Flights cancelled, $200 out of pocket

DON'T DO IT! I'm never flying Jetstar again. Jetstar don't care about it's passengers at all!

I elected to get 'Email boarding passes' so that I could print them off the day before flying out on the 10th July 2012. The evening before, still no email so I called up Jetstar Reservations to ask them to please send it again. I was passed around and put on hold for nearly 45 minutes only to be told "we can't do that as we've already sent it (clearly hadn't!) and you need to go to the Jetstar terminal early to make sure you are on the flight". What annoys me is they could have saved me the $15 on my phone and told me that in the beginning!

We got to our destination, enjoyed our 10 days visiting family, and then whilst having a final dinner with friends I check my phone to find a text (and not an 'SMS boarding pass') telling me my 18th July flight had been cancelled! No phone call, no email, nothing.

The weirdest part was, our flights were on the 19th July, so I looked at the Jetstar website and noticed that our JQ465 flight was estimated to depart as normal. This time, I actually got my boarding pass email so I assumed all was peachy, printed it off and my partner and I headed to Ballina/Byron airport as normal, only to find that all flights to Melbourne were, in fact, cancelled.

So we, and many other passengers who had no idea, had to wait 2.5 hours to sit on a bumpy old mini bus to the Gold Coast, where we were told me must wait 6 or so hours for our new flight.

After such a nice end to a relaxing holiday, we were now tense and sore (I can't sit down for long periods as I am recovering a back injury- which I had just spent money on treatments for) not to mention we had lost out on the day we needed to shop for food, unpack, wash clothes and get ready to go back to work the following day.

The worst part about all of this, was seeing that Jetstar had at least 5 flights going to Melbourne while we were sitting around the terminal. They offered us no food, no water for our wait, and so we were forced to spend money at the airport, which is bloody expensive! They could have at least spent the money they saved on our flight being cancelled on lunch for the plane-load of people they left stranded, or a bus that had head-rests and shock-absorbers.

I suppose I should be grateful that they put us on another flight, but I believe airlines should be held responsible if they can't keep their word. I am now $200 out of pocket (Massage $65 + Food and drinks for two $100 + fuel getting to and from a cancelled flight $20 + $15 spent on calling Jetstar Reservations)

Definitely flying Tiger for domestic trips from now on!