TLDR: It may be legal but Jetstar have no compassion. Your staff may be polite but Jetstar you have no human decency. I know you need to make a profit but wearing down and treating customers like goats is appalling.
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Yesterday we were told to come to Jakarta urgently as my wife's father is dying. So we booked tickets with Jetstar. My wife & 2 year old child & I were stopped from flying at Changi Airport to be with our dying father today in Jakarta at the boarding gate just as the pre boarding announcement was being made.
My Australian passport expires on 30 Jan 2018 and you, Jetstar, told us that we would not be able to fly as my passport was not at least valid for more than 6 months before expiry. I was out by 3 days. You pushed the blame to me & the Indonesian Govt. Ok fair enough.
Then at the airport you took hours promising that you’d help sort it out. after an hour and a half, gave us numbers of the Australian Embassy, who were polite but could not help & pushed us to the Australian Consul in Canberra. Who were polite but could not help.
Then when we sought a refund at the airport you gave us the run around: Its systemic cruel & heartlessness for Jetstar flight crew to say they can’t make a decision & push us too your outsourced ground staff & then have your Operations manager politely try to help us but when we ask for a refund says he can’t make a decision but Jetstar can.
Then take us to the Jetstar customer service who also say they can’t make a decision. and then give us a slip of preprinted paper with your call centre number. Then we call the call centre & then they tell us we have to go on your website & start a chat …
I know these systems are designed to dissuade people from but you do realise your Jetstar processes are keeping us away from our dying father.
… on the chat we are told:
‘To file for a refund due to not meeting with the minimum 6 months passport validity, you would need to fill out this form https://ssl.jetstar.com/au/en/customer-service-portal/general-feedback and one of our analyst would be in contact with you within 15 business days time frame.’
Why didn’t Jetstar/Qantas tell us this at the airport at the check in counter instead of wasting our time for hours (our 2 year old tired & in tears) when we could have gone to the embassy and got a new passport?