August 2014 we booked our fares (Aus-Singapore-Aus)
We waited and Jetstar was happy to take our money quickly and provide confirmation of booked flights.
We then started searching for accommodation to plan our 10 year anniversary trip.
Since our booking Jetstar has made a few flight changes and expected us to accept the. Which we did as the changes were in relation to same day time changes.
Only late Jan 2015 they called and stated that they have cancelled our flight leg home. The again provided options. But this time the options impacted our accommodation which we could not change. They asked us to compromise our anniversary by 1 day or fly out 2 days after the day we selected. All of that was to be at our own expense.
I fell cheated. I booked in advance and planned this special holiday. I paid in advance and now I am stuck with this unreliable airline who doesn't care about customers and have yet to contact me back in relation to my issues.
I have lodged 2 "customer care forms" (funny name cos there is no customer care) and no one has called me.
Shows just how much caring goes on!
What makes this even more bleak is that the more I read on their Facebook page the more I think I am done for cos the number of bad posts relating to customer experience is phenomenal. Then I found this website!
What can I do?
Vien
Jetstar booking ref: T6FETL
Comments
Lets wrap up my thoughts for
Lets wrap up my thoughts for everyone regarding my experience with Jetstar.
1. There is only a perceived sense of saving with Jetstar fares
In my case I might have saved about $600 overall to fly from Australia to Singapore and back. But lets calculate what I lose.
(a) I compromise my anniversary plans by cutting my trip back by a day. (Some people may think I am over sentimental but to me I believe 10years is a milestone with a special someone.)
(b) I lose out on my accommodation in Sentosa – About $500/night.
Now that was their option 1. Their option two was to fly back two days after so who is going to foot the expenses there? You don't want to even hear option 3 - cos they said you are entitled to a full refund if you like. Well doesn't that just mean I lose all of my accommodation costs for the entire trip? Common sense?
But don't believe me on "perceived savings" - why don't you try to do a test with say Virgin Airlines as most on this post have mentioned. On the face of it it looks like Virgin is more expensive. But have a look at what you get! you get luggage included (23kg+) you get meals you get seat allocations. Then try out Jetstar for a similar day/flight and add on those extras and see how much it costs! You will be surprised that Virgin comes close to Jetstar and in some respect beat Jetstar "budget pricing". As for customer service I haven't seen as many bad posts as I have with Jetstar.
2. Jetstar does not care about your business. They just want your money.
In my case they were happy to accept my booking, take my money and confirm my booking. If it were not for any of this people generally wont book in accommodation. Anyway once they have your money they have tons of clauses to protect themselves especially if we want to make changes and they charges us for it - much like many posts I have seen where changes end up costing more than the ticket! But when they make changes – they expect us to conform or take a hike!
3. Jetstar hides under a façade of “customer service” and provide “lip service”
You talk about customer service. You advertise providing a sense of customer service. You ask us about customer service but yet you haven’t resolved my issue.
Why is it I cannot see my post anymore on Jetstar Facebook page?
The reason why I ask is because your response to my post highlights what I am talking about. You write to show you care but no action is taken to listen and resolve the matter. - Again I see hollow responses on many of the posts on here!
You haven’t come up with a solution. I currently have two solutions but your fantastic call center team (not their fault) calls up reading a script and don't have authority to fix anything. So what do you think customers are going to do? Be upset? you make things worse by asking customers who are already upset to fill out a form so that the right person with the authority can deal with it!
Jetstar - if you are serious about customer service and reputation you would know that a change in someone's travel dates will impact on their position and you can at least assign a person with the "authority" to deal with the issues, find different flights through different carriers or provide some sort of good will especially when you have ruined their plans and that you want them to fit in with your schedule! You are just asking for a bad review through you lack of consideration of the issues - bad customer service.
So I am sharing it with my friends and friends of my friends.
4. You cannot rely on Jetstar for date critical travel as they pull the rug under you and they don’t really care or listen to you or come up with a solution. You end up holding the can. I am not looking for compensation. I am looking for equality.
Again I see other posts showing those impacted by jetstar changes with no regards to customer issues or any compassion. How can a person by a fare for hundreds or thousands of dollars and not be able to plan their holiday trip in the fear that if they lock in their accommodation Jetstar can make changes and leave them in no mans land and "left holding the can" at their own expense!
Unreliable and untrustworthy.
Vien Tran
Booking ref: T6FETL
This is the type of response
This is the type of response I get from Jetstar after 15 days?
I don't even get a phone call?
So in short - Get stuffed?
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Dear Vien ,
Thank you for contacting us about your Jetstar booking. I’m sorry to hear that you’re unhappy about the changes we’ve made to your flight times.
I know it doesn’t change the situation for you, but I can assure you that we wouldn’t have made the change unless it was necessary. We’re aware of the impact it can have on our customers if we alter flight times or cancel flights and we try our best to avoid any change in our timetables. Still, sometimes we need to make adjustments so we can continue to provide you with our everyday low fares.
It certainly wasn’t our intention to cause you any difficulties, and I’m very sorry if it has. I realise how upsetting it can be when you have made plans in advance, or selected a particular flight because it was the most suitable for you. Please accept my apologies.
Whenever we have to make changes of this nature we offer our customers a number of alternative options. We can move you to the next available Jetstar flight before or after your scheduled flight. Or, if the change is significant (more than 3 hours), or the purpose of your journey is voided by the changes, we’ll offer to refund your flight.
I understand that you may incur some extra expenses due to this change and that you’d like us to provide you with some compensation. Unfortunately, this is not something I can assist you with. Flight times do not form part of your contract with us and we do advise that we can’t guarantee to carry you at the scheduled time and date specified.
If you have travel insurance, you may like to follow this up with your insurer to see if you’re eligible to make a claim with them.
Thank you for following this up with us. I hope that we’ll be able to welcome you on board a Jetstar flight soon.
Yours sincerely,
Jetstar Customer Care Team