A Qantas customer was left furious after he was forced to pay $1,900 to correct the spelling of his nephew’s name on his booking.
Chris Bowers booked a $1,400 flight for his nephew, Frazer Linscott, last November from Sapporo, Japan to Brisbane so he could accompany his daughter Sasha.
However, when Mr Bowers made the booking, he incorrectly spelt Frazer with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’, mistakenly spelling his nephew’s name as ‘Fraser’.
Mr Bowers told the Sydney Morning Herald once the small error was noticed, he quickly called the airline.
The customer was informed the only way it could be fixed was to cancel the flight and rebook.
When Frazer Linscott’s (pictured) uncle booked a flight for him from Japan, his name was accidently spelt at ‘Fraser’ with an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’. The costly error cost his uncle $1900
If changes need to be made to a booking, Qantas won’t charge a fee if amendments are made on the same day as the purchase
In the time Mr Bowers had booked and needed to cancel and repurchase, the $1,400 fare had hiked up to a whopping $3,000.
‘The injustice was compounded when I discovered that the cancelled flight had also attracted a $300 cancellation charge bringing the total cost of a single letter spelling mistake to $1900,’ he said.
Mr Bowers made a complaint to Qantas before contacting the Airline Customer Advocate.
However, the advocacy lacks any powers for resolution.
A Qantas customer care person informed Mr Bowers that spelling could only be fixed if the booking was completely operated by the airline.
Mr Bower’s booking for his nephew included flights that were operated by Jetstar Japan, which Qantas is only a minority shareholder in.
They advised Mr Bowers the only way to fix such an issue was to cancel and rebook and warned the fare price could not be guaranteed.
Qantas also advised they would not refund the difference in fares but would instead provide a letter for his insurance company with details of the incident.
Mr Bowers said the airline had shown ‘zero empathy’ who had ‘refused to engage’ when the customer asked Qantas if they ‘thought this was the right thing to do’.
A Qantas spokesman told Daily Mail said they do offer free name corrections, but they have to be made on the day of booking.
The airline also said name changes can be made to bookings with other airlines on the day of purchase without a fee if they were bought through qantas.com
Qantas has since refunded Mr Bowers’ cancellation fee and given him a $1600 travel voucher
‘Whilst the customer was given the correct information from our customer care team regarding changes for a Jetstar Japan booking, we have offered the customer a refund for the cancellation fee as a gesture of goodwill,’ they said.
However, Qantas ended up offering Mr Bowers a $1,600 travel voucher a day after they were contacted by media.
Consumer’s Federation of chairman Gerard Brody told The Sydney Morning Herald there is a gap in the law surrounding unfair trade practices by airlines.
‘Refusing to allow a simple name change and imposing additional costs by forcing the customer to cancel a ticket and make a new booking at significant expense doesn’t sound fair,’ he said.
Last year the n Competition and Consumer Commission said in their submission to the Aviation Green Paper that a lack of competition in the domestic airline sector had led to high prices.
It said it also resulted in poor customer service, decreased service quality and issues resolving disputed and obtaining redress.
The Consumers Federation of believes customers at the moment have to rely on an ‘airline’s goodwill’ and it would like to see an airline and travel ombudsman resolve issues more quickly and cheaply.
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