We booked and paid for a return flight to Cairns (from Sydney) for a family of 5, cost $1,700. Not really a bargin in itself, but tolerable. Then due to family reasons we need to delay the trip exactly one week. The flight was booked for November and we requested the change in early August, so nearly 4 months advanced notice. The additional cost to make the change was $2,200 and the only other alternative was to forfeit the original booking and go with another airline. This is a 230% increase for changing a flight by one week with 4 months advanced notice (not in school holidays or and sort of peak period)!!!
Additionally, when my wife finally got to talk to someone in the Phillipines they basically told her that she should have planned things better and that they couldn't care less about the issue.
Jetstar are basically, hooking you in with moderately priced fares and then springing a trap when they know they have you over a barrel due to accommodation bookings, etc. Any other retailer would be hauled in front of the ACCC for this kind of anti-trust behaviour!
How do we get the ACCC to look at these hundreds of incidents and begin holding Jetstar accountable for this clearly un-Australian and immoral way of doing business?
Comments
There's basically: Standard
There's basically:
Nicely said Barry. Most
Nicely said Barry. Most people wouldn't begrudge say a 10% penalty for a re-book but these charges are way over the top and do not reflect the actual costs incurred by Jetstar. I hope they have upped their advertising budget considerably using some of their ill gotten gains as all this adverse publicity has to be costing them business.
I encourage you to lodge a
I encourage you to lodge a complaint via their customer service online process which will take up to 15 days to receive a response. They'll ask for your phone contact detailS with no intention of contacting you - you'll then receive a generic letter stating their t & c's basically saying it was your fault.
I've then lodge another customer service request with them to review the outcome. Let's see what happens.
My next steps if I'm not happy with the outcome is to contact www.airlinecustomeradvocate.com.au. Whilst I'm optimistic that my issue can be resolved, I can assure you if I receive another generic letter quoting t & c's, I'll be looking to lodge a CEO complaint with David Hall so he is very clear on how Jetstar is treating their customers.
I work for a Telco that are now totally committed to using advocacy - Jetstar should really focus on this approach as their competitors are certainly performing well not only in the price bracket but on customer service as well.
Best of luck !
Scum. It's all a scam, of
Scum. It's all a scam, of course. No one "just" makes mistakes like this.
Bu then, they'll never admit to it. These cheap-jack-scum suckers will always either plead ignorance or stupidity. bother of which are highly believable.
Stupidity explains their actions. However it dosnt excuse their actions.
Hi Barry, I’m really
Hi Barry,
I’m really disappointed that you feel our Fare rules and fees to change a booking are about mistrust or un-Australian.
We pride ourselves on being Australia’s low cost airline and we offer a variety of ways for our passengers to fly with us. This is why we make available several types of fares. Each of these comes with different conditions and different benefits.
With the fare type you have booked, there are some conditions that apply to make changes. We try to make this clear during the booking process when you have to read and accept the fare rules before proceeding with payment.
To change the date on a Starter fare you will be charged a flat fee to make changes and any fare difference between the old fare and the new date you wish to switch to. Sometimes this difference can be significant as fare prices may change subject to availability. I apologise that you found this cost to be too high and wished to forfeit your fares. Please be assured that the ability to change your fares for a fee is designed to make your travel with us more open to change. It is not designed to negatively impact on your holiday plans.
You are entitled to friendly and helpful service from all of our staff, so it’s disappointing to hear your experience with our Telephone Reservations team wasn’t up to scratch.
I understand your disappointment as a lot of things can change before you go away and it’s frustrating when you feel that you are being charged more than you think is fair, but I hope you can appreciate we need to be consistent in the way we apply our fare rules in order to keep providing low fares for all, everyday. In future it might be helpful to know that with a Starter Plus fare you won’t be charged a change fee, only the fare difference between dates.
Thanks - Juliette
Hey Juliette, Thanks for
Hey Juliette,
Thanks for nothing. If I wanted to read more of your rubbish excuses I would have made a complaint directly to Jetstar. You are predators, plain and simple and you should feel ashamed working for such an organisation. Hopefully the extra $2,200 I had to pay sustains your organisation for the next 50 years of my life as I will never fly with your organisation again! You're in marketing not doubt so add this to your stats; you have turned me into to a negative Net Promoter.
I feel as if everything
I feel as if everything Juliette said was not of her own intention, as she's just doing that in order to keep her job