A class action has been filed against Jetstar over non-refunded flight payments during the COVID pandemic.
Echo Law partner Andrew Paull said proceedings against the airline had been lodged in the Federal Court on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Jetstar customers whose flights were cancelled during the pandemic.
Mr Paull said it was alleged that Jetstar failed to refund customers’ payments for those flights, despite being legally obliged to do so.
“Jetstar promotes itself as a values-driven, low fare airline committed to helping ‘more people fly, more often’, yet it’s a highly profitable part of the Qantas Group, and when COVID caused widespread flight cancellations it put those profits ahead of its customers’ interests,” he said.
“Jetstar customers were pushed into holding hundreds of millions of dollars in restricted travel credits, even though this wasn’t what those customers had agreed to as part of the airline’s terms and conditions. The right thing for Jetstar to do when it cancelled all those flights was to return its customers’ money without delay.”
Mr Paull said Echo Law commenced a separate class action against Qantas in 2023 over its COVID credits program, which was ongoing.
“Like Qantas, we allege Jetstar breached the law by failing to be transparent and by failing to refund its customers. It held onto ordinary Australian’s money and expected customers to just be happy with credits, which we allege it was not entitled to do. It now needs to be held accountable and refund that money with interest.”
Mr Paull said many Jetstar customers ended up paying the airline more than their original booking to use their credits on new fares.
“They were led to believe they had little choice but to do that or else lose the value of the flights they paid for. This is another unjust enrichment Jetstar has enjoyed,” he said.
