Customers who canceled flights with Qantas during the COVID-19 period will soon receive a refund as a result of a finalized class action lawsuit.
Following agreements earlier this year, Qantas will pay $105 million to resolve concerns about the airline canceling flights and issuing credits instead of refunds.
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The class action lawsuit, led by law firms Echo Law and Piper Alderman, alleged that Flying Kangaroo failed to meet its legal requirement to offer direct refunds and instead provided customers with flight credits.
The Federal Court of Australia has ordered Echo Law to notify clients via text and email about the settlement and future steps.
“This is a critical step that brings us closer to distributing millions of dollars in settlement funds to customers who were issued flight credits for canceled Qantas flights between 2020 and 2022,” said Andrew Paull, partner at Echo Law.
“Before payments can be made, we need eligible class members in this class action to take steps to participate in the proposed settlement.
“That’s why we communicate by email and text using the details customers provided to Qantas when purchasing tickets.
“A minimum of $50 is proposed to be paid to those eligible, if the court approves the settlement; however, the amounts paid may be significantly higher, particularly in circumstances where an individual had multiple reservations covered by the class action or experienced significant delays in receiving their refunds.”
If you purchased a ticket for a canceled flight between January 1, 2020 and November 1, 2022, paid for the reservation, and received a flight credit, you will likely be eligible for a settlement payment, even if you have since used the credit.
The main exception to eligibility is if Qantas refunded you within 30 days of canceling the flight.
More than one million people are expected to be contacted in the coming weeks to confirm their eligibility for a payment and the next steps to receive it.
Customers are warned about potential fraudulent messages that are likely to be distributed due to the scale and impact of this case.
“We are making this announcement today because we are aware that the high number of scams taking place means that some recipients of these communications may question whether the text message or email they receive is legitimate and, in fact, whether they should click on the link in the communication,” said Kate Sambrook, partner at Piper Alderman.
Clients are told that if they have any concerns about unknown links or messages, they can visit the Echo Law website to verify the message.
