Sadly for Hudson, when the ACCC launched its bombshell action over the ghost flights, it also forced Qantas to remove the expiry dates from all COVID credits. But this is all in the past, right? Wrong.
When you attempt to use a flight credit, Qantas transfers you into a special booking engine which displays airfares that are often significantly higher than the airfares offered on the exact same flights in the regular qantas.com booking engine.
This is the system whether you were attempting to use a COVID flight credit in the past or a regular Qantas flight credit today (regular flight credits replaced COVID flight credits for any cancelled bookings after October 2021 and unlike COVID credits, they expire after 12 months).
In recent months, Qantas added a legal disclaimer to this process. “If you use a payment method other than Flight Credit on qantas.com,” it says, “lower fares may be available.”
Customers are forced to click “I understand” if they wish to proceed and redeem their credit. There is no “I don’t understand” button. You can either indicate your understanding that you are being ripped off or you can forfeit all of your money. Those are your binary options.
Qantas then hits you with a $99 booking fee, which they deduct from your credit, even though your re-booking has been 100 per cent self-administered!
What’s more, “You can only use your Flight Credit to book fares that are equal to or higher than the value of your Flight Credit.” Therefore, if you have a $500 credit and the airfare you want to book is $199, you simply lose $301 (or technically $202 once you factor in the self-booking fee). Qantas adds that $301 to its gargantuan profits as “breakage” revenue
You have to joking, QF, I'd take to walking over broken glass before I willingly gave you a dollar.