National carrier Qantas is investigating issues with its mobile app that reportedly resulted in customers receiving other people’s details instead of their own.
Technology expert Trevor Long told Today that an update to the app on Wednesday had led to the details of other customers showing up, including on boarding passes.
Mr Long said the issue would likely result in customers having to be reissued boarding passes, potentially causing chaos for people using a digital wallet.
He said he had captured about 12 people’s details, as well as boarding passes in the space of just 15 minutes.
“The thing with a boarding pass is that it has a QR code in it, that’s valid until the flight. “Even if they resolve this issue, that boarding pass is valid,” he said.
“Qantas is going to have to re-issue boarding passes at the very least, which will create chaos for people who saved the boarding pass on their digital wallet on their smartphone.”
Another customer told NCA NewsWire they had five different individuals details, status and points show on their app.
“The staff were gobsmacked, and played down my concerns of a data breach.”
In a statement to X, formerly Twitter, Qantas said it was “investigating reports of an issue impacting the Qantas app this morning”.
“We will provide more information as soon as possible,” the national airline added.
While likely to be fixed quickly, the error raises the prospect of scammers using information from the boarding passes, which are valid for up to 24 hours.
In a video posted to X shortly after 9am on Wednesday, a Qantas app user can be seen repeatedly refreshing the app, with a new name appearing each time.
Another customer claimed they had been able to access another’s booking details, “including the ability to cancel someone’s flight to Europe”.
A Qantas spokesman said in a statement they were “urgently working to resolve the issue”.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers who have been impacted.
“We’re investigating whether this issue may have been caused by recent system changes.
“We recommend that customers log out and log in to their Qantas Frequent Flyer account on the Qantas App.
“Please also be aware of social media scams at this time.
“We’ll continue to provide more information as soon as we can.”