Qantas - Flight cancellation survey

Overview

On 31 August 2023, the ACCC commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia alleging that between May and July 2022, Qantas cancelled a large number of flights and:

• offered for sale, and accepted payment for, flights which it had already cancelled; and
• falsely represented to consumers who held tickets for cancelled flights that their flights had not been cancelled.

The ACCC’s case does not allege that the cancellation of the flights was in breach of the consumer law, but concerns the alleged misleading conduct after Qantas had cancelled these flights.

The ACCC is seeking information from consumers who may have been affected by the alleged conduct.

Survey

If you held a ticket on a Qantas flight that was scheduled to depart between 1 May 2022 and 31 July 2022 and your flight was cancelled, we would like to hear from you. You can provide us with relevant details of your experience by completing the survey in the link provided below.

The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and includes questions about:

• details of your cancelled flight and the date you purchased your ticket
• how and when you were notified of the cancellation
• how the cancellation affected you.

This survey relates to the allegations the ACCC has made in the Federal Court of Australia proceedings that it has commenced. If you wish to make an enquiry or to report an issue that is not related to those proceedings, please use this general enquiry form or report an issue to the ACCC online.

Your privacy and personal information

Any information you provide will be kept confidential in accordance with the ACCC’s Information Policy.

The ACCC will handle personal information collected in this survey in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. Personal information you provide in response to the survey will be used for the purposes of providing you with a copy of your survey responses and confirming information provided by Qantas. We will not disclose your personal information without your consent, except where authorised or required by law.

Information about how to access and/or correct your personal information, and how to lodge a complaint in relation to the handling of your personal information, is set out in our privacy policy on our website.

What happens after I submit my answers to the survey questions?

While we are not able to help resolve individual complaints or provide legal advice, we often rely on information provided by consumers to assist us in our work enforcing the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and promoting fair trading for the benefit of all Australians. The information you provide will assist the ACCC to better understand the impact of Qantas’ conduct on consumers.

If you confirm that you are comfortable for the ACCC to contact you, the ACCC may get in touch with you if we have further queries relating to your experience with Qantas.

Why is the ACCC’s case focused on consumers who had flights cancelled between May and July 2022?

The ACCC does not comment on the detail of investigations or ongoing court proceedings.

What are my rights if I had flights cancelled by Qantas, or by another airline?

Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), services such as flights come with automatic consumer guarantees that they will be supplied within a reasonable time.

If a flight is delayed or cancelled, consumers may be entitled to a refund or replacement, depending on the circumstances and the terms and conditions of the booking. If the delay or cancellation is for reasons within the airline’s control, consumers are entitled to an alternative flight or a refund under the ACL consumer guarantees regime. If the delay or cancellation is for reasons outside of the airlines control, the consumer's right to a refund or replacement travel service will generally depend on the terms and conditions of their booking.

The ACCC expects airlines to be honest and proactive in advising consumers of the reasons why a flight is delayed or cancelled, and what consumers are entitled to under the ACL and their terms and conditions. You can find more information about your rights in travel delays and cancellations on our website.

Your next steps

If you’re looking for help to resolve an issue with Qantas or another airline, you should start by contacting the airline directly.

The ACCC notes the decision by Qantas to remove expiry dates on COVID travel credits and allow eligible consumers to request refunds. You can find further information on the Qantas website.

You can also find detailed information on our website about where to go for consumer help and what to do if you have a problem with a service you bought.

If you feel the airline hasn’t met its obligations under the ACL, you can also make a report to the ACCC. We use reports from the public to help alert us to businesses that may be behaving in a way that is anticompetitive or not abiding by fair trading laws. We value this information as it helps us find the biggest issues to investigate further, considered against our Compliance and Enforcement policy.

Please note, we do not generally act on behalf of consumers or businesses to resolve their individual disputes with businesses or organisations. You can read more about how we prioritise our work and what we can and can't do for consumers on our website.