Rick Britten spent $11,000 with Qantas on a Top End business class trip for himself and his wife in late 2020 only to have it cancelled because of COVID-19 lockdowns. It was annoying, but nothing compared trying to claim the travel vouchers the airline gave him as credit.

“There were many phone calls to the online people, and it always ended in frustration, with someone saying they would get back to me,” said Mr Britten, who is one of thousands of Australian Qantas customers trying to claim $400 million in credits the airline says are left over from the pandemic era.