Family faces surprise $100,000 flight bill after airline withdraws ‘goodwill’ offer

A Brisbane man who booked four cheap first class flights to the United States because of an error on the Qantas website was shocked when he was billed more than $100,000 after the national carrier promised to reschedule customers to business class at no extra cost.

Qantas mistakenly sold hundreds of first-class tickets between Australia and the United States for up to 85% less than usual in the early hours of August 23.

The airline, which under its terms and conditions can cancel and refund customers if there is “a reasonably obvious error or mistake in the ticket price”, has instead promised to reschedule passengers to business class at no extra cost “as a gesture of goodwill”.

This means that affected customers still got seats up to 65% cheaper than the usual business class fare.

However, Aji Paul and his family, who had started planning their holiday and informed their friends in the US that they were going to visit, were devastated when the airline failed to respond.

Mr Paul had booked four first-class return flights to Dallas, Texas, for his family next year for about $17,500 and used Qantas’ “book now, pay later” option, paying $100 to hold the flights.

Like those who have already paid in full, Mr. Paul received a promising email.

“As a gesture of goodwill, Qantas will rebook you in business class on the same flight for the same price you have already paid,” Qantas customer service said.

The email stated that no action was required from Mr. Paul and that updated tickets would be sent to him.

But without further updates, Mr. Paul said he discovered four days later that the total payment due had increased from $17,465 to $100,121.

He told news.com.au it was “really shocking” but thought it may have been “another pricing mistake”.

Mr Paul said he immediately called Qantas, which was the start of a “frustrating” week of multiple phone calls with different customer service representatives.

“It’s really terrible because unfortunately every person I talk to gives a totally different story,” he said.

“They have no consistency in the information they give.”

He said some representatives promised a solution that was not implemented, while others were confused and unable to help.

He said he was eventually asked to file a complaint form and did so, before receiving a call last Friday asking if he wanted to pay $56,000 for the business class flights.

Mr Paul said he would have understood if he had simply been informed that there was a pricing error and that they were unable to honour it under the terms and conditions of the sale. He said he would have accepted a refund of his deposit.

“That would have been the end of the story,” he said.

But it was the various stories from employees who couldn’t answer questions about whether they were aware of the website error that left him “really frustrated,” he said.

The issue remained unresolved for two weeks until news.com.au contacted the airline about it on Tuesday.

Qantas has promised to provide business class seats at an initial price of $4,366.14 per person.

“We apologise to Mr Paul for the inconvenience caused and are contacting him to resolve outstanding issues with his booking,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

“Like other customers who attempted to book the published first class fares in error, we will reschedule his flight to business class at no additional cost or provide him with a full refund.”

News.com.au understands that Qantas is not aware of any other processing errors and that all other affected bookings have been updated with new tickets, including those that used ‘Book Now, Pay Later’.

Last month, Qantas Group reported underlying pre-tax profit of $2.08 billion for the 2023-24 financial year, down 16 per cent from a year earlier.

It was the company’s first annual results with Vanessa Hudson at the helm after she took over in September, when Mr Joyce brought forward his retirement by two months so the airline could “move forward with its renewal” under new leadership.

The new CEO called the results “solid” but acknowledged they were lower, attributing the decline to lower airfares and cargo revenues, as well as greater investment in customers ($230 million).

Ms Hudson said it was essential to “find the right balance” between customer and employee satisfaction and shareholder satisfaction.

She said Qantas and budget airline Jetstar had seen “a significant increase in satisfaction”.

When Ms Hudson became CEO, she promised to put customers first in efforts to restore the airline’s reputation.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Mr Joyce’s bonuses would be cut by more than $9 million and that the airline had committed to implementing 23 recommendations made in its review of key governance issues.

Mr Joyce’s bonuses were withheld amid growing pressure from investors following a series of controversies, including the illegal sacking of 1,700 workers, the selling of tickets on already cancelled flights and allegations of anti-competitive behaviour.

The airline will have to pay about $20 million in compensation to customers affected by its flight cancellation policy after admitting to misleading passengers. This sum is in addition to a $100 million civil penalty.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal action against the airline in August 2023, claiming it sold tickets for 8,000 “ghost flights” (flights that had already been cancelled) between May and July 2022.