Mr Simon M Smith Part 2 and 3

on disembarkation from this flight I asked the head cabin crew person for a specific email address so tht I could voice my complaint. It is customer.care@jetstar.com

Part 2: Jetstar's response

Dear Si mon,

Thank you for contacting Jetstar. We’re very sorry to hear that you experienced some disruption when travelling with us recently.

We can assure you that punctuality is very important to Jetstar, and we put a lot of effort in getting every one of our flights away on time. We know how upsetting it is when things don’t go according to plan, especially when you need to be somewhere at a particular time or are looking forward to a well-earned break.

Unfortunately, we do occasionally have delays or cancellations because of operational requirements and our strict safety standards. While we understand the inconvenience this may cause at times, there is no compromise on safety.

We apologise if you weren’t accurately updated on what was happening with your flight. We know it doesn’t excuse the lack of service, or make up for the frustration you experienced - but please bear in mind that once a flight is delayed or cancelled, it can be hard for us to predict exactly how long the delay will last. The situation with the aircraft or airport can change suddenly or unexpectedly, and there’s always a huge amount of sorting out to be done behind the scenes.

You’ve made some valid points about why you feel you should be compensated, but regrettably we can’t offer anything more to you. Flight times don’t form part of your contract with us and we do advise that we can’t guarantee that we’ll carry you at the scheduled time and date specified. If you have travel insurance you may wish to follow this up with your insurer to see if you are able to make a claim.

Thank you again for sending me your comments. Knowing your views on our service will help us improve things for you in future.

Yours sincerely,

Jetstar Customer Care Team.

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Part 3: My response

Thank you for your response. If you read the email carefully you might understand that it is not compensation that I am after, rather an operational explanation as to how you intend to improve your service, specifically at MCY. As I mentioned, the exact problem has occurred on 2 of my scheduled flights within a 3 year period.

My real question is, as a company who may wish to improve its operations, what specifically do you plan to do do regarding flights into and out of MCY. Both times the arriving aircraft has diverted to BNE, causing approximately a 3 hour delay on both occasions. Coming from a logistics and Transport background myself, I can see several options working here.

Example 1:

Keep 2 large Coaches on hand at MCY so in case this very problem occurs you can immediately load the passengers onto the coach and drive to BNE (Just over 1 hour drive) at which point you could have a spare aircraft on hand, or the problem aircraft would be closer to being fixed.

2. Keep a spare aircraft on hand at MCY in case this particular issue occurs again. This would be more costly than option 1 because aircraft do not make money sitting on the ground.

Please bear in mind that you gave every passenger an $8 food/drink voucher for use at MCY. Assuming there were 128 passengers on the aircraft that is just over $1000 in extra expenses. I have a feeling that this particular flight JQ 797 did NOT make a profit.

So, all in all if this event has occurred multiple times in the past few years, wouldn't it be worthwhile to formulate a strategic back up plan if an aircraft has to divert to an airport that is very close by?

This is the answer I want.

Regards,

Simon M Smith.