Qantas while under Mr Joyce’s authority, has been ignoring the Australian Consumer Law legislation, fraudulently increasing prices on tickets, refusing to pay refunds for flights they cancelled, cancelling flights, and reducing staff.
This has the potential to be the largest Class Action Claim in our history, but the legal profession is strangely quiet. I suppose if you want to stay self regulating you can’t upset the Government.
See my post, dated 13 May, 2022 in the travel category for details of my complaint lodged with ASX
They have been strangely quiet. Their full disclosure policy doesn’t seem to apply to Qantas.
Another massive class action?
Re: Compensation claim; (Lodged with Qantas)
Dear Sir,
This claim is for flights on Booking Numbers 6WWBOM and 5JE5QY. I have not provided copies because you will have the originals on file. The original booking was made on 10 September 2021.
This claim is based on the provisions of Australian Consumer Law. (The Act)
Your terms and conditions are void, at inception, because they do not comply with the provisions of The Act. You have recognised your obligation to comply with the provisions of The Act, in your terms and conditions, but fail to do so. Your conditions extinguish guarantees and remedies provided in The Act.
On 29/12/2021 you changed our booking, without my knowledge or consent. You made no effort to enter into a dialogue with me to determine whether the changes were acceptable. You gave no explanation for the change.
The new date you selected was totally unacceptable. I had a booking for a cruise parting the day before.
I spent one hour twenty minutes on hold at 1:00 AM. in the morning trying to contact you, with no success.
I then spent a further four hours and thirty minutes from 6:00 AM. on hold before I was connected to your operator. That would not be considered, under The Act, to be supplying a service in a reasonable time.
Talking to your operator was totally disgusting and useless experience. Your operator was not interested in helping me find an alternative flight that was acceptable. All she was interested in was having me cancel your revised booking. Presumably so I would have to re-book, at inflated prices.
I was also told that the flight I was booked on had been cancelled. If fact it was re-numbered and rescheduled at an earlier hour. I should have been given priority access to that flight, because it was a replacement for the flight I had booked. When I asked your operator why I wasn’t re-booked on that flight she told me it was already fully booked. Unbelievable!
I eventually found a flight that was workable although it involved considerable additional expense for me. (Two nights in a Hobart hotel @ $220.00 a night, plus meals, taxi fares, and $360.00 for additional PCR testing at my expense etc.) Approximately $1000.00 additional. (I haven’t received the account from the Cruise Line for the PCR tests yet but one is expected.)
When I booked the flight you charged me an approx $800.00 additional That was for the same flight on Monday instead of Wednesday. Your Web page would not accept that change until I re-booked the second flight which was unchanged, resulting in a further charge which made a total increase of $1,603.98 for the changes. None of which were requested or required by me. I am entitled to a refund of those additional charges.
We had to cancel the return flight because we were placed in hotel quarantine.
Assuming that the return fare was half the total of initial $1,519.12. I am entitled to a further refund of an $759.56.
When we came out of quarantine there were no Qantas fights available from Hobart to anywhere useful so we had to fly Virgin to Melbourne.
You charged us $2,078.16 for a flight from Melbourne to Perth. The original cost of that flight, from Hobart to Perth, when booked, was approx. $800.00. And that price was for the total trip Hobart to Perth. An increase of over 260%. I should therefore receive a further refund of $1,278.16.
That makes total refund required $4,641.64. I have not included any claim for damages I am entitled to under The Act.
The changes to my itinerary did not increase your cost of providing the service by one cent, but you have increased the cost to me by $4641.64. In fact the changes reduced the cost to Qantas, because by cancelling some flights, all remaining flights were fully booked. Exactly the type of behaviour The Act is intended to prevent. Profiteering?
You have also consistently understaffed your help desk, making it impractical to obtain assistance.
You are making customers wait 8 weeks for a refund which would be devastating to someone with a limited budget. Simply because you haven’t put on additional staff to deal with the problems you have intentionally caused by changing bookings. A cheap source of working capital? You should be paying them credit card interest rates.
Claiming a refund on your web site is impossible because it just goes around in a circle. You get to “Request a refund” and it takes you back to “Manage your booking” and away you go again.
Your actions are unfair, and unconscionable conduct under The Act. You have also exploited your dominance, in the market place.
Furthermore you are causing serious damage to the Australian tourism industry and the Australian economy.
One of the main reasons so many Australians holiday overseas is cheap reliable air travel. Six of my last eight holidays have been overseas for that reason. You are further damaging the tourism industry because holiday makers have less to spend, at their destination, after paying your inflated fares.
Regards
Patrick N. Wines
27 February 2022
Complaint lodged with Qantas
Re; Qantas Complaint.
Dear Sir:
I please find attached a copy of my compensation claim that I have lodged with Qantas.
This problem would not have occurred if the respective State Consumer Protection Agencies took a proactive approach and vetted company terms and conditions, when published, instead of waiting for claims and trying to negotiate settlements.
This situation would not exist if the respective State Consumer Protection Agencies prosecuted infringements instead of trying to negotiate settlements.
The punishment clauses in the Act are there for a reason. The clauses become meaningless if they aren’t enforced. All infringements should be prosecuted.
You would only need to prosecute one case to send the message and the number of complaints would decrease dramatically.
What is the point in having a law if it isn’t enforced.
You need to address these issues as a matter of urgency.
Most people would accept the claim by Qantas that they (Qantas) are complying with the act. If only one in ten, make a claim, Qantas is millions of dollars ahead over the years.
My options are limited. Perhaps publishing the correspondence as an advertisement in a newspaper would be cost effective and affordable. Especially with an election coming up. And I could possibly claim the cost of the advert. as damages.
Regards
Patrick N. Wines
27 February 2022
Supporting documentation available