Qantas passengers stranded last week by the grounding of the airline's fleet can get a free return economy flight to any destination within Australia, or a trans-Tasman flight to New Zealand and back.

The offer announced Sunday in newspaper advertisements was on top of the refund, accommodation and compensation being given to some 68,000 customers whose flights were cancelled or delayed from Oct. 29 to 31, when Qantas stopped operations to force a lockout and government intervention in its industrial dispute with union workers.

An estimated 100,000 free tickets worth $20 million is being offered to win back inconvenienced customers, as a way of apologizing to them and to prevent them from switching to rival airlines. Qualified to get the free tickets plus frequent flyer points are passengers who had bookings from 5 p.m. last Saturday night until midnight last Monday.

Qantas will begin emailing affected passengers about the free ticket offer from today and bookings can be made from the end of this month for travel from December 14 and are valid for two years, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.