Qantas to roll out phone line to help customers with travel vouchers

Qantas will roll out a dedicated “concierge” service to assist customers having troubling claiming the millions of dollars in unused vouchers.

Qantas will roll out a dedicated help line to assist customers hoping to redeem billions in unused travel credits, as the expiry on vouchers creeps closer and closer.

Currently, Australia’s national carrier along with budget airline Jetstar reportedly has around $1.3 billion worth of unused credits in its system. According to 9 News, the majority of the credits will expire in December 2023.

Currently, the rules for using credits are rather complicated according to come customers – and can also be costly for consumers wanting to book new flights.

According to the Qantas website, depending on whether the flight is cancelled by the airline or by the customer results in a different set of rules.

Qantas will roll out a dedicated help line to assist customers hoping to redeem billions in unused travel credits. Picture: Brendan Radke

But given the cost of flights for some routes has radically increased, some claim they’re being left out of pocket to complete the intended route.

One Qantas customer, who has a $1200 credit following a cancelled 2019 flight from Brisbane to Perth, said she was forced to fork out an extra $800 to complete the trip more recently. The price difference left her shocked and annoyed.

“They said they were going to give you credits if you had to cancel and honour it for exactly what it is … and don’t charge you more,” Kerry Webb said.

Qantas chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson said while millions worth of vouchers are being redeemed each month, a dedicated ‘concierge’ service will be implemented to assist customers having trouble navigating the renewal process.

“We will be reminding them [customers] and providing new ways to access them [flight credits] and we will be putting on a dedicated concierge phone number,” she said, as reported by 9News.

Billions of dollars in unused credit vouchers are waiting to be used. NewsWire/Sarah Marshall

The announcement comes amid a turbulent time for the Qantas Group, with budget carrier Jetstar facing ongoing scrutiny for cancelled services and leaving customers in the lurch.

Earlier this week, the budget airline promised consumers that flight disruptions would be a thing of the past, especially heading into the Christmas period.

Jetstar chief operating officer Matthew Franzi told 9 News that “bad luck” was primarily to blame for the months of disruptions, and that losing aircraft only added to the airline’s headache of meeting customer demands.

“We know we haven’t delivered to the customer expectation,” Mr Franzi said, noting that the airline’s fleet was back to normal after two Boeing 787s were out of action for a month.

Jetstar engineer Greg Evans said that by bringing back more aircraft, disruptions and cancellations will be reduced.

“We plan to have spare aircraft. To lose two aircraft in such quick succession made a significant impact on our operation,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with the pandemic. It was kind of just bad luck in a way that these things happened at the same time.”

News.com.au has contacted Qantas for comment.