A major n airline has been forced to refund 61,000 customers after overcharging them.
Virgin confirmed on Thursday it would be handing back money to people who bought flights in the past five years after it overcharged fees for itinerary changes.
The airline self-reported the mistake to the n Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and will work with the watchdog to ensure the customers affected were reimbursed.
Virgin, who has a share of about one-third of the n domestic market, said there was an error in its pricing systems which wrongly repriced tickets following changes made to customer itineraries.
The errors took place from April 21, 2020, right up to the end of March 2025, but only 0.1 per cent of Virgin flyers were impacted and the average refund would be $55.
‘At Virgin , we have policies that determine when and how we reprice a guest’s booking when they make a change to their itinerary,’ a Virgin spokesman said.
‘Some bookings were repriced in a way that does not align with our policy and we are refunding all impacted guests for that amount.’
Virgin said it had launched an ‘itinerary change claim program’ to contact the 61,000 affected travellers.
‘At Virgin , we want to do the right thing and that means acknowledging when we get things wrong and fixing it,’ the spokesperson said.
‘We have appointed specialists in this area, Deloitte , to accelerate the claims process for our guests, who will be able to make a claim for up to 12 months.
‘And any amounts that guests elect not to claim will be donated to charity.’
Virgin and Deloitte will be in touch with those who were overcharged and they will explain how customers can claim their refund.
After notification, customers will need to request their funds back which could have originally been paid in the form of money, credit or points.
Meanwhile, Virgin Airlines is planning to offer long-haul flights from capital cities to Doha, through Qatar Airways, who have a 25 per cent share of Virgin, this year.
Virgin made its first profit in 11 years and is keen list as a public company. Net income in the year ended June 2024 rocketed to $545.4million from $129.1million the year before.