By aviation writer Scott Mayman

The dust hasn’t settled from the so-called “ghost flights” saga, but now Qantas finds itself in another situation and many Canberrans who are frequent flyers (like me) are wondering what happens next.

It follows the recent cyber attack on the airline’s third-party Malaysian-based call centre that exposed the details of six million customers.

The attack accessed names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses and frequent flyer numbers of customers including thousands from the ACT.

So-far, Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson has apologies, but a variety of social media posts from frequent flyers want more action.

A customer support hotline only gives callers access to a third-party service but does not answer particular questions about the incident.

In response, many want greater action from the airline if Qantas expects forgiveness from its loyal customers. Ironic since it was a third party that caused the situation.

One person wrote: “Perhaps a status extension for 12 months”.

Another posted “Fares will go up”.

Even though it’s early days and the investigations have only just begun, legal experts have begun to seek ideas for a class action lawsuit, in a repeat of compensation claims from other major beaches from 2022 involving Optus and Medibank.

Qantas could avoid class action by voluntarily working with authorities on a direct compensation scheme, similar to the airline’s response over the so-called “ghost flights”, which would help keep the company’s good name and respect.

While the airline says it took immediate action to contain the system, it is still investigating the full extent of the breach.

It has assured the public that passport details, credit card details and personal financial information were not held in the breached system, and no frequent flyer accounts, passwords or PIN numbers have been compromised.

Qantas customers find out if their data exposed