Airline Refused a Refund After Cancelling Your Flight? Letter of Demand (Australia)

The airline cancelled your flight. They offered you a travel credit, a voucher with an expiry date, or a “we’ll get back to you” form. You wanted your money back. They said no.

For most cancelled flights bought from an Australian-facing carrier, you almost certainly have a legal right to a cash refund — not a credit, not a voucher, not a rebooking on an inconvenient date.

The legal context

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL), Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, applies to airfares sold to Australian consumers. Section 60 requires services to be supplied with due care and skill, and section 61 requires them to be reasonably fit for purpose. When an airline cancels the flight you paid for and cannot supply an equivalent service within a reasonable time, that is a major failure under the ACL — and you choose the remedy, not them.

The ACCC has stated repeatedly that consumers are entitled to a refund (rather than a credit) when an airline cancels a flight, and that “no refund” terms in airline conditions of carriage cannot override the ACL.

Common airline pushbacks and why they fail

• “Our terms only allow a credit.” Airline terms cannot exclude consumer guarantees. The ACL overrides the fine print.
• “It was beyond our control (weather, COVID, staffing).” Cause of cancellation does not change your refund right when the airline cannot supply the service you paid for.
• “You bought a non-refundable fare.” Non-refundable applies to your changes, not their cancellation.
• “Use the credit before it expires.” Voucher expiry that effectively forces you to take a worse remedy is itself a breach.

The Letter of Demand approach

Online complaint forms vanish into queues. A formal Letter of Demand cites the exact ACL sections, identifies the cancelled flight, names the refund amount, sets a deadline (typically 14 days), and flags the next escalation — the Airline Customer Advocate, your state Fair Trading office, then a small claims tribunal. Airlines respond to letters that look like the next step is regulatory or tribunal action because those leave a public paper trail.

What Claim Done delivers

• The booking (PNR, flight number, route, date, fare paid)
• Citation of the ACL sections breached
• The refund amount and the calculation behind it
• A clear deadline
• The escalation path: Airline Customer Advocate, ACCC, state Fair Trading, then tribunal
• Drafted on professional letterhead and sent

Claim Done charges a flat $49 fee. The wizard takes about ten minutes.

What to expect after

If they don’t, the next moves are a complaint to the Airline Customer Advocate, your state’s Fair Trading office (NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, OFT in Queensland, etc.), and finally a small claims application in NCAT, VCAT, QCAT, SACAT, SAT, ACAT or NTCAT. The Letter of Demand becomes Exhibit A in every step that follows.