(TAN): Qantas and Jetstar are giving customers an extra 12 months to use their Covid credits. Credits have been extended three times since 2020 and this final extension to the travel date is designed to make it easier for customers to use their remaining credits for domestic or international travel, Qantas said in a news release.
Before this announcement, customers had to book and complete their travel by December 31 2023. Following this change, they will still have to book by December 31 this year but have until December 2024 to complete their travel.
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The latest change also adds to offers introduced to encourage customers to book travel before their credits are due to expire, including a double points offer for Frequent Flyers last December and a Qantas “Find My Credit” tool, which will launch in April to help those who have lost track of their original booking details.
Qantas Group Chief Customer Officer Markus Svensson said both Qantas and Jetstar are focused on helping customers use their credits. “We literally had millions of bookings that were cancelled during several waves of lockdowns and border closures. No airline had systems that were designed to manage that in a seamless way and we realise there’s been frustration for some customers as a result,” said Svensson. “Now that we’re flying again, a huge amount of effort has gone into making it easier to use your credit, from putting 250 specialists into our call centres to building dedicated websites. Our main goal is for everyone who has a Covid credit to be able to put it to good use, which is why we’re doing one final extension of the travel expiry date by 12 months.”
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During the pandemic, Qantas and Jetstar provided customers with more flexibility for flight changes and credit redemptions than ever before. Each time borders closed, more travel credits were created as people were unable to take planned trips, amassing a total of AUD 2 billion (USD 1.33 billion) in credits over more than two years. More than AUD 1.2 billion of this has already been refunded or used for travel, with millions of dollars in Covid credits being accessed by customers each week.
