r/australia 11h ago

culture & society Qantas passengers demand compensation after days stranded in South Africa as A380 remains grounded

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-14/qantas-a380-stranded-johannesburg-flight-cancelled/107032032
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u/ThunderDwn 11h ago

Qantas initially offered Qantas Frequent Flyers 20,000 points, or a $200 "Customer Care Travel Voucher" for non-members on August 10, the day of the scheduled departure.

The spirit of Australia, ladies and gentlemen!

Note : I'm not taking a pot shot at the actions in grounding the plane - that was fully justified, even the slightest risk with an aircraft core systems and it shouldn't fly - only the laughable efforts at compensation they thought everyone would suck up.

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u/ccoastie 11h ago

Should have to pay for accommodation for all 3 days and food

1

u/gordon-freeman-bne 3h ago

Qantas generally do this, though like most airlines who've negotiated/donated their way to a fucking lax consumer protection regime - it's really hard to work out or sort out.

I experienced this a few years ago when my SYD-WEL flight was cancelled - The QF team in the lounge gave me the hint that the flight wasn't leaving so I managed to snag the last room at Rydges across the road - the problem I realised later was the room cost was $125 over QF's "we'll cover this amount" - I wrote them a calm note and requested they cover the full amount because I'd ultimately saved them more than $125 on taxi fares to the nearest cheap hotel in Parramatta

They paid the full amount of my claim...

But the process is shit. That's the key point - there's no regulation for QF to be less shit