Qantas complaint: Violation of Basic Consumer Rights

On 8th December 2022, I redeemed Qantas frequent flyer points for an award reservation that is consisted of two one-way award tickets. The booking reference of this award reservation is 6WYRES. At the time of the reservation, I am allowed to cancel this award reservation WITHOUT penalty. This was one of the terms and conditions attached to the reservation. On 1st January 2023, Qantas unilaterally introduced cancellation penalty for award reservations. This policy change was not communicated to me and I was not aware of this policy change. On 23rd January 2023, I requested to have this award reservation cancelled. During the cancellation process, Qantas did not inform me that there would be a new cancellation penalty of 6,000 points per award ticket, or 12,000 points for my award reservation. It was until after the cancellation request was processed that I realised the points have been deducted. I am writing to request Qantas to refund those 12,000 points back to my account. In my view, it is a violation of consumer rights when the airlines changed its policy unilaterally without informing those customers that could be affected by the policy change, and then impose a penalty unilaterally without informining the customer that such as penalty would be imposted. Qantas has, in effect, stolen 12,000 points from my account without my consent, and I request this illegal and unethical behaviour to be reversed.

The airlines has not been able to definitively its intended approach to resolve my issue. After numerous interactions with the airlines, several customer service members from Qantas have admitted to the facts that I have presented in this complaint file, but they are either not empowered or willing to bring this complaint to a conclusion. It is my view that Qantas is deploying a delay tactic to protect its illegal and unethical practice.