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A woman in Australia who was accidentally charged A$40,000 (\u00a322,564) for flights has described the \u201cslow torture\u201d of attempting to get a refund from the airline.<\/p>\n
Carol Johnson from Sydney, Australia, booked five Qantas flights for A$16,357 (\u00a39,227) on 15 March for her husband and son. But a few days later, her card was declined when she tried to buy a coffee.<\/p>\n
She soon realised she had been charged with 12 double-debit transactions, totalling another A$16,357.<\/p>\n
According to News.com.au, the double debit transactions were caused by an external problem which impacted Qantas and other companies. <\/p>\n
It took five days for the funds to be refunded, during which time her account was frozen and she was unable to access money for daily necessities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the phone for days. I was getting up at three or four o\u2019clock in the morning to be put on hold for four to five hours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like Groundhog Day over and over again. Every single day. People say: \u2018How can we get stressed and upset about doing that?\u2019 but until it happens to you, you don\u2019t understand that it\u2019s just slow torture and you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re ever going to get an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Months later, when she tried to book new flights to Honolulu, Hawaii for A$13,431 (\u00a37,574) on 26 July, she experienced more issues.<\/p>\n
Qantas contacted Ms Johnson to tell her her payment had been declined and she would have to pay again, which she did using her husband\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
That was declined too, and Ms Johnson was forced to try using various other debit cards or risk losing the flights.<\/p>\n
With so many different payments, Johnson said she at one point had $40,394 (\u00a322,778) worth of transactions pending.<\/p>\n
Again, she was unable to access funds during this time; it was around a week before one of the transactions cleared and her accounts were unfrozen.<\/p>\n
Ms Johnson noted: \u201cIf the same thing had happened to my son, they would not have survived. They would have been in such big strife. Luckily we had money and we would have got our money back eventually, but it was stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after she received her money back, another double debit came out of her account this September for the value of A$13,412 (\u00a37,563) related to her second flight booking.<\/p>\n
Again, she was unable to access her current account, this time for 12 days, at which point the funds were finally returned.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt happened out of nowhere. I woke up and our account was overdrawn by A$13,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qantas has not been able to explain the string of double debits, but has now refunded Ms Johnson all of her money, as well as offering her a voucher of \u00a32,000. Ms Johnson has asked for an upgrade to Qantas\u2019 Gold Status Frequent Flyer Programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not asking for money. I just wanted them to acknowledge that they buggered things up big time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put us through hell and we would like something substantial in return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Qantas said in a statement: \u201cShe should not have been charged twice in August and September and we returned the funds to her as soon as we became aware.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuthorisations for purchases sits with the credit card provider, and Qantas has worked with them to resolve the issue and reimburse the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up to Simon Calder\u2019s free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discountsGet Simon Calder\u2019s Travel email A woman in Australia who was accidentally charged A$40,000 (\u00a322,564) for flights has described the \u201cslow torture\u201d of attempting to get a refund from the airline. Carol Johnson from Sydney, Australia, booked five Qantas flights for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n