Okay so we've all heard the stories..... I've flown with #Jetstar quite a bit without issue but when they drop the ball they drop it big time.
Booking a flight to Sydney for a weekend started ominously. The payment failed due to an "unknown issue" with the Jetstar payment system. Of course getting the money back from #jetstar takes weeks apparently ?.#wtfjetstar.
So we had to fork out more $$$ to book it again. Why can they not reverse the payment immediately ?.
Anyway, the flight down was ok and we spent the weekend in #Sydney which was nice.
We were scheduled to fly back to #Brisbane 21:15 Sunday night but received an SMS message 5hrs beforehand with a link to their website where it was advised the flight was postponed until 21:55. That in itself didn't seem too much of a hassle.
We get to the airport at 20:30 and the real fun begins. We try and check in using a self-serve kiosk and were advised to go to the service desk. Of course it's closed. We then go to the check in counter and politely explain to the 3 staff there of the situation.
Initially they avert their eyes and judging by the body language, seemingly want to do anything but help us out. One girl explains the flight has been cancelled due to "engineering" and it's the last flight for the day. They initially do not offer to do anything at all.
Now slightly agitated, I ask "what are we supposed to do now then ?". Only then do they act, make a phone call and then advise we are booked for a Qantas flight the next day with Qantas at 11:05 and to catch a nominated shuttle to a nominated hotel that Jetstar will pay for.
They handwrite the sparse details on a piece of paper and I wonder why it's not printed out via their system ?. We can't help but wonder why we had to ask in the first place ?. General feeling was that they did not care that we were stranded. They even asked where we lived ? (although its quite obvious given our home address is in their system and we have return tickets).
Most annoyingly Jetstar had not communicated any of this before we arrived at the check-in counter. Too bad if we had to get to work.
So we go to the shuttle waiting area in order to get the Sydney Super Shuttle (SSS) to the hotel. The first SSS comes along however the driver dismisses us rudely mumbling something about a second shuttle due in "2" mins. The hotel nominated by Jetstar is called CKS quality hotel and is written on the side of the trailer attached to the shuttle...hmmm.
Anyway "30" mins later another shuttle arrives but parks opposite the waiting area forcing people to walk across traffic. Not the safest nor smartest decision especially given there were a couple of children that had to run the gauntlet.
Eventually we drive off and 30 seconds later, the driver nearly cleans up a boom gate as he drifted into the wrong lane, only correcting himself at the last second.
We get to the hotel and two older guys are picking up another guy off the driveway who looks out of it. They carry him off. Everyone one on the bus looks at each other....not exactly the best impression of a previously unknown hotel to say the least. We get off the shuttle and then wait in line to check in for 30mins.
We then go to our room which turns out to be quite nice. However its now 22:30 and there’s nothing to eat or drink apart from the food and drink located in 2 vending machines. I grab 2 cold cans of lemonade for dinner. We fall asleep and in the morning grab a decent breakfast courtesy of a voucher provided by Jetstar.
The shuttle picks us up at 09:35 and we get to the Terminal 3 Domestic terminal. Others in the queue mention their flight to Melbourne was cancelled due to engine issues. Coincidence or something else I wonder ?. Anyway I dismiss it as we're nearly home...well no actually ...it’s just not that simple with Jetstar !.
Qantas advise they have no booking in our name (although we had been advised by Jetstar staff the previous night that we would be put on the 11.05 Qantas flight !). It only handwritten though and I immediately regret not asking Jetstar about this previously.
This is when my blood pressure starts to rise! So instead of sorting it out for us Qantas (who own Jetstar) sends us to Terminal 2 to sort it out with Jetstar.
We walk there trying to find the Jetstar terminal which isn't easy if you're not familiar with Sydney domestic terminals as there is little signage and time was short.
By this time we get there there's only 30mins left until the Qantas flight is scheduled to leave. We get to T2 and its chaos due to school holidays etc.
We go to the service desk queue and I talk to a helpful Jetstar girl who is checking who she can help out in the queue. After she enquires with the servicedesk for 10mins, it becomes evident that no one from Jetstar has actually made any booking for us ?.
#WTFChuck ?.
Then she says to wait and see what they can do. After 5mins she comes back and advises we are booked on a Qantas 13:05 flight.
I thank her for her help but wonder WTF is wrong with Jetstar's business processes ?. Its not like the first time a flight has been cancelled yet they appear to be totally useless at responding to it.
We walk back to T3 and realise they haven't seated us together....lol. Not a huge issue in itself but it was the icing on the cake at this stage.
We then wait and fly back to Brisbane without incident. Total delay was 16hrs.
I still can't believe how disorganised and below par the Jetstar service was. I swear if I see one of those TV ads telling me how wonderful Jetstar is I'm going to lose it..haha.