Flight Changes

Jetstar recently had a promotion whereby children fly and stay free to bali departing Brisbane (return), which I booked. Unfortunately the only week I booked to go to Bali was the same week of my sons year 6 Canberra trip.

I rang Jetstar to ask about changing the flights and after three 40min calls with Call centre staff and three different quotes, I was expected to pay a change fee (fair enough) of $800 plus the original cost $1184, plus fare increase of around another $800 totalling to around $2700.

I went on their website and found fares for the dates I wished to change to for $1564 for two adults and two children. I questioned Jetstar staff why am I paying so much in additional costs when it would be cheaper for me to rebook.

After a couple of useless email from Jetstar and a complaint to the Airline Ombudsman, the outcome is that apparently if you book and wish to change, it is cheaper to do it online, so instead of the $800 change fee it is $600. In regards to the fare increase, apparently Jetstar will not provide you with the cheap online fares they have another set of fares, which the passenger does not have access to, which are more expensive that they use.

Apparently, this is set out somewhere in the fare rules which for an average person, like myself, is impossible to comprehend amongst all the legal stuff.

So the outcome of all this is - this is how Jetstar make money and unless someone can take them on in a court of law, to change their description of the rules so the average person can understand them, then they will continue to get away with it.

International
Australia-Brisbane
Indonesia-Denpasar (Bali)