First Flight Canceled then return flight Rhino Virus Airways

My wife was due to be granted her permanent Aussie visa but she had to leave Australia in order to pick it up. I had a very small window of opportunity to go with her (she's from a 3rd world country and has only flown a couple of times previously so solo travel was too daunting) as my co-worker's wife is competing in the paralympics in London and I had to be back by Aug 20.

On the Friday last week before we were due to fly, we checked in online, which is a joke. The online checkin does nothing when a major airport like Sydney doesn't even have a bag drop and you have to manually check in at the counter.

Saturday morning our flight was canceled due to operational requirements (i.e. they didn't have enough passengers). So I received a text saying to call a number. No word about an email. I tried the number and got a call center in India initially. The guy changed us to the following day, but seeing as we had driven all the way from Canberra to Sydney we were stranded. I got an email saying if you live more than 100km away from the airport they will provide vouchers for accomodation and transport. Well I called the number again and after a 45min wait (btw the email said to say priority or something to get quick service due to the canceled flight, which the voice system did not recognize). After speaking to a rep in the Philippines at a call center (I'm guessing either Aegis People Support or Sitel), I was told they couldn't offer vouchers. I asked if they could put me on a Qantas flight instead and they said no.

So my wife and I go to the airport and in 2 mins at the counter they bumped us over to Qantas which left a little earlier. No worries I thought, free upgrade to meals, blankets and a personal video screen. However our flight home was the worst flight I've ever experienced and my father used to work for Ansett as flight crew so I've flown hundreds of times.

Upon doing the online checkin again there was yet again no bag drop in Auckland airport. We had to line up for about 30 mins to check in again. Then we get to the gate and there's a ton of people all coughing and sneezing and just full of colds and flu, approximately 1 in 3 or 4 were SICK! We get on the flight and we've got sick people all over the aircraft making everyone else around them sick. Airlines (particularly cattle class Jetstar who cater to poor and destitute passengers who can't even afford their own health care) should make public service announcements about in flight etiquette and about covering mouths and noses when you sneeze or cough.

Then the pilot's flight plan was bad, he flew us straight into high altitude clouds and severe turbulence and only after a while did he finally endeavour to climb a couple of thousand feet higher to get to smooth air.

All the while everyone around us is coughing and hacking. I'm sucking on strepsils the whole flight trying to ward off illness, but to no avail. We finally landed in Sydney and now my wife and I are both sick. Who's going to pay for our medical bills?

I will never fly Jetstar ever again. I will choose to fly an airline that has passengers who can afford to fly full fare and who have enough money to take care of their health. Jetstar needs to be shut down and the airlines need to go back to the old days where flying had class and classy people. Not this cattle class garbage where disease is rampant!!!

International
New Zealand-Auckland
Australia-Sydney

Comments

Oh also there have been two

Oh also there have been two other occasions where our flights were canceled by Jetstar months before the flight! Oh and the Qantas website often lists Jetstar flights and when you go to book they say the fare is no longer available (this is for flights 6 months out) and then the price goes up ad infinitum.

Hahahahha you're a tosser

Hahahahha you're a tosser mate.

Doesn't sound right to me.

Doesn't sound right to me. Your wife has to leave the country in order to be granted a visa? Canberra to Sydney then to Auckland? So your saying NZ is a third world country? Nothing you say makes sense. Please provide exact flight details to YOUR entire trip, so we can ascertain the right opinion in regards to your complaint. I'm from NZ, but have lived in oz for almost 20 years. Still not an OZ citizen, but I'm a tax payer overall. On average, I fly the ditch twice, sometimes, three times a year. Numerous times domestic within OZ. Never have, never will fly with JS. This site has convinced me. . .

Hemi for privacy reasons I

Hemi for privacy reasons I won't divulge personal information of the exact flight details. However if you were to understand immigration processes in Australia you'd understand that if you lodge a partner visa offshore you need to be offshore from Australia in order for the visa grant to be finalized. That is why we went to New Zealand.

I however did not say New Zealand was a 3rd world country, I said my wife was from a 3rd world country (which is the Philippines).

We only had very short notice to be able to go to New Zealand and pick up her permanent Aussie visa so she can start working as my co-worker and his wife are going off to London as she is competing in the Paralympics. I had to be back by the 20th or else everyone from northern new south wales down to victoria outside of the major cities wouldn't have anybody to direct the news. My audience each day as a director is 80,000+ people.

Also my father is dying and we just can't afford another two months with my wife being unable to work as my father could pass away at any time or he could miraculously be called up for a kidney transplant.

The only other alternative would have been to wait another 2 months before we could head to New Zealand and for my wife to pick up her visa. Right now we desperately need the extra income. Canberra is expensive and one week after we were married my wife was forced to return to the Philippines because of government bureaucracy. My father is my mother's official carer as she has had 3 knee replacements (one had to be removed due to a staph infection and replaced after several months with no knee) yet he himself is dying.

As for Jonnie: Did that make you feel like a man or are you compensating for something?