Are Jetstar really that bad??

Last weekend brother and wife were flying BNE - MEL then straight on to JQ to SIN to pick up an SQ flight to Cape Town. Had to go via MEL as meeting the other 2 people travelling with them. JQ flight cancelled and put on the next day's flight - said no good as would miss SQ flight. A lot of to and fro - in the end booked an SQ flight in Y to SIN and got a full refund from JQ. Lucky as it turned out as the JQ flight was cancelled again. My comment to brother - what do you expect? Why do you keep booking JQ? (he has had quite a few cancellations in the past).
 
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I always dread the concept of JQ but have never had a bad experience. Flew JQ to HNL a lifetime( probably a decade ) ago, paid for exit row, paid for meals, entertainment etc upfront. Half the price of QF but got exactly what I expected and fundamentally the same as QF Y. Was an A330.
 
My comment to brother - what do you expect? Why do you keep booking JQ? (he has had quite a few cancellations in the past).
My expectation would be for JQ to operate flights as scheduled. Tomorrow, in 2 days time, next week is not a good enough excuse.

Personally I do not understand how JQ continues to have a licence. Too many stuff ups.

Wife coming home from Thailand via Bali today on Virgin. There was no way I was going to risk booking JQ and having her stuck there indefinitely.
 
Strange I hear so many negative stories about Jetstar, I must be very lucky because I have flown Jetstar on numerous occasions and never had a problem. I find the cabins quite spacious and comfortable, the attendants are more Target than DJs but don't mind that at all.
 
never had a problem
Aren't we only one flight away from a problem?. Past experience is never a good indication of future performance,

Such as "X the safest airline in the world"...until it's not.....

In the January 2023 Bitre report JQ was poorest in On Time departures, arrivals and cancellations. It's cancellations were more than double that of any other domestic airline on a % basis and also actual number of sectors cancelled. Even if it operated less scheduled sectors than the other domestic operators - see Table 1

Jetstar
 
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I guess it's up to each individual to decide whether it is worth paying more, in some cases much much more, to increase their chances of flying that day from 92.7% on Jetstar to 97.2% on Qantas.
 
Aren't we only one flight away from a problem?. Past experience is never a good indication of future performance,

Such as "X the safest airline in the world"...until it's not.....

In the January 2023 Bitre report JQ was poorest in On Time departures, arrivals and cancellations. It's cancellations were more than double that of any other domestic airline on a % basis and also actual number of sectors cancelled. Even if it operated less scheduled sectors than the other domestic operators - see Table 1

Jetstar

And Domestic is pretty good compared to international!
 
I guess it's up to each individual to decide whether it is worth paying more, in some cases much much more, to increase their chances of flying that day from 92.7% on Jetstar to 97.2% on Qantas.
Or reduce the chance of delay from 1 in 14 to 1 in 33. Better than 100% improvement...
 
JQ Flight MEL > SYD 0910 today cancelled last night with notification at 22:00. Options given were refund, 16:40 departure or later flight or MEL > OOL > SYD. Decided to get a rrefund and fly Virgin who surprisingly still had reasonably priced fares for last minute ($240). The one time I fly JQ domestically in over a year and they change my plane (no complaints as it was into their new A321NEO) inbound and cancellation Outbound.
 
Looks like 7:05 and 18:40 are also cancelled
And the 14:40… standard day really, they cull a lot of MEL-SYD flights.

The breakdown of each route in the BITRE stats is always an interesting read. From the January statistics, they cancelled 14.7% of services on MEL-SYD. Comparatively, QF were at 7.1%, VA 4.8% and ZL 2.1%.
 
Friends travelling with lap infant on JQ (dom). Unable to select extra legroom seat due to lap infant.

Regular seat selection - $9ea.

Elected to go with random allocation (as all were ordinary rows otherwise).

Allocated same row but seats A and D. Surely the system (with wide open seat map and seq no 5……) would allocate them adjacent seats but i guess it s a money pinching way to drive $18 of revenue.

I’m sure whomever gets the middle seat adjacent to the infant will be happy to swap for either the window or aisle seat…..but how pathetic on JQ’s behalf.
 
QF was full?
No idea, only heard of this after it had occurred and they had arrived in Cape Town - there were 4 of them so may have been an issue.

Other issue is brother makes what I consider dumb decisions where there is a same day connection and different PNRs and no slack if things go pear shape. Actually shouldn't blame him as SIL does the bookings and arrangements. He just tags along.
 
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I’m sure whomever gets the middle seat adjacent to the infant will be happy to swap for either the window or aisle seat…..but how pathetic on JQ’s behalf.
JQ once allocated the 3 of us throughout the cabin. I'm not sure if that was the computer or human involvement without realising there was an infant involved.
 
Aren't we only one flight away from a problem?. Past experience is never a good indication of future performance
Of course...but I've flown JQi many, many times and never experienced more than an hour delay. Whereas I've been treated abysmally / abandoned by QF in the event of issues.
 

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