“We were 11 weeks from bankruptcy,” he claimed anew. This is another raging falsehood. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, Qantas had almost $2 billion in cash and $5 billion in unencumbered assets it could borrow against. The capital markets were open, so Joyce could issue equity or raise debt (he did both, as well as begging money off the government). The idea that Qantas was ever facing liquidation is sheer make-believe.
Saying “11 weeks” also gilds it with the hint of precision, which makes the lie sound credible. If Qantas was truly 77 days from extinction, where was that warning in its market announcements of the day? Actually, Joyce told the ASX on March 10, 2020, “We’re in a good position to ride this out.”
Qantas even asserted that “in inflation adjusted terms … international fares are [now] 10 per cent higher [than pre-COVID].” Inflation adjusted! Do Qantas customers get to pay the inflation-adjusted price in Alan’s magical world?
Unverifiable figures
Qantas international fares (or revenue per kilometre flown) over the past six months are up 52 per cent versus 2019, yet in the same period, Australia’s coughulative inflation was 16 per cent. That’s a 36 per cent increase in inflation-adjusted terms, so how does Qantas get 10 per cent? By using unreleased, unverifiable figures limited to the fourth quarter, it turns out.
But Joyce reserved his biggest deception for his portrayal of the great Qantas flight credit racket. “What we’ve now done is we’ve put a dedicated concierge line in. The call centre now, yesterday, was three minutes to get through and there’s a dedicated set of experts that can help you get your credits. We recognise that … we didn’t get it right and we needed to fix it and the important thing is, we did fix it … we’ve only got $370 million of credits left … and we’d rather have those credits at zero by the end of the year.”
Let’s just back up a second. The Qantas Group disclosed “total COVID travel credits of $800 million” at December 31 last year. All remaining unused credits will expire on December 31 this year.
On June 26, the company announced “around $400 million in COVID credits now remaining for Qantas customers in Australia”. That is, their updated balance, which appeared to have fallen, actually excluded Qantas customers outside Australia and excluded all Jetstar customers. The sneakiness – the bad faith – of this company never ceases to astonish.
Speaking at the airline’s full year results last week, Mr Joyce was asked about the outstanding travel credits held by customers worth about $370m and due to expire at year’s end.
Mr Joyce said when Covid happened “we had to cancel every flight because we couldn’t operate and we had to put people into credit”.
“In every email we sent our customers we said there was an option when we cancel a flight for you to get a refund,” he said.
A media statement issued by Qantas as borders closed in response to the Covid pandemic, said “all bookings on cancelled flights were being converted to travel credits which can be used anywhere on our network”.
Seems like a rewrite of history, at least from the beginning of the pandemic.And the Oz today joining in on the fun:
Qantas flight credits confusion as CEO accused of rewriting history
Even in my experience, I know that's BS.
Important information
If Qantas has cancelled your flight, for other options contact us.
Important information about your Flight Credit
If Qantas has cancelled your flight, for other options including a refund, contact us.
Qantas admits true value of unused Covid travel credits much higher than it’s reported
The true sum of money Qantas holds in Covid travel credits has been revealed to be significantly higher than the $370m reported in the airline’s full year results.
Under relentless questioning from senators during a hearing into the cost of living, Jetstar CEO Steph Tully revealed about $100m in travel credits was yet to be claimed by passengers of the low fares airline.
That figure, and also the amount held by Qantas customers outside of Australia, was not included in the $370m.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was unable to say what the total value of credits was, but it appeared likely to exceed half a billion dollars.
In 126 days, Qantas is going to legally steal approximately half a billion dollars from its customers.
I do understand the complexity around refunds and they can’t just auto refund the lot, and I get they need to draw a line in the sand eventually when it comes to this credit batch,
Andrew did mention the International part was ‘Under $100m’, he seems to have a rough idea.
well, he didListening to the Senate Inquiry right now, it would seem as though Joe Aston wrote the Senators' entire pre-brief.
It is pretty astounding that the Qantas execs present didn't do an immediate triage prep meeting to prepare for the questions one would immediately expect to follow from the AFR article (and which are).
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. His international offering is way too too expensive for the average Australian to go business class long haul.
I think it’s important to keep things in perspective despite the fun of a pole on…
At December 31, the airline said it was holding $800 million in unused credits from the COVID-19 period that would expire at the end of the year unless flights were booked for travel to the end of 2024.
But when it reported last week, the company listed only $370 million worth of credits belonging to Australians in its accounts. Qantas executives conceded to the inquiry that amount did not include unused credits for subsidiary Jetstar or international customers.
Mr Joyce and Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully admitted that there was at least another $100 million owed to Jetstar customers, although neither would commit to extending the timeline for using the credits.
Ms Tully said Qantas and Jetstar had made getting refunds easy compared with other airlines globally. She said about 50 per cent of the remaining $100 million held by Jetstar customers was for amounts below $100 and wouldn’t help with flights much anyway.
Virgin also need to be investigated on the credits saga also, no doubts hundreds of millions backed up.
From at least Tricky Dickies’ time, we know that it’s the cover-up that gets you, not necessarily the initial offence.TL/DR - my beef with QF's credit fiasco is more with management's attempts to rewrite history while pretending to take responsibility for it, rather than just owning it full stop. They haven'd done themselves many favours, which is indeed a tad ironic, because QF really and truly was not the worst offender in Oz, regionally, or even globally.
From Trump's time, we know nothing gets you.From at least Tricky Dickies’ time, we know that it’s the cover-up that gets you, not necessarily the initial offence.
BAM more like this perspectiveGood idea. What perspective do you have of Qantas pocketing about half a billion dollars of customer's money because
1) They made it so difficult to redeem initially, and
2) Now have set an arbitrary deadline for customers to claim, else 'gosh, sorry, I guess we'll have to keep it'.
This is the perspective that Alan Joyce may have:
Virgin also need to be investigated on the credits saga also, no doubts hundreds of millions backed up.