Qantas Flight Credits Class Action

Qantas Flight Credits Class Action

On 26 October 2023, Piper Alderman commenced a Class Action in the Federal Court of Australia against Qantas Airways Limited (Qantas). On 29 January 2024, Justice Murphy of the Federal Court of Australia made Orders which, amongst other things, stayed the class action filed by Piper Alderman with a substantially similar class action filed by Echo Law on behalf of Mrs Marianne Haverkort continuing.

The continuing class action is Haverkort v Qantas Airways Limited (VID650/2023) and alleges Qantas customers were entitled to a full cash refund for those cancelled flights. Instead, Qantas issued the majority of its customers with travel credits or vouchers, which were subject to significant restrictions and would expire if not used. Accordingly, those credits were of much lower value to customers than the refunds to which they were entitled. By acting in this way, Qantas has enjoyed significant financial benefits at its customers’ expense.

Echo Law and Piper Alderman will be running the class action together, with Echo Law as the ‘solicitors on the record’ and Piper Alderman as Echo’s ‘agent’.

You are a group member if you purchased or held a ticket on a Qantas flight (domestic or international) that meets the following criteria:

1. the flight was scheduled to depart between 1 January 2020 and 1 November 2022;
2. the flight was cancelled; and
3. the cancellation did not automatically result in a refund or a rebooking on the next available flight to the same destination at no additional cost. Most commonly, this criteria is satisfied because Group Members were issued with a flight credit by Qantas rather than an automatic refund or rebooking.

If you fall within the above definition, then you will be a Group Member irrespective of whether you have used your flight credit or received a refund. Accordingly, you may register your interest on the website of Echo Law (you may access the website by using this link: Qantas Class Action Registration Page (Echo Law), or by copying the following address: https://www.echolaw.com.au/travel-credits-registration.

It will not cost anything to register and you will never be ‘out of pocket’ as a result of participating in this class action.

The class action is being funded by CASL and Omni Bridgeway.

If you have any questions, please contact Echo Law by email at ‘[email protected]’.

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