Yahoo Finance Hidden Qantas cost crippling Aussie travellers
'Stressed-out' Aussies have shared Qantas horror stories that left them unable to pay for rent, food and bills.
Aussie travellers say they're being financially crippled by a common practice whereby they're "charged twice" for Qantas flights, sometimes leaving them overdrawn by thousands of dollars and unable to pay their rent, mortgage, or even grocery bills.
Frustrated and "stressed" customers have vented their horror stories about being charged a "holding fee" — equal to the cost of the original ticket — with one claiming: "Qantas have ruined me."
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One devastated Aussie said she was charged $5,500 after already paying $5,500 for flights to see her "sick father-in-law" in the UK and was still waiting for the cash to be released a week later, leaving her struggling to pay bills.
"I haven't eaten or been able to survive properly since last Sunday. Qantas have charged a holding fee for flights I booked," she said.
"It's been seven days and the fee should have been returned. This fee is the same as the tickets, which I have paid in full. So they have taken an extra $5,500 out and I've had an overdrawn account since Sunday.
"I had $300 left to spend on groceries and household items, petrol — things you need to survive. I've never experienced this with any other airline."
Other passengers have had the same issue and said it was long-standing.
Last year, Qantas told Yahoo Finance a pre-approval glitch had led to several customers being overcharged after an Australian exposed the issue, noting he waited hours on hold to get it resolved.
Skip forward to now, and passengers are irate Qantas has "known about the issue for years and done nothing to fix".
Even getting the "holding fee" removed was not an easy task, with scores of people saying they'd spent more than two hours on the phone waiting to speak to customer service, and then more than a week for the money to be made accessible again.
"This happened to me too. It's ridiculous and they should be penalised for it," an upset traveller said.
Victorian woman Lynda Shortis, a former frequent flyer, said she now refused to travel with Qantas - despite years of loyalty - after being double-charged on two separate occasions.
She told Yahoo Finance she was charged twice in March last year after booking flights from Melbourne to Alice Springs and Darwin to Cairns for herself and her husband through Qantas.
Instead of being billed around $7,000, Shortis said her credit card was charged $14,000.
"I was ropeable," she said. "It's a fault in the system. The first time it happened, I got a call from the bank saying, 'One of your cards is overdrawn'."
Shortis said it took her two-and-a-half hours on the phone to get through to Qantas customer service. Thankfully the issue was sorted out within a few days.
'Great financial burden': Qantas under fire for costly, widespread glitch
The "commonplace" practice has seen a fair whack of criticism levelled at Qantas.
"Qantas, you have double-charged my account for my family's tickets, $8,400 ... and left my account near empty with no money for my mortgage repayment and groceries," Rebecca Lynch posted on X, formerly Twitter.
A Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo Finance the airline reached out to Ms Lynch at the time but she didn't respond and "the claims couldn't be verified".
Another "stressed-out" Qantas Frequent Flyer member asked if anyone else had struggled with being overcharged.
"It's put me -$2,000 overdraft. I've called Qantas and the bank, they said it will be back in my account over the next seven to 10 business days but it is going to cause me great financial burden due to this," they said.
They were told it was "sadly common" for authorisation and the actual purchase to be listed as two separate transactions.
"There's nothing you can do as Qantas hasn't physically charged you twice, instead it's an authorization-only hold that will disappear in a week or so," a traveller advised.
Aside from squeezing household budgets, the glitch can have other consequences.
A grieving Australian who had to travel overseas ended up having the payment of their mother's cremation declined by the bank.
"We had the same thing happen earlier this month when I had to emergency fly to Hawaii to try to get to my mum before she died (missed her by five hours). It resulted in my payment for her cremation bouncing and me being unable to pay for anything whilst overseas. We've lodged the complaint form about a week ago, but have heard nothing from Qantas," they said.
A third claimed Qantas processed three payments of $12,000, amounting to $36,000, in a nightmare situation that took two weeks to sort out.
"Like someone else mentioned, it is not officially taken from your account but it is still not acceptable," the disgruntled customer said.
The payment process is putting customers in the middle of a back-and-forth blame game between their bank and Qantas.
"They [Qantas] blame the bank, the bank blames Qantas. 10 days later, it is sorted," the customer said.
"Just means 10 days where you have seemingly massive charges on your card and can't do anything about it (or buy other things, cause you're maxed out). Huge pain."
How to get your money back quickly if double charged by Qantas
If you find yourself in a double charge situation, Qantas said the funds should be released within three to seven days.
But, given the large sum a flight generally costs, even three days can be too many. Especially if these drag into business days.
Qantas has given a solution for that: contact your bank.
Your financial institution may be able to get you the cash quicker if you make a payment request.
Qantas responds to debacle
The response Yahoo Finance received from Qantas was eerily similar to the one we received last year.
Qantas said, while it appeared customers had been charged twice for flights, this was "not the case".
"We are aware that a small number of customers appear to have been charged twice for flight bookings. This is not the case. Unfortunately, there is a delay in releasing pre-authorised funds which we are urgently working with our banking and payment partners to resolve," the statement said.
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