Hi all, just wondering if anyone has gone through changing a booking. I accept that there is a fee for $50 per person but here is my problem:
I booked a ticket for 2 adults and 2 children this xmas, now due to a family emergency I have to go earlier and called jetstar. First time I spoke to someone, he told me about the fee and I accepted that and also I was aware that I pay any difference. This is why I chose the days with the lowest fares. I looked up the fares online because I am also looking at prices for my mom and 2 children. I was told that my original ticket per person outgoing flight is $850ish per person around December 21. My new flight is going to be August 3 which is $430 per person on the website. To my confusion, they tell me that I have to pay a price difference of $90 plus the $50 fees. I didn't understand at first so I cancelled the change and went online to change it myself.
When I logged in online, I clicked on change flight. The website shows the dates and prices I want to change it to like how it shows normally but I was surprised to see that the fares (while changing) is almost double than the fare of the normal search (without changing, just booking it from scratch).
I called them again to ask them how much is the fare on the new date I want to go. This time we agreed on $430 per person for a flight on august 3 for example, but when he went to calculate it, the total still went up to 870 per person, apparently I got a surcharge for the price difference that I have to pay. I asked him why did it go from 430 per person to 870 per person and he just told me it's subject to availability and didn't seem to understand my question. When I look at the website to buy a new ticket it says $430 for the new date but it's over $800 when I try to change. I have a feeling that the system was still charging me the fare of $800 like it showed for me when I tried to do it myself but the operator didn't notice nor care to tell me.
I know the seats are still available because my mother and her 2 kids can still purchase the tickets for $430 per person on the same flight.
Is this a glitch on their website? Is this part of what I have to pay when changing bookings? I cannot find anything about a higher fare on top of the $50 fee per change on their website... Or is this something they hope people won't notice. Please help.
Comments
long story short: Let's say
long story short:
Let's say if ORIGINAL fare, one way on the 21st of December is $800 per person then changed to August 3, I get charged $800+ per person, while booking on the same date from scratch (without changing booking) is only $430.
So if I want to change my booking, I have to pay the $50 fee, plus my fare for the new date is doubled the fare of the normal price, so I would always end up paying a difference.
Any thoughts on this? thanks.
okay, I phoned the Call
okay, I phoned the Call Center and I asked them to explain this to me because I am confused. They could not give me an explanation and they start sounding irritated. The lady on the phone started talking about call center fee, and other fees and I asked her how much they were and would those fees add up to the difference of $400+, she would not listen to me and kept talking. She told me that the base airfare I am getting charged is $950 when the fare on the website shows $430. She said that it could be because I have a different fare type. I told her that my old fare type was a Starter and asked what the new fare type I'm getting charged $950 for. She said it is also a Starter. She then kept asking me If there is anything else she can do for me with an angry tone and I felt compelled to say goodbye and hang up.
I kept reading the terms and conditions and I thought ok so when we change a booking it can't be lower than the old fare but if I got charged the higher fare shouldn't I get the Starter Plus since that is what I am paying for? Shouldn't the staff have training to know the terms and conditions off by heart and she should have told me that I got charged the higher fare above the Started Fare (I assume) since the new Starter fare is lower than my original price.
But if this is the case, I got charged for a higher fare, then shouldn't my new fare be Starter Plus instead of remaining the basic Starter?
I am only posting because I have been very confused by the prices I get given on websites and Call center etc... and no one seemed to be able to answer my questions, to make it worse they get angry at me. I've deatl with people from my previous jobs complaining about $1 difference and having to explain that to them when they buy stuff, I'm talking about hundreds of dollars difference here.
Booked my grandson on a
Booked my grandson on a flight to the Gold Coast over the school holidays with Jetstar, BIG mistake. I paid an extra $25 that supposedly allowed me to change the name of the person flying, the date etc etc. Grandson had a tantrum and did not want to fly up so I rang the call centre to access the so called "changes" I could make and advise them that I would need to now cancel my booking. After being on the phone for an hour and a half finally I was hooked up to a person in customer service, boy is that a very loose term to describe that team, so rude! I was told not to bother them as this could be changed online and they hung up on me....unbelievable. Went online and guess what? The website states that no changes can be made online and that you need to ring the call centre...what a ruddy joke Jetstar is. So again after holding for TWO hours this time at 1am in the morning I finally have another person to retell my story to only to be told that I missed the 24 hour window required to allow me to cancel the flight. Helloooo is it my fault that they take over two hours to answer my call? Is it my fault that none of their staff know anything at all about the product they are supposedly trained to sell? I relayed my discontent to yet another rude call centre person who blandly told me I was stupid for not following the advice given to me in the first place, are you kidding? The advice was incorrect so what good did that do me? I asked to speak to a supervisor and to my absolute shock they proved to be ruder than their team members, where do they find these people? I have managed large teams during my career and if one of my team even spoke in the tone of these people I would have called them in for counselling, I would have sacked them if they had called the client names or hung up on them as this would have given the top ten company I worked for a lot of bad pubilicty which is not what any company wants, except Jetstar of course. They just do not care at all..the call centre when in Australia used to be a division of the company I worked for and they did an excellent job and I flew with the airline a lot due to such great service over the phone but believe you me I will never fly with them again after this. Such poor service in this economy is just not acceptable, surely someone at Qantas has a hint of what is going on? One would think they would make the necessary changes, the first being to bring the call centre back to Australia and provide a decent customer service again. I have complained officially to Jetstar and have written to Qantas as well so it will be interesting if they even reply let alone reimburse me the cost of phone calls and the airfare. The only consolation is that I am not the only person in this boat, for a minute there I thought I was special. Never had a problem with Virgin so will continue to give them my patronage from now on, as well as my friends and family.
So the basics are are
So the basics are are this...
You have this "starter fare" which is at 5 different levels A B C D E F
You have the "max fare" which is also at something similar G H I J K
If you buy fare F and they you change, you can't change to fare B you have to take fare F or higher because they don't refund. Also starter fares won't let you change destinations either so there's another fail.
I always fly with Virgin because I've had no issues with them ever. I've had a credit for flights with them for almost 2 years because I couldn't take a flight - they've never made any issues over this and they are always friendly and helpful. Never have made any mistakes either! If I want to go from fare F to fare A with Virgin they just put the extra in credit and I can use at another time within validity. This is proper service and the proper way to treat your clients if you want to retain them and keep them for the future.