30 hour delay

On arrival at the airport at check in we were offered vouchers and told that there is a two hour delay and we wouldn’t be flying until around 19:15. When we went to check the boarding gate it said that there was another two hour delay, making our flight four hours late at this stage. At 20:45 a Jetstar employee announced that there isn’t going to be a flight tonight and we were then told to proceed and go back out through customs, collect our luggage and go back to the service desk at check in where we were told, after standing in yet another queue for an hour, that we would be going at 8:00 the following morning. As we don’t live in Sydney we would be put up in a hotel for the night and to return at 5:00 the next morning. We were also told to have a meal and save the receipts to claim from Jetstar and save any taxi receipts too.

We then had to stand outside the airport waiting in an unorganised mob, because there was no Jetstar representative to organise unsettled passengers for the shuttle buses, for over an hour. It was getting very late now and no consideration for elderly people or children was given. We got into the Formule 1 at 23.50, checked in, and went to look for dinner and there were no facilities at or near the Formule 1 except for Krispy Kreme or McDonalds. As we hadn’t had dinner yet from all the disruptions we were hungry and were in no mood for junk food. We had to settle for coffee and donuts so that the kids could get to bed as they were exhausted, as were we.

After a sleepless night from worry, we had to get up at 4.00am to get ready to go back for check-in, we arrived back at the airport to be told that there was no 8:00am flight and we had to proceed to the domestic terminal to fly to Melbourne for a flight that night. At the domestic terminal service desk the staff were unaware of the situation and of the passengers that they were to accommodate. After waiting and standing in another queue for over an hour again we demanded some management take hold of the situation and inform us of our flight details, and a service desk employee told us, we would be boarding a flight to Melbourne at 10.00am.

We then had to check in again at the Sydney domestic terminal (yet another queue) to fly to Melbourne. We then picked our bags up at the Melbourne domestic terminal and proceeded to the international terminal where we hung around for five hours with our luggage until we could check in again at 15.15 for an 18.45 flight. But at the departure gate we were told there would be a thirty minute delay, and then was told another thirty minute delay and then it escalated into a three and a half hour delay because the flight was overbooked and some passeners had to give up their flight. After much confusion, lack of management and information we finally boarded the plane at 22.00 and departure finally took place at 22.30. Nearly 30 hours after our original departure time!

As a result of this flight experience, we missed a designated transfer from the airport in Denpasar to our hotel, we then had to rebook this transfer and pay for it again. We missed the first night of our accommodation as well as arriving at the hotel at 3.00 am the following morning, therefore missing most of the next nights accommodation. As we were so tired when we got there we slept through the next day of our holiday, losing a second day. It took about 3 days to get over the exhaustion of our ordeal.