The consumer watchdog has launched legal action against Qantas, alleging the airline advertised tickets for 8000 flights that had already been cancelled but
not removed from sale.
In an explosive revelation, the Australian Competition & Consumer
Commission alleged that the flights in question were scheduled to depart
between May and July 2022, and Qantas kept selling tickets for an average of more than two weeks after they were cancelled.
A statement by the ACCC alleged that for more than 10,000 flights scheduled to depart in that period, Qantas did not notify existing ticketholders their flights had been cancelled for an average of 18-days and in some cases for up to 48-days.
The ACCC further alleged that Qantas did not update its "Manage My
Booking" web page for ticketholders to reflect the cancellation.
"This conduct affected a substantial proportion of flights cancelled by Qantas between May to July 2022." said the ACCC.
"It's alleged that for about 70 per cent of cancelled flights, Qantas either continued to sell tickets for the flight on its website for two days or more, or delayed informing existing ticketholders that their flight was cancelled for two days or more, or both."