Qantas blunder ruins couple’s overseas holiday – weeks after airline was rocked by a massive cyber attack affecting six million customers

An Australian businessman and his wife suffered a nightmare end to their US holiday courtesy of a bizarre and infuriating Qantas blunder.

Craig Badings and his wife Margo had booked a long-haul flight leaving Los Angeles on Tuesday and were due to arrive back in Sydney on Thursday.

They never made the flight because Qantas told them it had been cancelled. The only problem was, according to Mr Badings, it hadn’t been at all.

Mr Badings said their flight took off when it was supposed to without them on board.

As the plane left LA, they were making their way back from the airport, having turned around due to the cancellation message.

The couple were then left stranded in LA having made no arrangements for accommodation.

Qantas at first told them via text and email that their Tuesday flight had been ‘delayed’ to Thursday, but then the airline, in another blunder, failed to book them seats on the replacement flight.

‘The best Qantas can offer us is a flight (leaving LA) on Friday via Dallas to Sydney arriving Sunday morning – three days later than scheduled,’ Mr Badings said. 

After much back-and-forth with the airline the couple managed to secure a flight that left the Californian city and headed home on Thursday.

Except, even then, the booking for their rescheduled flight disappeared from his Qantas app, meaning at one stage they weren’t on any flights at all.

‘It’s all been a bit of a debacle,’ Mr Badings told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Even a few hours before the original flight, when our travel agent was dealing with Qantas, they didn’t alert him that the flight was still going ahead as scheduled.

‘I’m not sure whether this was related to the (recent) cyber incident, poor planning on Qantas’ part, or just poor communications and a genuine mix up.’

The airline fell victim to a cyber attack on June 30 in which the personal details of nearly six million customers were accessed by hackers.

Mr Badings said he and his wife spent 10 hours on the phone to a Qantas US call centre while they were stranded in LA, who had told them there was no way they could get a replacement flight for Thursday. 

‘Then, when Australia woke up, we called our agent again and a few hours later we were informed we are indeed on the 10am Thursday flight.’

With 30 years’ experience advising major corporations and senior executives about communication and brand reputation, Mr Badings – a PR specialist – had some advice for the embattled national carrier.

‘The message to Qantas would simply be over-communication in these situations.’

‘Not knowing and not being able to get hold of someone when you are thousands of kilometres from home isn’t great.

‘Keep us informed along the way.’

Mr Badings urged fellow Qantas passengers to learn from his lesson and double check that cancellation texts and emails are valid.

‘The message to others would be to call Qantas immediately and if in any doubt, go to the airport and speak to them in person,’ he said.

‘If we had done that, we would have been on the flight.’

A Qantas spokesperson confirmed the mix-up was the result of an ‘administrative error’. 

‘We sincerely apologise to Mr and Mrs Badings and understand how frustrating this experience would have been,’ they said.

‘The SMS sent to Mr Badings was a result of an administrative error and we are investigating how this occurred to ensure it doesn’t happen again. 

‘The error is not related to the recent cyber incident.

‘We have contacted Mr and Mrs Badings and rebooked them on the first available direct flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.’

The couple will be compensated for any additional travel costs. 

Qantas was granted an interim injunction in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday to stop the compromised data of customers being accessed or released following the hack.

The records of 5.7million Qantas customers were impacted when a third-party system used by an offshore call centre was hacked. 

The names, email addresses and frequent flyer details of four million customers were exposed.

The remaining 1.7 million customers had more data taken, including their dates of birth, phone numbers, personal or business addresses, gender and meal preferences, prompting an apology from Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson.

The airline has confirmed there was no evidence of any personal data being released, and no credit card or passport details or personal financial information had been accessed.

‘In an effort to further protect affected customers, the airline has today obtained an interim injunction in the NSW Supreme Court to prevent the stolen data from being accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published by anyone, including by any third parties,’ a Qantas statement said on Thursday.

‘We want to do all we can to protect our customers’ personal information and believe this was an important next course of action.’