Jetstar: they lied and they stole my money
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This week I booked a domestic flight on JetStar. My scheduled flight time was 8.35am. Thirty minutes before that is 8.05am. I arrived at JetStar (Tullamarine) at 8.03am, failed to get the automatic machine to work and then showed my electronic ticket to the JetStar assistant who said that I had to get in the queue. There were about 20 people ahead of me in the queue and by the time I got to the counter it was a couple of minutes after 8.05. I was told that my ticket had been forfeited, sold to someone else and that there was no room on the flight, that is, the flight was closed. As I had forfeited my ticket I received no refund and JetStar were able to charge twice for the same seat. I protested. I was told that this was my fault because I had not checked-in (presumably, completed the computerized check-in process) before 8.05am. I was told to read the Conditions. Well, I have now read them. Condition 8.1 states: “For flights departing from a domestic terminal, check in will close 30 minutes before scheduled departure and for flights departing from an international terminal, 60 minutes before scheduled departure. You will not be able to check-in after these Check-In Deadlines. Arrival after these Check-In Deadlines may result in you forfeiting the entire fare paid.” Condition 8.3 states: “If you arrive late at check-in or the boarding gate (see 8.1), you will forfeit your Booking and no refund will be paid”. Both these conditions require the customer not to “arrive” late. Arrive where? We are not told. I infer that, at least, it is an arrival if you are in the queue. Well, I had arrived before the deadline. I was in the queue when the deadline ticked over. They had no right to forfeit my ticket until they had ascertained that I was not in the queue. This could have been done by an announcement or a query of the people in the queue. JetStar have their computer set to close the flight at the deadline time. In my case, the computer did that and then allocated the tickets to standby passengers so by the time I had reached the desk there were no tickets left. In fact (and law) they were wrong. I had “arrived” and was entitled to be checked-in. My view is that it is sufficient to arrive in the vicinity of the check in counter and that JetStar, before it forfeits the tickets, must make an announcement calling for the persons who have not checked in. JetStar’s treatment of me was disgraceful. No doubt they do this as a matter of practice to many other customers. They lied to me about their own Conditions, they illegally forfeited my ticket and they stole my money. The moral of the story is: never fly JetStar. |
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23 Comments
Sound familiar??????????????
Peter, most of us are smart enough not to fly with that company in the first place.
And i’ll tell you what - there is a wonderful legal expression ‘reasonable person test’ - it means in this context that most people would respond to your suggestion that arriving at 8:03 for a 8:05 check in close was acceptable with a scoff!
I have considerable sympathy with Mr Faris and others who trust JetStar, whose service is worse than other Australian discount airlines. But unfortunately it is part of a growing trend of Australian airlines taking their passengers for granted. I get pissed off with their cancelling flights unilaterally with no explanation beyond the unhelpfully vague ‘operational reasons’ or possibly fabricated ‘engineering difficulties’.
But we will get our revenge when avgas price increases drive ticket prices up and airlines’ custom down, and no sucker will sympathise with their begging for a free pass for carbon emissions. No doubt eventually the airlines will learn the lesson that the Australian banks now seem to be learning, that if you treat your customers poorly they will remember when their support is sought.
Boo hoo Peter Faris Q bloody C. Don’t be such a baby and next time don’t turn up at the last minute.
Jetstar is a budget airline and one way they save on costs is to have passengers turn up early enough so they can load luggage in a timely manner without putting on extra staff to accommodate all the turkeys who turn up with seconds to spare.
I can’t believe people are taking JetStar’s side in this. Sure, Peter Faris isn’t my favourite Crikey contributor by a long shot, but the fact of the matter is JetStar stiffed him. Don’t give me any of this bullshit that if “only he arrived 10 minutes earlier he would’ve been OK”. Why the hell should he? It his time, not JetStar’s to piss away so that save a few bucks on overheads. Every moment we spend in a queue for JetStar or any other airline, bank, or whatever we are being stolen from. And then to be stolen from again, by having your space taken and sold for additional profit is just pure banditry.
I find the whole air travel experience so belittling - the airlines, the airports, the ridiculous security procedures - that whenever I can I take an alternative form of transport.
I am disappointed in Peter Faris QC’s response to his Jetstar ordeal, which has been shared by thousands of others. He is a lawyer. He should be threatening legal action immediately, not just whinging to Crikey. And if he can think of others for a change, he could make it a class action.C’mon Peter c’mon.
Peter, can I sue Jetstar? On May 4th. I entered a contract with Jetstar to fly my Family to Thailand in November. Yesterday, Jetstar advised me by phone that the flights I had booked and paid for 6 months in advance had been cancelled for “operational reasons”. No “sorry mate how can we make it up to you”, no suggestion to look after our domestic conecting flights, and to add insult to injury - a refund will be issued in about 8 weeks! How can Jetstar stuff up a family holiday for “operational reasons” which I suspect is code for “we are not going to make enough money out of you”, and not even offer an immediate electronic refund! They should offer bank interest for the extended period that I have helped their cash flow. It won’t happen again.
You only have to look at the activities of Dixon and Jackson over the hedge fund affair to see where the culture of the Quantas/Jetstar senior management lays. If Peter Faris a senior barrister who at one time headed the National Crime Authority can’t get a fiar go from them what hope has a humble engineer like myself?
C’mon people, less attacking the man. So he’s a QC, you’d be more sympathetic to ‘working families’ ? That said, I usually turn up an hour before departure. Gives me time to have a few espressos.
Jetstar is a “low cost airline” They keep their costs down by being really strict about their gate closures, cut off times etc so they don’t delay take off. Less service, more restrictions etc etc. Fly with another airline. Pay more for your ticket. Fly Virgin Blue. They apparently need all the help they can get to stay in the air. Really this is all Qantas’ fault. they set up Jetstar which all of these conditions for travellers and cut QF routes. They hire casual staff, they cut costs. What should we expect from all of this?
Two things … arrive earlier next time … and start a campaign demanding ‘forfeiters’ be credited their money back if Jetstar fills their seat.
Oh - one other thing … next time the automatic machine doesn’t work yell at it loudly and kick up a right royal fuss - a staff member is bound to offer help (and they’ll know you ‘arrived’ in time)
Peter Faris has my sympathy, as I can easily imagine finding myself in the same position - hopelessly long queues and insufficient staff to process them in a reasonable time. It seems to me that that is what budget airlines do.
But I am intrigued. I recently flew with Jetstar from Melbourne to Darwin (starting in Sydney - it’s a $110 taxi fare between Avalon and Tullamarine but that’s another story) and while waiting in one of those hopelessly long, and slow moving queues at Tullamarine, Jetstar staff roamed about calling for passengers to Newcastle to extract themselves from the queues for expeditious processing as said flight was due for departure and, presumably, not everyone who’d bought a ticket had checked in.
So there is quite some disconnect between Peter Faris’ experience, as he descibes it, and what I had previously observed. Hmmm, I now suspect that no (further) standby sales had been made on the Newcastle flight. Cynical me.
Mr Faris,
No real surprises from Jetstar. Here is a little story that may cheer you up, even if it is at my expense!
In May 2008, I booked two return tickets with Jetstar from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur departing on 23 October 2008 returning 5 days later on the 28th of October for my brother and I.
On the 9th of July I received an email advising me that Jetstar had tried to contact me (clearly they do not know how to use voicemail) and were unable to accommodate my booked service and that they wished to speak with me as soon as possible.
After discussing the matter at length with the sales representative, I was told that I could receive a refund which would take 6 weeks to process or alternatively they would make other travel arrangements for me. I agreed for Jetstar to make other travel arrangements.
On the 22nd of July after numerous additional conversations with various sales representatives of Jetstar, Jetstar booked 12 flights for my brother and I. I was informed that in order for me to meet my flights that were booked with two other airlines from Kuala Lumpur, my brother and I would be required to:
o fly from Sydney to Darwin on the 21st of October;
o wait 2.5 hours in Darwin;
o fly from Darwin to Singapore;
o spend 2 nights in Singapore (a total stop over time of 42 hours); and
o fly from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and wait 4.5 hours in Kuala Lumpur
This is in contrast to the original stop over time of 2 hours and 20 minutes in Kuala Lumpur. Thus turning what was an approximately 8 hour total commute time to Kuala Lumpur into approximately a 57 hour commute time to Kuala Lumpur for a 5 day holiday (not sure what my employer will think?)
I was also informed that instead of flying directly from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney 2 hours and 15 minutes after my Air Asia flight arrived in Kuala Lumpur I would need to:
o Spend 23 hours and 40 minutes waiting in Kuala Lumpur;
o Fly from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore;
o Spend 27 hours and 15 minutes in Singapore;
o Fly from Singapore to Darwin;
o Wait 4 hours and 25 minutes in Darwin; and
o Fly from Darwin to Sydney.
Thus, Jetstar had changed my return trip from approximately 10 hours and 15 minutes to approximately 63 hours and 30 minutes.
In total Jetstar changed my commuting time from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur return from around 20 hours to 120 hours for a five day holiday. I have informed Jetstar on numerous occasions that I don’t think this is acceptable and that it was my intention to take this matter to the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.
To make matters worse, I tried talking to Jetstar’s holiday department to confirm my accommodation however only had my call returned after 6 messages left over the course of 14 days. So far they have only booked accomodation for one night and they expect to grown up males to share a room.
It turns out that Geoff Dixon in a release to the ASX on 5 June 2008 told investors that Jetstar would withdraw from its Sydney-Kuala Lumpur operation in response to changing the Qantas schedules to Japan resulting in the requirement of an A330 for the creation of a Jetstar flight from Gold Coast to Tokyo.
What a pity Jetstar only advised me some 34 days after Qantas made its announcement. If Jetstar dealt with this matter in a more timely fashion, the cost of alternative flights might not have been so onerous.
In summary, Jetstar sold me two return air flights from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on the 1st of May 2008. 35 days later, Qantas announce that this route would be cancelled as Qantas wanted to change their schedules in response to changes in oil prices and thus Jetstar was going to redeploy the aircraft that serviced the Sydney Kuala Lumpur route. 34 days later Jetstar informed me that I would not be able to fly my booked flights. Jetstar were close to impossible to deal with, are a faceless organisation that state that it is not possible to contact certain divisions because they have no incoming call facilities, won’t let any of their staff provide any contact details to try to maintain any level of fluency when dealing with them, fail to respond to letters (which I was told to write from their Sales Staff) and cancel routes only to offer a refund (if the consumer will wait 6 weeks) or offer what can only be considered an unacceptable alternative. Well so much for Jetstar’s advertisements for cheap airfares!
I wonder whether Jetstar has given anything back to passengers that booked tickets prior to the fall in oil price? Not to mention that Qantas has 100% of its fuel for the year ahead and 50% for the year after hedged by the end of June according to its annual report.
I am scheduled to see Jetstar in the Consumer Trader and Tenancy Tribunal in just over a week. Regardless of whether I win, what they have done is wrong. Ca
C’mon Peter Faris - don’t take this lying down-FIGHT. Prove your barristers stripes and take the bastards on. We mere mortals don’t stand a chance- mind you at least I got a complimentary Qantas Club invite for my complaint against Qantas for similar treatment. As a barrister you should be able to do better. I would rather you harrassed the Airlines than your usual victims.
C’mon Pete you know what to do if you want revenge, SUE THE BUGGERS, go get em, one party must be the bad boy?
Go on Peter, sue the buggers. Or do barristers only find principle when they have a client paying the bills?
Peter - complaining in Crikey’s pages is about the closest you’ll get to Jetstar, short of dunning staff outside their HQ. Try finding a contact email address for a live person working there.. not the website nor some googling could turn up an address for my own, recent whinge.
I am a frequent flyer with Jetstar because of schedule. Try Commuting to Sydney and living in Northern Tasmania and other services are a joke.
Enduring the result of the discounted carry-on tickets is worse once you are on the planes. I usually travel only with a laptop bag and often have trouble finding a spot in a locker above my seat. There are so many bags in the cabin, I wonder how it all fits! The stupidest part is that people have saved 10 bucks a ticket and given up their 20kg checked bag allowance. As excess baggage you would be charged 140 bucks for 20kg! What is the air freight charge per kg, cause that is where the 20kg is being sold!
I’m in the “no sympathy” crowd - based on the timeline contained in Peter’s article, if he had showed up even 10 minutes earlier it looks like he would have checked in on time.
No sympathy here Peter. You arrived for a flight 2 minutes prior to closing time. Surely a reasonable person would determine that 2 minutes prior to closing time would not be sufficient time to check in for a flight, regardless of where you consider your “arrival” to become official. Passengers are clearly told the rules of flying with Jetstar and other low cost airlines, plan your time and arrive at a more reasonable time.
Jetstar are awful. We managed to get the Herald Sun to publish a letter of complaint after they rescheduled flights they’d had booked up for months, which ruined our trip to the Adelaide test. (see http://users.bigpond.net.au/pfft/ashes.jpg)
We spent hours on the phone to Jetstar, and I’m convinced that their escape clauses buried in their website don’t justify them changing their booked-up flights for business reasons.
But I don’t have the legal knowledge or know-how to prove it. You do, Peter, and I and many others would love it if you put it to use. (I’d be happy to help)
(If anyone cares, there’s more info at http://its-just-not-cricket.blogspot.com/ which includes a picture of my good self advertising the anti-Jetstar cause with an unidentified air hostess.)
The moral of the story is not “never fly Jetstar”; the moral of the story is “get to the airport with plenty of time to spare”. You’ve got your phone, you’ve got your wireless-enabled laptop; you can just as well check in an hour (or more) ahead of time and carry on working if that’s what you need to do. Full marks to Jetstar for devising a check-in policy that (occasionally) allows them to charge twice for the same seat, thus marginally keeping down their fares for the rest of us who can manage to turn up on time.