A$100m Jetstar Covid flight credits still unclaimed

Jetstar is holding around A$100m in unused COVID-19 flight credits, a Senate inquiry has revealed. Speaking before the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living on Monday, Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully (pictured) admitted that the airline still has a substantial amount of unused flight credit over and above the approximately $370m in credit Qantas holds for its own flights. “About 50% of that credit [that’s] held by people [is] less than $100. So you can imagine the context of contacting those customers to use that amount,” she said. Additionally, when pressed, the Qantas executives present admitted that there are also tens of millions of dollars in credit from Qantas overseas bookings that have not been counted in the $370m figure, though could not give an exact amount. Tully said that various factors, including changes to customers’ credit card details and complex bookings, had prevented Qantas Group from refunding all of the credits immediately, but said the group intends to have all unused credit returned or used by the December 31 deadline. “When COVID occurred back in March 2020, a lot of those trips that were put into credit were half-taken trips and the way you price a half-taken trip is a whole trip. The actual amount of the refund is not clear,” she said. “We had a lot of codeshare flights that were partly Qantas tickets, partly another airline ticket. We had interline tickets, and… over time people’s credit card details change as well. So, we have always given the option for customers to have a refund and… I think, as [Qantas head of corporate affairs Andrew] McGinnes said, $3b worth of refunds have happened.""<br/>