Virgin Australia to refund 61,000 customers over ticket repricing 'error'
Virgin Australia is refunding 61,000 customers who bought flights in the past five years after overcharging fees for itinerary changes.
The airline said it noticed an error in its pricing systems, which wrongly repriced tickets following changes made to customer itineraries.
A spokesperson for the airline said the errors took place between April 21, 2020 and March 31, 2025, impacting around 0.1 per cent of bookings made during this period.
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Virgin Australia is refunding 61,000 customers who had tickets repriced in error. Dion Georgopoulos
Impacted customers will be contacted by the airline and the average refund will be $55.
"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," a Virgin spokesperson said in a statement.
"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."
Virgin said it "sincerely apologises" to affected guests and has launched an "itinerary change claim program" to contact the 61,000 travellers.
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Impacted customers will be contacted by the airline and the average refund will be $55. Getty
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"At Virgin Australia, we want to do the right thing and that means acknowledging when we get things wrong and fixing it," the spokesperson continued.
"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."
Virgin said it has notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and will work with the watchdog to ensure it fulfils any additional obligations.
The airline has all impacted guest details and Virgin and Deloitte will send out communication for how customers can claim their refund.
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