Qantas leaves Aussie mum with two kids stranded in Paris for two weeks after ticket error

An Aussie mum has blasted Qantas as ‘a despicable company’ for being prepared to leave her family stranded ‘on the other side of the world’ for two weeks after it botched their flights.

Brisbane mum Tarnya Allen and her two kids checked in at Paris Airport for their return trip home from a European holiday on January 8 only to find Qantas had no ticket for her youngest.

Ms Allen and her daughter Cora, 12, were issued tickets, but there was no record of a booking for Caden, 10.

That’s despite Ms Allen paying for three return tickets six months earlier and all of them being listed on a Qantas receipt.

Without a Qantas desk to ask at in Paris, Ms Allen was forced to frantically call Qantas on the phone – which she did five times. 

Each time the call timed out without an answer and was terminated.

The family missed their flight home because of the frantic phone calls – leaving both kids crying and the whole family suffering anxiety.

Although Ms Allen’s e-ticket listed herself and both her children, when they checked in to fly home from Paris they were handed only two tickets

But the situation got worse when a Qantas operator finally answered only to say there was no economy flight home available for two weeks.

The final outrage came when she was told there was a vacant seat on a Qantas flight to Australia in business class but the airline wouldn’t be assigning it to her family – even if it meant the seat went unused.

Out of options, distraught Ms Allen took to social media, tagging Qantas in two posts including a furious video clip.

‘Qantas you absolutely suck and don’t care about your customers at all,’ she fumed in the clip. 

‘We are stranded in Paris and no Qantas customer service person has any sympathy, no empathy and no care for their customers and will not help us.

 ‘There is a flight in two days, there is a space, in business class, but you will not put us in business class even though this whole issue is your fault.

‘My children have been crying. This is supposed to be the trip of a lifetime and you just don’t care. It is disgusting, absolutely disgusting.’

Ms Allen (pictured with family at Euro Disney) told Daily Mail Australia that her view of Qantas is it has ‘appalling customer service’ after it ‘left us out to dry’  

Ms Allen told Daily Mail Australia Qantas ‘left us out to dry’.

‘My main complaint is that the fault was caused by their own error and they left us out to dry.

‘My view of Qantas now is they have appalling customer service.

‘They don’t care about the safety of their customers at all. I think that they are trying to recoup their Covid losses at the expense of their customers.’

‘Qantas you absolutely suck and don’t care about your customers at all,’ Ms Allen said in a video

Eventually Ms Allen was put on an Air France to London two days later and from there a Qantas flight back to Australia.

But she claimed to have spent thousands of dollars securing accommodation in Paris at the last minute after missing the return flight home – which she is trying to have reimbursed.

A Qantas spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that ‘due to a ticketing error, Ms Allen and her family were unable to fly on their original flights.

‘We are looking into what caused the ticketing error and have reached out to Ms Allen to apologise for the inconvenience.’