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Customers who had cancelled flights with Qantas during the COVID-19 period will soon be reimbursed as a result of a finalised class action.
Following agreements earlier this year, Qantas will pay $105 million to settle concerns about the airline cancelling flights and issuing credits instead of refunds.
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The class action, run by legal firms Echo Law and Piper Alderman, alleged that the flying kangaroo failed to abide by its legal requirement to offer direct refunds by instead providing customers with flight credits.
Echo Law has been instructed by the Federal Court of Australia to notify customers via text message and email about the settlement and future steps.
“This is a critical step that brings us closer to distributing millions of dollars in settlement funds to customers who were issued flight credits for cancelled Qantas flights between 2020 – 2022,” said Andrew Paull, Partner at Echo Law.
“Before payments can be made, we need eligible group members in this class action to now take steps to participate in the proposed settlement.
“That’s why we’re reaching out by email and text message using the details that customers provided to Qantas when purchasing tickets.
“It’s proposed that a minimum of $50 will be paid to those eligible, if the settlement is approved by the Court, however the amounts paid can be significantly higher, particularly in circumstances where a person had multiple bookings covered by the class action or experienced significant delays in receiving their refunds.”
If you purchased a ticket for a flight that was cancelled between January 1 2020 and November 1 2022, paid for the booking, and were given a flight credit, you are likely eligible for a settlement payment, even if you’ve since used the credit.
The main exception to eligibility is if Qantas refunded you within 30 days of cancelling the flight.
Over one million people are expected to be contacted in the coming weeks to confirm their eligibility for a payment and the next steps to receive it.
Customers are being warned about potential scam messages that will likely be distributed due to the scale and impact of this case.
“We are making this announcement today as we’re aware that the large number of scams that take place means some recipients of these communications may question whether the text or email, they’re receiving is legitimate, and indeed whether they should click on the link in the communication,” said Kate Sambrook, Partner at Piper Alderman.
Customers are being told that if they have any concerns about unknown links or messages, they can visit Echo Law’s website to verify the message.
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