Complaint Filed: CAS-1400856-H0B8Q1
I have filed a complaint with Jetstar Pacific Hong Kong for flight BL679 who didn't let me and my wife board the flight. Due to this we missed our on-going flight back to London from Hanoi (Vietnam Airlines). We had to buy a fresh new 2 flight tickets worth £1266 GBP (Cathy Pacific) to come to London from Hong Kong.
I will start from where the problem started:
Problem 1 - BL679 was originally scheduled to depart at 19:55 on 26th Oct, 2015 but flight time was changed to 13:20 on the same day. I have to make changes to my travel plan because of that. But i accepted that and thought it is ok, problems happen, maybe because of weather this was done by Jetstar.
Problem 2 - I reached at Hong Kong airport from Macao at 10:30 from 09:30 ferry. My documents were checked by staff in Macao and all was fine to travel to Vietnam 2nd time within 30 days as i was only transiting this time to London via Vietnam. But i was told by Jetstar staff that i need visa which was clearly different than what Macao staff told us. I was left stranded on the airport thinking how i am going to get visa so soon and that too on unclear rules about visa as i heard 2 different stories.
I went onto internet and applied for emergency Vietnam visa and i told Jetstar staff that i am applying for this visa at huge cost $322 USD so please wait for me. They said they will wait. I got the visa on time at 12:26 and showed it to Jetstar staff straight away. Jetstar staff response was that they have closed the flight now and i cannot board the flight anymore. I was totally taken back on their response and told them according to my Itenary Jetstar cannot close flight until 45 minutes to departure and i showed the staff my Itenary confirmation letter stating that. But staff didn't want to accept it and didn't let me and my wife board the flight. This was really frustrating for us especially in a foreign country where we were left helpless due to Jetstar staff didn't follow their own rules and commitment made to us. There was no other flight to Hanoi on 26th Oct and because of that i missed by flight from Hanoi to London via Vietnam Airlines which was at 01:05am in the morning of 27th Oct. I had to buy direct flight from Hong Kong to London for 2 of us via Cathy Pacific Airlines who were very helpful to us sitting next to Jetstar staff looking at the whole problem we went through.
I have requested compensation for all the agony we have gone through so wish me luck!!