Jennifer Hinton was one of thousands of Bonza customers left in the lurch this week.
The single mother had spent months saving up for a trip from Mackay to Melbourne with her young daughter for what would be their first holiday in five years.
“The idea of going on holidays is a luxury for people like me and then to have something like this happen, it’s just disgusting — really poor form,” Ms Hinton said.
“I can’t afford to just start forking out money straight away like that to pay for a new set of flights.”
Qantas came to the pair’s rescue by replacing their flights free of charge.
But Ms Hinton has been left $623 out of pocket and will not be receiving a refund from Bonza any time soon.
The embattled low-cost carrier cancelled all services across the country on Tuesday morning, with no word yet on when or if it will fly again.
Bonza promised full refunds in text messages to some affected passengers, not long before it was placed into voluntary administration.
Newly-appointed administrators Hall Chadwick released a statement on Wednesday night acknowledging it was a “difficult time for all involved”.
“Unfortunately the administrators and/or the company are not in a position to process or issue refunds at this time,” the statement read.
“We understand how frustrating this is and we appreciate customers’ patience.”
More than money lost
Townsville pensioner Katy Hamilton said she held little hope of Bonza passengers ever seeing their money again.
“Good luck to them. I’m sorry, but that’s how I see it,” Ms Hamilton said.
Ms Hamilton had been using the budget airline to fly to the Gold Coast, before catching a train to Brisbane to visit her sister who is in palliative care.
But her most recent cancelled flight was to attend a netball competition for her daughter.
She said she was owed $125 by Bonza, but had also lost $300 in accommodation costs.
“That’s not a lot, but to me it is when I’m trying to support my child,” she said.
Sunshine Coast woman Sarah Wood had paid about $400 to fly to Darwin with her husband Rob on Wednesday morning.
“As small-business operators, we really don’t get that much opportunity for a holiday so this week off is really precious to us,” Ms Wood said.
“The stress level was through the Richter scale.”
She said she was told by Virgin and Qantas that they were not eligible for free flights as they were not considered “stranded”.
The couple has spent an extra $2,000 on flights, accommodation and transport just to ensure their trip could go ahead.
“We’re lucky enough that we had the available money to be able to purchase alternative tickets.
“My heart goes out to those others that didn’t have that choice,” Ms Wood said.
Airline ‘monopoly’
Bradd Morelli, managing partner from insolvency firm Jirsch Sutherland, said it was not unusual for customers to miss out on refunds in the early stages of a company collapse.
“That would be a standard position from an administrator,” Mr Sutherland said.
“If they’ve pre-booked, they’re technically a creditor.”
He said it could be months before refunds were issued — if at all.
“If Bonza is going to restructure or if there’s a sale, it may be that the purchaser wishes to honour those bookings in order to maintain or maximise goodwill,” Mr Morelli said.
Ms Hinton said while she was very grateful to Qantas for stepping in and providing free flights, its airfares were well out of reach.
“I paid $623 with Bonza, the ticket price of my Qantas flights was $1,884,” she said.
Despite the dramas, Ms Wood said the low-cost carrier should stay in the air, and called on the Federal government to intervene.
“They do everything in their power to help Qantas and Virgin … where’s the help to Bonza?” she said.
“Where is the assistance to help these little regional airlines get off the ground so that we don’t have a monopoly with the big two? It’s another Coles and Woolies scenario.”