Qantas faces class action lawsuit over COVID credits

London, United Kingdom - May 13, 2016: A Qantas Airways Airbus A380 with the registration VH-OQC approaching London Heathrow Airport (LHR) in the United Kingdom. The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. Qantas is the flag carrier airline of Australia.

Qantas is facing a class action lawsuit over its distribution of COVID credits for cancelled flights during the pandemic.

Leading the suit is Echo Law, which alleges that Qantas customers were entitled to full cash refunds rather than flight credits. The law firm said that these credits were worth significantly less to customers than the refunds they were owed.

The four main allegations towards the national carrier are: It breached its contract with customers by failing to provide cash refunds, it engaged in misleading conduct, it unlawfully benefited from customers by holding a significant amount of customer funds that ought to have been refunded and that it engaged in unconscionable conduct.

The lawsuit comes almost two months after Qantas unveiled a ‘Find my Credit’ tool, which allows travellers to find COVID credits which are up to three years old.

But the law firm isn’t looking for how travellers can find their credit, they want a pay-out.

Echo Law partner Andrew Paull criticised Qantas’ early method of offering travel credits which included “strict conditions” rather than giving travellers back their money.

“We allege Qantas breached the law by failing to be transparent and immediately issue refunds to customers when flights were cancelled,” he said.

While COVID posed major disruption to air travel and resulted in cancellations that no airline wished to make, that is no excuse for Qantas to take advantage of its own customers and effectively treat them as providers of over $1 billion in interest-free loans.”

The law firm has stated on its website that anyone who held tickets for a Qantas flight that was cancelled due to the pandemic can participate. This includes those who have since used their Qantas travel credits or were able to obtain a refund.

The case is backed by litigation funder CASL, meaning participants will not have to pay out of pocket for legal fees, unless the case is won. Then money will be paid to CASL from the amount that is recovered for group members.

A Qantas spokesperson said that the airline “completely reject(s) these claims.”

“We have already processed well in excess of $1 billion in refunds from COVID credits for customers who
were impacted by lockdowns and border closures,” the spokesperson said.

Qantas has extended the expiry date on its COVID credits three times in 2020 and extended it again in July.

The airline said that as of midday yesterday, it has not been served a claim, despite statements to the contrary.

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COVID credits qantas