Qantas class action to examine strategy behind Covid-19 travel credits issued in place of refunds
A class action against Qantas over its handling of Covid-19 travel credits will focus on what call centre staff were told to tell customers about their refund entitlements.
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A class action against Qantas over its handling of Covid-19 flight cancellations is being held up by difficulty accessing documents from the airline revealing what call centre staff were told to tell customers about their refund entitlements.
Echo Law is leading the class action on behalf of customers who were initially told they could not get a refund for a cancelled flight during the pandemic, only a travel credit – which then proved very difficult to use.
The action has alleged it was a deliberate strategy by Qantas to avoid paying refunds, due to the financial pressures on the airline during the pandemic.
Although customers were eventually offered a refund and Qantas lifted the expiry date on travel credits, Echo Law is arguing customers were financially disadvantaged by the delay.
Barristers for Echo Law and Qantas appeared before Federal Court Judge Mark Moshinsky on Wednesday to discuss delays in discovery of relevant documents.
Robert Craig KC for Qantas told the court they would not be able to complete discovery until next February at the earliest, pushing the date for a trial to the end of 2026 or even early 2027.
Justice Moshinsky questioned why it was taking so long, pointing out the matter first came before the court in 2023, and it was “not particularly complex”.
Justice Moshinsky said Echo Law’s request for emails sent by members of senior management referring to travel credits and refunds in the period from January 1, 2020, to August 31, 2023, “on the face of it didn’t look like it should be too hard”.
“But my question for you is why are we looking for this anyway? What sort of documents might be useful?” he said.
Michael Hodge KC for the customers, said they wanted to know the “design and intention of Qantas in relation to the strategy adopted in relation to initially not giving refunds and instead giving flight credits”.
“Hypothetically, Qantas was having internal discussions at the highest level of management about how call centre staff would communicate with customers who sought a refund, and what they were told about their rights in relation to refunds,” Mr Hodge said.
“That would be the kind of communication we would be looking for ... and with regard to
the documents we have already received, there is good reason to think that these hypothetical issues are active issues that were under consideration by Qantas.”
Echo Law also wanted to know if communications about the travel credits strategy “flowed through to the board about what the financial consequences would be if refunds were paid”.
Mr Craig told the court the delay was due to the sheer volume of emails, with 47 inboxes identified holding a total of 1,171,185 documents.
“We haven’t sat back saying it’s too hard,” he said.
“Qantas has devoted a substantial amount of time making inquiries with various business units for the purpose of identifying personnel who had a Qantas senior management title during the 3.5 year nominated period and understanding their roles and responsibilities to ascertain whether they were responsible for the supervision, management and oversight of travel credits and refunds for cancelled flights.”
He indicated junior associates and law graduates were being used to trawl through the material, saying it was not a simple matter of conducting a “key word search”.
“It’s not as if we are coming to court having done nothing over the last year and a half,” he said.
Two potential dates in late 2026 were proposed for a trial – from September 28 through to October 30, or from November 30 to Christmas.
Justice Moshinsky is expected to finalise a timetable for the matter in coming weeks.
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Originally published as Qantas class action to examine strategy behind Covid-19 travel credits issued in place of refunds
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