Virgin Australia issuing refunds to 61,000 travellers

Virgin Australia has announced it will refund approximately 61,000 customers after discovering a pricing error that led to overcharges on itinerary changes made over the past five years.

The airline revealed that a glitch in its pricing system caused some tickets to be incorrectly repriced when passengers adjusted their bookings. The issue affected bookings made between April 21, 2020, and March 31, 2025, representing around 0.1 per cent of total reservations during that period.

Affected customers will be contacted directly by Virgin Australia, with the average refund expected to be around $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 spokesperson said in a statement. "We recently found that in some instances, bookings were repriced in a way that does not align with our policy, and we are refunding all impacted guests for that amount."

The airline has apologised to affected travellers and launched an "itinerary change claim program" to manage the process. Deloitte Australia has been appointed to assist with handling claims and expediting refunds.

"We want to do the right thing, and that means acknowledging when we get things wrong and fixing it," the spokesperson added. "Guests will have up to 12 months to make a claim, and any unclaimed amounts will be donated to charity."

Virgin Australia has also notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and pledged to work closely with the regulator to meet any further obligations.

The airline confirmed it holds the details of all impacted customers and will be sending out communication, in partnership with Deloitte, on how to claim refunds.

Image: Virgin Australia