Decided to fly down to Melbourne for the Easter long weekend...Flight was initially due to leave 3pm Friday 22/04/11 - was sent a text in the morning saying the flight's been delayed and will now leave at 4.30pm. No dramas there.
Get to the airport, check in, get to departure gate before 4pm and confirm with staff that the flight will indeed be leaving at 4.30pm. 4.50pm rolls by and everybody's still waiting to board. An announcement is made - "Jetstar flight JQ35 to Melbourne has been cancelled due to insufficient staff." Guess a few staff members must've chucked sickies that day...
We're all told that we have to go through international arrivals (as the flight leaves from international terminal), pass through customs (even though we haven't even left the airport) and go up to the check in counters to re-book our flights. We all get there, line up, only to find out that the paper work hasn't come through and that it'll take approximately 20mins to sort out. 40mins later and we're all told that we'd have to line up at a different counter to get our flights re-booked. We refused to budge and eventually, after almost an hour of waiting in line, the paper work came through, we were transferred to a Qantas flight scheduled to leave at 7pm and told that my taxi fare from Melbourne airport to my hotel will be reimbursed - all I had to do was fill out a form and fax it with a receipt.
Yesterday and today, I try and fax that receipt to the fax number given (03 9349 5116) and lo and behold - it doesn't work. Fax line is either "busy/no signal." Flown with Jetstar 3 times - and they've messed up twice. Never again.
Comments
Well Matt, you had the same
Well Matt, you had the same flight as yself, but at least you weren't booked on the 9.50pm flight which was also then cancelled like my partner & I were, only to end up on a flight to Avalon the next day at 7am!
I've tried calling their customer service helpline and you just get put through to their Philippines call centre, even from the Melbourne #.
Seems there is no-one in Australia you can directly call. I've been told my call will be answered in 5-7 working days. Just not good enough.
I should consider myself
I should consider myself lucky that I got to Melbourne that night and to the right airport as well.
Certainly hope you get a refund or some sort of significant reimbursement for your troubles - although it sounds like you're going to have quite a fight ahead of you just trying to get in contact with someone who can make a decision.