Virgin Australia is offering refunds to more than 60,000 passengers, after an internal error led to inflated itinerary change fees being charged over the past five years.
The airline has apologised and launched an itinerary change claim program, as it begins informing passengers who are eligible for refunds over the incorrect fees charged to customers making changes to their bookings between 21 April 2020 and 31 March this year.
A Virgin Australia spokesperson said the company recently discovered the issue and launched an internal investigation, which has found about 61,000 customers – or about 0.1% of all bookings processed in the five-year window – incurred the incorrect charges.
The airline has since taken issue to prevent the charges from occurring in the future, while appointing Deloitte to conduct the refund claim process. It has launched an online portal for the program.
The average refund amount is $55 per guest. Guardian Australia is aware of customers who have been told they are eligible for as much as a $200 refund.
Virgin’s spokesperson said “we sincerely apologise to those affected guests” and noted the airline had launched the refund program proactively. It has informed the consumer watchdog of the initiative.
The refund program is open for 12 months. Eligible customers will be contacted by the airline.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
“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.”
“At Virgin Australia, we want to do the right thing and that means acknowledging when we get things wrong and fixing it.”
The spokesperson added that “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.”
The refund program and apology comes as the airline’s private equity owner, Bain Capital, prepares for the company to return to the Australian stock exchange in June after a five-year absence.
The refund program and renewed push to return the company to the ASX come just week after Virgin Australia appointed its new chief executive, Dave Emerson, who will lead the airline into its new partnership with Qatar Airways this year.
