Airlines

Woman spends tortuous three months trying to resolve huge Qantas errors

The woman mistakenly charged $22,650 for the Qantas flight.

Federal Court Imposes $100M Fine on Qantas for "Ghost Flights" Scandal

A simple transaction caused a Sydney woman to experience multiple rounds of double direct debits and frozen funds, which at one point reached more than $40,000. She then spent three months battling Qantas over the matter. Carol Johnson’s three-part struggle has raised concerns about how the airline repeatedly bungled the transactions.

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The problem for Ms. Johnson started on March 15 of this year when she booked five flights for her, her husband, and their son who lives in the US for a total of $16,357.33.

Two days later, her bank account was double-debited with 11 transactions ranging from $30 to $1996.92, totaling $6363.73. Two days later, on March 19, she was charged another $9993.60, bringing her total to $16,357.33. She didn’t realize it until her card was declined while she was buying coffee.

She spent the next five days calling Qantas customer service numerous times, frequently waiting in line for hours. This may sound like a situation that some of you have experienced all too often.

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Ms. Johnson would try twice more to buy the tickets using different debit accounts. She once had three lots totaling $13,431.48 pending on three different cards, for a total of $40,294.44. On August 19, one batch of the transactions was finally completed, and the frozen funds were transferred back to her account. According to Ms. Johnson, this happened after a period of seven to eight days.

Carol’s bank accounts were also frozen, which added to her nightmare situation. You can only imagine how stressed she was at this point! In the end, everything was resolved, and she received her money back.

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Airlines

Federal Court Imposes $100M Fine on Qantas for “Ghost Flights” Scandal

In a major ruling, the Federal Court has confirmed a hefty A$100 million penalty against Qantas for its involvement in the “ghost flights” scandal. As reported by FlightGlobal.

The court found that Qantas misled consumers by offering and selling tickets for flights that the airline had already decided to cancel. Adding to the controversy, Qantas failed to promptly notify ticket holders about these cancellations.

The penalty follows Qantas’ admission of violating the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). The airline agreed with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on the penalty amount, aiming to deter Qantas and other businesses from similar breaches in the future.

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The ACCC emphasized that this substantial fine sends a clear message: misleading customers will lead to serious consequences, regardless of a company’s size. In addition to the penalty, Qantas has committed to paying approximately A$20 million to affected passengers who unknowingly purchased tickets for canceled flights.

This compensation comes on top of any refunds or alternative flight arrangements already provided. ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb praised the penalty, underscoring the importance of robust compliance programs red energy qantas in large corporations like Qantas.

She pointed out that Qantas has since made changes to its operating and scheduling procedures to prevent similar issues in the future.