Hole

An AFF member and Qantas Platinum frequent flyer is still waiting for a Qantas refund of $4,000, two months after they had to cancel their flight. And they could be waiting a lot longer, as Qantas has stopped responding to emails and phone calls.

PaulDQLD had originally booked two return Qantas Business class fares from Sydney to Bangkok. For these tickets he paid $5,963 and 100,000 Qantas points for a Points+Pay booking. This member later needed to change travel dates, shelling out an extra $800 in change fees and $1,200 in fare difference for the privilege.

Later, PaulDQLD had to unfortunately cancel the trip. This was done more than two months in advance of travel. Qantas initially promised a refund within 7 days, but a month later no refund had arrived. Eventually a Qantas refund of $2,363 and 60,000 points was processed. There was just one problem – this was less than half of the amount actually owed.

Qantas’ “Business Sale” fare conditions state that a cancellation fee of $600 per passenger applies. In total, this means that $2,000 worth of fees were applicable for both passengers after accounting for the change fees. But the remaining amount – around $6,000 and the 100,000 Qantas points paid – should have been refunded in full.

PaulDQLD has since tried to contact Qantas numerous times but has received no response. Qantas has not explained how they calculated the original refund amount… in fact, they have not returned a single phone call or email.

This is not the first time Qantas has come under fire over its refund processes. During the past year, many AFF members have had similar problems with Qantas refunds. This appears to be a systematic issue, rather than just a one-off.

It has been suggested that our member may need to take this case to the Airline Customer Advocate. As it stands, PaulDQLD is still owed 40,000 Qantas points and almost $4,000.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QANTAS: NO Customer service at all!

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.