Are Jetstar really that bad??

[oznflfan]

First time flying Jetstar. Flew MEL to SGN in Nov 2022.

A) Flight delayed 24 Hours after arrival at airport. They did put us is nice hotel for the night though.
B) Absulotely the most uncomfortable economy seats ever flown in. Newish 787 too. Actually actively uncomfortable. Side bolsters sticking in my sides. I'm a medium - large fella, but also flew Qatar and Singapore Airlines long haul last year and they were fine.
C) Flight delayed at least an hour leaving SGN. At least it left that night though.

Even though above, can't help but consider cheap fares oversea's though. Maybe bring a towel to thicken up padding on the seat.

 

[Saab34]

I have noted lately on weekends that first wave of flights they have, generally half dozen departures 6am-630am~ window from the major cities, often a couple are cancelled. I assume crew calling in "sick" who dont want to work weekends and they don't have any staff on standby. The other week when I flew a 6am MEL-QLD, on that high 30 degree day, 3 out of 6 early departures got cancelled. Got lucky with that one I guess. Seems to be bad on a Sunday. Guess the staff would rather go to the beach.

I am pretty sure Alan Joyce sent me a email telling us they had extra staff and aircraft on standby and investing hundreds of millions etc to prevent this. I assume that excluded Jetstar.

 

[cambriamarsh]

Wasn’t out of pocket a whole lot but had a couple of bad experiences a long time ago which culminated in a few nasty emails and me choosing to black list them.
Domestically we fly all J with VA or QF where possible and because NZ has no J domestically we had to choose Air NZ or Jetstar so Air NZ it was

My experience in NZ is Jetstar are fine. However if it's important I get there on time, eg a wedding or funeral I use NZ and yes they are often twice or more the JQ price. However when you've simply got to be there NZ have more ability to fix IRROPS.

 

[aikman]

Max bundles have been a game changer for me. The ability to turn every ticket into a refundable ticket for a reasonable cost has come in very handy, not only for when I decide to change my travel plans but also the ability to cancel and repurchase if the fare drops later on.

As for reliability, well as evidenced by this post, buying an expensive Qantas ticket is no guarantee that your flight will not be cancelled or delayed.

 

[dajop]

My experience in NZ is Jetstar are fine. However if it's important I get there on time, eg a wedding or funeral I use NZ and yes they are often twice or more the JQ price. However when you've simply got to be there NZ have more ability to fix IRROPS.

I use them, when the price is right between MEL & SIN (not so much SIN & MEL due to overnight flight), but agreed wouldn't use them when time sensitive. Luckily, I have free accommodation at both ends on the journey and have the capability to work remotely (indeed when in Australia, I'm usually working remotely for some or all of my trip), so if it's delayed 2, 4, 12 or 24 hrs I can manage without too much fuss.

But the other thing that annoys me about JQ is well captured by Scoot in a recent email that I've included the screen shot below. Travelling with a laptop 7kg is a PITA, and it does randomly get enforced.

 

[jase05]

My experience in NZ is Jetstar are fine. However if it's important I get there on time, eg a wedding or funeral I use NZ and yes they are often twice or more the JQ price. However when you've simply got to be there NZ have more ability to fix IRROPS.

It’s funny you say that as we were flying ZQN-WLG and when we checked out of hotel the concierge asked who we were flying with as he said the JQ flight on that route is ridiculed by many locals for its tardy punctuality. We got to the airport and the JQ flight was scheduled to leave about an hour before us from the next gate but when we got to the gate our plane was there but JQ wasn’t. We started boarding and the JQ flight had just landed

 

[AIRwin]

Max bundles have been a game changer for me. The ability to turn every ticket into a refundable ticket for a reasonable cost has come in very handy, not only for when I decide to change my travel plans but also the ability to cancel and repurchase if the fare drops later on.

Can the credits from cancelling the original booking be used to book a lower fare while keeping the balance for future use?

 

[dylarr]

Can the credits from cancelling the original booking be used to book a lower fare while keeping the balance for future use?

The vouchers are single use only, any remaining value is lost. However, Jetstar (conveniently) issues one voucher for each sector on the booking which makes it a bit easier to use the full value. The vouchers also include the value of the bundle and they are valid for 3 years.

https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/bundle-fare-credit-voucher-terms-and-conditions

 

[aikman]

Can the credits from cancelling the original booking be used to book a lower fare while keeping the balance for future use?

Yes.

 

[AIRwin]

Yes.

View attachment 319798

Is this for a credit voucher from cancelling a booking with a Max bundle?

 

[aikman]

Is this for a credit voucher from cancelling a booking with a Max bundle?

Yes it is.

 

[AIRwin]

Yes it is.

Good to hear it's not single use. I wasn't sure and decided not to risk cancelling and rebooking at a lower fare so I've missed out on saving $50...

 

[Volki]

A) Flight delayed 24 Hours after arrival at airport. They did put us is nice hotel for the night though.

JQ seemed to have lots of issues with that flight when my GF was travelling back to Germany in September last year and Jetstar gave me one of the worst experiences I have ever seen (Tickets booked with AirFrance).

The original itinerary was MEL>SIN (QF), SIN > CDG (AF), and CDG > FRA (AF). But AirFrance changed the itinerary from Qantas to Jetstar about a month before travel, When we called AirFrance about the issue they were generally apologetic and moved her into business class for the first leg.

The real issues start the night before when she gets an email saying that the Jetstar flight will be 3 hours delayed (Departing 1500 rather than 1200), No problem she has a 7-hour layover in Singapore all is good.

We check out of the airport hotel as late as we can and end up at the airport 4 hours early Jetstar checks her in give her a food voucher and then looks at the printed-out boarding pass and says there is an issue with it and reprints it to move her out of business class (she did not realize this until after she boarded the plane).

I leave her at immigration pay my parking and headed home I track her flight leaving 30 minutes early (turns out this was the JQ flight from the day before that was 27 hours delayed). at 2130 I get a message from her saying that they are deplaneng after having sat in the plane the whole time and moved the flight to the next day. I drive to the airport to help her out / possibly pick her up and get there at 2330 and she is still waiting in the queue and has been messaging Air France support who are very confused because they think she is in Singapore since a Jetstar flight just landed and her flight is technically not cancelled.

Finally, we get to the front of the line and after arguing with them about a few things (No it's just her on this flight I'm here, because she doesn't speak English perfectly and has a fear of flying, No you can't deny her a hotel because she "has somewhere to stay in Melbourne" I live 2.5 hours away from the airport at the moment and you want her to be back at the airport in 7 hours) and we are told to go to the holiday inn. we go to the holiday inn and wait in queue for half an hour and they run out of rooms.



It's 0030 and we are sitting in my car in the holiday inn parking lot. Air Frances Australia support closes at 1900 because famously ticketing issues only happen during business hours...... but I'm able to use my US phone number to get through to their US support line and after some initial confusion as to why she is not in Singapore the support agent checks her out of the Jetstar flight and puts her on the 0530 emirates flight a few minutes later the new flights show up in the AirFrance app and we decide to just wait in the car for the 3 hours until check-in opens for the EK flight.

Once the EK flights check-in opens we head down EK support desk to make sure the ticket is all good and they can't find it.... it also disappeared in AirFrance app

30 minutes on hold with AirFrance support later and it turns out that Jetstar re-checked her into the original flight and removed her from the EK flight. they also locked the booking down so AirFrance couldn't change it another 30 minutes on hold and they issue her with a whole different booking on a separate PNR number with 20 minutes until check-in closes she gets checked in and is finally on her way.

Hmm, this is a long post, but take it as a cautionary tale.

 

[MARTINE]

JQ seemed to have lots of issues with that flight when my GF was travelling back to Germany in September last year and Jetstar gave me one of the worst experiences I have ever seen (Tickets booked with AirFrance).

The original itinerary was MEL>SIN (QF), SIN > CDG (AF), and CDG > FRA (AF). But AirFrance changed the itinerary from Qantas to Jetstar about a month before travel, When we called AirFrance about the issue they were generally apologetic and moved her into business class for the first leg.

The real issues start the night before when she gets an email saying that the Jetstar flight will be 3 hours delayed (Departing 1500 rather than 1200), No problem she has a 7-hour layover in Singapore all is good.

We check out of the airport hotel as late as we can and end up at the airport 4 hours early Jetstar checks her in give her a food voucher and then looks at the printed-out boarding pass and says there is an issue with it and reprints it to move her out of business class (she did not realize this until after she boarded the plane).

I leave her at immigration pay my parking and headed home I track her flight leaving 30 minutes early (turns out this was the JQ flight from the day before that was 27 hours delayed). at 2130 I get a message from her saying that they are deplaneng after having sat in the plane the whole time and moved the flight to the next day. I drive to the airport to help her out / possibly pick her up and get there at 2330 and she is still waiting in the queue and has been messaging Air France support who are very confused because they think she is in Singapore since a Jetstar flight just landed and her flight is technically not cancelled.

Finally, we get to the front of the line and after arguing with them about a few things (No it's just her on this flight I'm here, because she doesn't speak English perfectly and has a fear of flying, No you can't deny her a hotel because she "has somewhere to stay in Melbourne" I live 2.5 hours away from the airport at the moment and you want her to be back at the airport in 7 hours) and we are told to go to the holiday inn. we go to the holiday inn and wait in queue for half an hour and they run out of rooms.

View attachment 319806

It's 0030 and we are sitting in my car in the holiday inn parking lot. Air Frances Australia support closes at 1900 because famously ticketing issues only happen during business hours...... but I'm able to use my US phone number to get through to their US support line and after some initial confusion as to why she is not in Singapore the support agent checks her out of the Jetstar flight and puts her on the 0530 emirates flight a few minutes later the new flights show up in the AirFrance app and we decide to just wait in the car for the 3 hours until check-in opens for the EK flight.

Once the EK flights check-in opens we head down EK support desk to make sure the ticket is all good and they can't find it.... it also disappeared in AirFrance app

30 minutes on hold with AirFrance support later and it turns out that Jetstar re-checked her into the original flight and removed her from the EK flight. they also locked the booking down so AirFrance couldn't change it another 30 minutes on hold and they issue her with a whole different booking on a separate PNR number with 20 minutes until check-in closes she gets checked in and is finally on her way.

Hmm, this is a long post, but take it as a cautionary tale.

OMG - I broke into a cold sweat reading this
I think I would have been in foetal position on the floor after that last exchange

 

[cambriamarsh]

It’s funny you say that as we were flying ZQN-WLG and when we checked out of hotel the concierge asked who we were flying with as he said the JQ flight on that route is ridiculed by many locals for its tardy punctuality. We got to the airport and the JQ flight was scheduled to leave about an hour before us from the next gate but when we got to the gate our plane was there but JQ wasn’t. We started boarding and the JQ flight had just landed

Lots of commuters from ZQN and if I had a work commitment I wouldn't use them either.

 

[Volki]

OMG - I broke into a cold sweat reading this
I think I would have been in foetal position on the floor after that last exchange

Yeh, I think the thing that made this experience bad wasn't that Jetstar failed but how consistently they failed.

Also the fact that Melbourne airport fleeced me out of $130 of parking that 24 hours.

 

[Duffa]

Jetstar cancelled my flight to Melbourne (today) last night. Flying 4 hours later. Not the end of the world but now driving to Lorne in the dark.
Lucky I woke at 4am and checked my messages

 

[AIRwin]

I booked JQ on Easter Monday... Fingers crossed!

 

[serfty]

But AirFrance changed the itinerary from Qantas to Jetstar about a month before travel,

This would have been unacceptable to me. QF Economy for me MEL-SIN as a WP is much preferable than Jetstar "Business".

 

[Volki]

This would have been unacceptable to me. QF Economy for me MEL-SIN as a WP is much preferable than Jetstar "Business".

I would rate them both as "equal" but that's because I'm quite tall and wide so I don't fit into economy seats with much comfort.


But I she would have tried to change it back but she has even less status than I do.