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Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson last year promised to improve the airline’s customer service and review outdated customer policies such as charging customers to change their name on a ticket.
Hudson also apologised to customers in a video message.
“I know that we have let you down in many ways and for that, I am sorry,” she said. “We haven’t delivered the way we should have. And we’ve often been hard to deal with.”
However, a Qantas customer care representative told Bowers that customers could only correct names on bookings wholly operated by the national carrier.
“As your ticket also contained flights operated by Jetstar Japan (GK) , we advised you to cancel the booking and rebook; however, the fare is not guaranteed,” she said in an email dated January 24.
She also said Qantas would not refund the difference in fares but offered to “provide an insurance letter stating the changes made, and the fare difference paid when you made the change”.
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A Qantas spokesman said changes made to bookings on other airlines on the same day attracted no fee. Qantas is a minority shareholder in Jetstar Japan.
“Whilst the customer was given the correct information from our customer care team regarding changes for a Jetstar Japan booking, we have offered the customer a refund for the cancellation fee as a gesture of goodwill,” he said.
However, one day after this masthead contacted Qantas, the airline offered Bowers a $1600 travel voucher “in recognition of your experience”.
Bowers said he was frustrated with the “zero empathy” shown by Qantas. “Despite asking multiple times whether they thought this was the right thing to do, they refused to engage,” he said.
Consumers’ Federation of Australia chairman Gerard Brody said there was a gap in the law when it came to unfair trade practices by airlines.
“Refusing to allow a simple name change and imposing additional costs by forcing the customer to cancel a ticket and make a new booking at significant expense doesn’t sound fair,” he said.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said last year in a submission to the Aviation Green Paper that a lack of competition in the domestic airline industry had led to high prices, poor customer service, decreasing service quality and issues resolving disputes and obtaining redress.
The Consumers Federation of Australia wants an airline and travel ombudsman to resolve these sorts of complaints more efficiently and cheaply for consumers.
“At the moment, there is little access to justice with these sorts of complaints,” Brody said. “Consumers are largely reliant on the airline’s goodwill unless they have the time and resources to go to court.”
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