Qantas’ ‘administration error’ leaves Aussie mum and kids stranded in Paris

A mum and two kids were distraught when Qantas couldn’t find one of their tickets.They couldn’t believe what they were told next.

An Aussie mum and two young kids were left stranded in Paris after an “administration error” by Qantas left one child ticketless — and they were initially told the next available flight was two weeks away.

Tarnya Allen booked a European “trip of a lifetime” with her two children — aged 10 and 12 — six months in advance, but when they arrived at the airport in Paris to fly home via London, their carefree holiday mood was quickly replaced with severe anxiety.

Despite having paid for three tickets and being emailed a confirmation receipt with three passengers listed, Ms Allen was told at the check-in desk that Qantas did not have the ticket for her 10-year-old son.

Ms Allen said staff told her it was due to an administration error, with no further details given.

Ms Allen said her children are afraid to fly again. Picture: supplied

Because there was no specific Qantas check-in desk, she had to call the airline — but time was running out.

“They just consistently put me on hold, and with Qantas, if you spent 20 minutes on hold, the call will automatically terminate,” Ms Allen said.

“So I made five phone calls. And each time, they terminated the call. If you were to listen to the voice recordings, it’s quite heartbreaking. I’m saying, ‘please don’t terminate my call, I’m stuck in the airport with two children and it’s getting later at night’.”

By the time the issue was fixed, the plane had taken off.

Ms Allen said a Qantas worker told her over the phone the next available economy flight was in two weeks.

Despite the e-ticket listing three passengers, only two boarding passes existed at check-in. Picture: supplied

She was relieved when Qantas backtracked on that timetable and booked them on flights home two days later. They flew with Air France to London and then with Qantas to Sydney.

But that came after she had racked up a bill of thousands of dollars on accommodation and other costs and had painfully prepared to spend another fortnight in Paris.

When they finally boarded the long-haul flight home, her children were seated away from her.

In the three weeks since arriving home in Brisbane, Ms Allen said she has not received news from Qantas about whether she will be reimbursed for the two extra days abroad despite lodging a formal complaint.

“We’re out of pocket thousands and my kids are scared to fly again,” Ms Allen said.

A Qantas spokesperson said Ms Allen and her family were unable to take their original flights due to a ticketing error.

“We moved them to a flight out of Paris on another airline two days later, and they connected on to a Qantas flight out of London,” she said.

“We were unable to book them on earlier flights as they were full over the busy holiday period”.

The spokesperson said Qantas is looking into what caused the ticketing error and have reached out to Ms Allen to apologise for the inconvenience.