A very cynical money-making scheme used by airlines to rake in extra profit is afoot.
I do n’t vagabond this cherished planet assume the best of bay window . I grew up on movies likeRunaway Jury , Erin Brokovich , andThe Insider — if there ’s a billion dollar bill on the table , I ’m assume the uncollectible . But still , somehow , I discover myself surprised by the cartoon villainy that is conducted by businesses hop to gouge their customers for every spare centime they can negociate . Airlineshave been particularly culpable in the years following the pandemic , with the increase cost of tickets , checking bag , wireless fidelity , and every other table service conceivable .
The endeavor to take — then keep — as much money as possible from passenger get so bad that the Department of Transportation late herald a raw rule that would finallyrequire airline business to really come forth refundsfor thing like delete flights and services not try . Before this principle , it was n’t exclusively unheard of for airlines to simply keep that money .
One Australian airline business took this practice session a measure further . Qantas was just break water and consecrate to pay $ 79 million over the sale of “ ghost flights ” after being caught by the watchdog formation Australian Competition and Consumer Commission . Ghost flights are n’t a play , whimsical Halloween promotion or an even aviation whodunit .
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty Images
trace flights are flights that do n’t exist at all . The condition refers to selling tickets for flights that the airline has already canceled . According to theAustralian Competition and Consumer Commission , Qantas sold thousands of these tickets in 2021 and 2022 .
The chairman of the ACCC , Gina Cass - Gottlieb , called the behavior from Qantas “ egregious and insufferable . ” Now , as part of the court small town , Qantas will have to pay up $ 13 million to more than 86,000 client and $ 66 million in fine . According to the federal court activity launched by the ACCC against Qantas in August 2023 , the ACCC allege that between May 2021 and July 2022 , the airline advertised tickets for more than 8,000 flights .
“ We note that Qantas has also agreed not to repeat this case of behaviour in the futurity , and to make payment as before long as potential to the thou of consumer who purchase tickets on flight that Qantas had already decided to cancel , or were re - accommodated onto these flight after their original flight was canceled , ” said Cass - Gottlieb .
In a May 8 argument to Thrillist , Qantas addressed the lawsuit :
“ When wing restart after the COVID shutdown , we recognize Qantas let down customers and fell short of our own standards , " Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson say in a statement . " We know many of our client were affected by our loser to put up cancellation notifications in a timely manner and we are sincerely sorry . The return to travel was already stressful for many and we did not deliver enough documentation for customer and did not have the applied science and systems in place to bear our people .
“ We have since update our process and are investing in new technology across the Qantas Group to ensure this does n’t find again . "
have ’s just go for these airlines here in the US that have to be strong - armed into paying out refunds forcanceled and seriously delayed flightsdon’t start getting any approximation .
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