Scandal at Qantas: the customer had to pay a crazy amount for a mistake in the surname

A Qantas customer paid a hefty fee of $1,900 to correct the spelling of his nephew's name during a booking. Chris Bowers booked a $1400 flight for his nephew, Fraser Linscott, last November from Sapporo.

However, when Mr. Bowers made the reservation, he misspelled Fraser with an "s" instead of a "z". Mr. Bowers said that as soon as the small error was noticed, he quickly called the airline, as reported by the Daily Mail.

The customer was informed that the only way to resolve this was to cancel the flight and rebook. By the time Mr. Bowers booked the room and needed to cancel and rebook the flight, the $1400 fare had risen to a whopping $3000.

"This brought the total cost of the one-letter spelling error to $1,900," he said. Mr. Bowers filed a complaint with Qantas before contacting the airline's customer advocate.

In turn, a Qantas customer service representative told Mr. Bowers that the spelling could only be corrected if the reservation was fully honored by the airline. They advised Mr. Bowers that the only way to solve such a problem was to cancel and rebook, and warned that the fare could not be guaranteed.

Qantas also said that it would not reimburse the difference in fares but would instead provide a letter to his insurance company with details of the incident. A Qantas spokesperson said they offer free name corrections, but they must be made on the day of booking.

At the same time, Qantas eventually offered Mr. Bowers a $1,600 per day travel voucher after the scandal was publicized. In turn, the chairman of the Australian Consumer Federation, Gerard Brody, said that there is a gap in the law regarding unfair trade practices of airlines.

"Refusing to allow a simple name change and imposing additional costs, forcing the customer to cancel the ticket and make a new booking at significant expense, is unfair," he said. The Consumer Federation of Australia believes that customers must now rely on the "goodwill of the airline" and would like to see the airline and the travel ombudsman resolve problems faster and cheaper.

As TravelWise previously reported, Qantas was forced to replace its planes due to severe weather conditions.