Dear everybody,
If anyone else is in a similar situation or has any suggestions as to what I could do please let me know - I'm a student and can't afford to just throw away $500!
My friend and I booked online tickets last month with Jetstar to fly from Melbourne to Christchurch next Tuesday 21 June. At the time of booking we thought it would be safe to travel to Christchurch because there hadn't been an aftershock from the earthquake since February. However this week there have been two fairly severe aftershocks, as a result of which my friend and I have decided that it is no longer safe or appropriate to go over there. (our original plan was to go skiing). I called the customer service centre today and was told that our tickets would be forfeited unless Jetstar decides to cancel the flight on account of volcanic ash clouds. I asked the lady on the phone whether I could any get money back, or a voucher or a deferred ticket if I decided to not travel next week due to the danger of travelling into an internationally recognised natural disaster zone. To this she said I could try the compassionate department. After googling about this it seems that the compassionate department would only give me a refund (if at all) for deaths in the family. As this is not my case, I am wondering if there is anyone else out there who had planned on travelling to New Zealand in the immediate future, but have decided that it would be unsafe to, and what avenues of redress you have discovered with Jetstar or any other airlines. I feel like Jetstar should provide some kind of contingency procedure for natural disasters.
At this stage I am hoping that the flight will be cancelled next week. If not, I don't know how I can any of my money back.
Comments
Hi there, I am also
Hi there,
I am also experiencing the same problem not being able to get any form of refund. My flight is scheduled on the same date (21st June) for two. I called Jetstar earlier and was told that they would only offer a refund if our flight was scheduled between the 13th and 17th of June. I called again today and was told that they can't refund me because our tickets are 'starter fare' tickets. At this rate I can only hope that the flight will be cancelled, but that would be unfair for those who really need to get to Christchurch.
If there is anyone in the same situation who managed to get a refund, please let us know!
@Nicky At this rate I think
@Nicky
At this rate I think it would be extremely difficult (and lucky) if we are able to get any money back from Jetstar at all. Even where Jetstar does promise a refund, comments on this site have proven that their words cannot be relied on.
I too am hoping that they will cancel the flight next week, but I saw on their website today that they had resumed flights to Christchurch this evening, so...fingers crossed.
Well from my experiance; you
Well from my experiance; you can call them up - wait 40 minutes on hold; pay 150$ on top of your phone bill to be transferred from department to department to be told there is nothing they can do about it because it was all a " mis-understanding" and that its " my word agaisnt trained staff members on procedures".
Just learn from the experiance; dont fly with jetstar again and tell as many people as you can about your issues. Make friends and family memebers not keen to go ahead and book with jetstar. Best you can do :)
There's plenty of reasons to
There's plenty of reasons to be highly pissed off with Jetstar, but demanding a refund on the cheapest fare due to overblown fear of an aftershock during a skiing trip isn't one of them.
A really good airline like Air NZ would refund you anyway, of course, but I can imagine a lot that wouldn't in this particular circumstance, so they aren't that unusual in this case.
And please, "internationally recognised disaster zone" is both a time-limited and space-limited concept. Christchurch airport has been closed for mere hours since Septmber for runway and facility inspections, and had no issues of note. Being on the west side of town, it was and is largely unaffected by quakes and your route to the mountains is fine.