Latest news with #NadiaHall
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Daily Mail
How a $6,000 mistake by a Qantas worker turned an Aussie couple's trip of a lifetime into a nightmare
A chronically ill woman missed out on her birthday 'trip of a lifetime' after a Qantas worker sent the replacement tickets to the wrong email when her flight was cancelled. Nadia Hall, 40, and her partner booked a flight from Perth to London, which departed on May 5. Due to an unexpected medical episode mid-flight, the plane was forced to make an emergency landing in the Maldives, where the couple became stranded. They waited for hours without knowing what to do until, Ms Hall received an email from Qantas advising that the flight could not be rebooked. Without any way of calling the airline and no sign of Qantas staff at the airport, the Melbourne couple made the difficult decision to head home after an eight-hour wait. They tried to find alternative options to get to the UK but local airport staff simply just 'shrugged' without offering help, Ms Hall claimed. Qantas didn't provide any reason for the cancellation at the time, so Ms Hall had no other option than to fork out the money for new flights to return to Australia. Things did not get any easier when they returned home, where Ms Hall waited two months before Qantas finally agreed to provide a refund. Ms Hall believed she only received the refund because she went public with her nightmare ordeal. 'I literally had to take this to the media before Qantas would lift a finger for me,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'This has been a huge setback. We're relieved it's over but I'm still recovering.' Ms Hall endured 65 hours without sleep and spent 34 hours in the air across five countries and five time zones as she worked to get back from the Maldives. Ms Hall has fibromyalgia and dysautonomia, which are triggered by stress. She had planned to spend her 40th birthday in the UK reuniting with family she hadn't seen in decades. She hopes to head there next year but has vowed to not fly with Qantas. 'We'll probably try booking the trip again in April or May next year, on a different airline obviously,' she said. The return trip home took Ms Hall and her partner through Kuala Lumpur and Auckland before they finally returned to Melbourne. When they returned, Ms Hall found out that she had in fact been provided a replacement flight from Qantas, which she never received. An airline employee misspelled Ms Hall's email, which meant she was never notified of the details about the replacement flight. 'I don't like to throw the word traumatised around, but given what this trip actually meant to me... It was my source of joy for so long... I'm heartbroken,' she said. 'Something so tiny took away something so big.' Ms Hall spent $6,109 to get back home, which she then needed to fork out another $200 to get back thanks to her insurance excess. Qantas has confirmed that it will fully reimburse Ms Hall.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Yahoo
Qantas passenger's $6,000 ordeal after worker's 'typo' in booking system: 'Heartbroken'
A Qantas passenger missed out on a "trip of a lifetime" after an administrative error left her and her partner stranded in an airport for hours and ultimately forced them to head back to Australia, missing out on their holiday. Nadia Hall, 40, and her partner had spent many months planning their trip to the UK to celebrate her milestone birthday and reunite with family after decades apart. After waiting on the standby list, the duo were overjoyed when they were allocated seats and hopped on their flight at Perth airport on May 5. However, a medical emergency forced the plane to divert to the Maldives. After hours of waiting for instructions in the airport, an email pinged on Nadia's phone. "Eight hours after landing, we got an email saying that Qantas couldn't rebook us. There was no reason or anything, and it said that we had to call them, which we weren't able to do [without phone service in the Maldives]," the Melbourne woman told Yahoo News. The pair frantically tried to speak to airport staff, but they simply "shrugged" and were unable to assist, with no Qantas workers in sight. After retrieving their luggage, Nadia and her partner looked around and quickly learnt they were alone in the now-busy airport, with none of the passengers from their original flight waiting around like them. Devastated, the couple decided they would need to simply fork out money to book flights back to Australia — with the delay meaning there was limited availability on London flights. "We spent some time looking at different flights to London and whatnot, but because so many people had to be booked, all of a sudden, there wasn't much available," she explained. "It also would have been another day and a half or so of travelling [to get to London], and I've got a number of chronic illnesses... by the time I got there, I would have been destroyed." Their trip home took them to Kuala Lumpur, Auckland and finally to Melbourne, with Nadia calculating she spent 65 hours awake and 34 hours in the air while doing a loop through five time zones just to arrive back home again. After chasing Qantas, a worker allegedly confirmed on the phone that the airline had rescheduled the pair onto a trip to London. However, Nadia never received notification because her email had been incorrectly inputted into the system by a Qantas staff member. "I don't like to throw the word traumatised around, but given what this trip actually meant to me... It was my source of joy for so long... I'm heartbroken," she said. "Something so tiny took away something so big." 🤨 Qantas passenger hits out over hidden travel frustration for thousands 👀 Couple 'traumatised' over horrifying seating request on flight 🤢 Qantas passenger slammed for 'entitled' act in first class Nadia said she was $6,109 out of pocket after spending over $5,000 on return flights to Australia, and $200 on their insurance excess to claim back money they'd spent for activities in London they never got to enjoy. The flight from Perth to London that was diverted cost the pair just over $800 — as Nadia is a previous Qantas worker and receives staff discounted travel — and she would like to claim back this cost too, given it never got them to their intended destination. Finally, two months after setting off for the trip back in early May, Qantas confirmed to Yahoo on Friday that it will issue a full refund to Nadia following the administrative error. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
