An error discovered in VA’s pricing systems leads to mass refunds.
More than 60,000 Virgin Australia customers have been overcharged over a five-year period, with the airline to refund an average of $55.
VA said the transactions occurred when tickets were repriced in response to customer changes to itineraries.
The errors took place between 21 April 2020 and 31 March 2025.
Travel Daily understands that Virgin Australia has proactively notified the ACCC and will continue to work with the regulator on any additional actions necessary, while all eligible guests will receive communications from Virgin Australia and Deloitte outlining what they need to do to claim their refund.
The issue relates to some bookings made directly with Virgin Australia via its direct booking and sales channels including the Business Flyer portal, website, and Guest Contact Centre.
In a statement, Virgin Australia said:
“At Virgin Australia, we have policies that determine when and how we reprice a guest’s booking when they make a change to their itinerary. We recently found that in some instances from 21 April 2020 to 31 March 2025, some bookings were repriced in a way that does not align with our policy and, we are refunding all impacted guests for that amount. This involves 61,000 guests and approximately 0.1 percent of all bookings made during this period, with an average refund per guest of $55 (including GST).
“We sincerely apologise to those affected guests and have launched an Itinerary Change Claim Program under which all eligible guests are being proactively contacted to process their refunds.
“At Virgin Australia, we want to do the right thing and that means acknowledging when we get things wrong and fixing it. We have appointed specialists in this area, Deloitte Australia, 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.
“A dedicated Virgin Australia team has also been working to fix the issue and we have undertaken a range of actions to prevent this from reoccurring in the future, so our guests can be confident when making changes to their bookings.”
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.