Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel flight

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hawthorn2008

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June 5th, 2012

Guilty until Proven Innocent:The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel flights!

My business trip for a day started out well. Morning flight on Virgin Australia from Sydney to Brisbane was efficient. Meetings went well. However, 2 hours prior to my Jetstar (JQ819) 8:30pm flight taking off back to Sydney, I received a text. My return flight had been cancelled. This is where the fun and games began.

The text message simply said, “Please call reservations for recovery options”. Recovery options? Did the plane need medical attention? Or would I need recovery after this!

I called the number. I was welcomed by the wonderful invention of the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century; the Voice Message Prompt System. Yes, that wonderful computerized/ human voice that asks you the same question numerous times, only to come back with a ‘sorry, I didn’t get that answer, can you please repeat?’ or words to that effect. The bottom line, the system is designed to waste your precious time and is a digital attempt to make you more infuriated whilst you wait for a ‘real person’.

After a 15 minute wait listening to music and Jetstar hyperbole, I thought my ‘Eureka’ moment had arrived: when a live operator finally answers…only to be disappointed when the line went dead a few seconds later!

By this stage I was in my friend’s car and on the way to the airport. By the time I jumped through the hoops of more voice prompts and put on hold to the same music and repeated Jetstar advertisements, another 20 minutes had disappeared faster than an Arctic glazier. Finally, I was met with a live operator. Who sounded very ‘un-Aussie’ and quite possibly a Filipino.

I was welcomed by the Jetstar call center agent heralding “It seems that you would like to make some changes to your flight, how can I help you?” A scripted response no doubt! A little taken back, I responded with a quick retort: ‘Actually, it is not I that wishes to make the changes, unfortunately your airline has cancelled the flight and hence I am calling to find out my recovery options’.

A quick apology by the agent, and she explained to me that I had two options: amend the flight or request a refund. I asked if there were other flights available tonight? Her response was; unfortunately I cannot offer you a flight tonight as we don’t have any other flights to Sydney. I asked, ‘How about another airline’?
She responded: ‘Unfortunately we can’t allow you to fly on another airline. However, I can get you on a flight in the morning. Alternatively, I can give you a refund.

I explained to her that I was almost at the airport and I would see if an alternative airline had an available flight tonight and if so, I would call back to request a refund from Jetstar. She agreed and re-confirmed that I would need to call back to obtain the refund.

Upon arriving at the airport – just after 7pm -, I approached a very friendly customer service gentleman at Virgin Australia and was told that they had a flight available at 8pm. I went ahead and paid for the flight, walked through customs and then called back Jetstar to request my refund.

I called back the 131xx_ number and after another 15 minutes of voice prompting, hold music and Jetstar advertisements until I was finally welcomed by ‘Al’(agent ref: XIDE07) – a live operator – who went through his SOP, almost15 minutes later (after having to recount the facts), I found myself continually put on hold and told that he had to get approval for the refund. My patience was beginning to wear thinner than the Ozone layer. I asked, “Why is this so difficult?” I have called back and just wish to accept the offer of refund.

The reply was, “I need to verify the information”.

The cat and mouse games had begun, and after 25 minutes, Al stated that‘You have changed your flight to a Qantas flight with a ground staff member and therefore was no longer eligible for a refund!’Struggling to comprehend this comment, I thought, ‘I must have a previously unknown twin using my name and making bookings…’I was also wondering how Jetstar’s balance sheet must look? Are things so bad that they have to invent stories to save them from making AUD100+ refund? Maybe I should be more patriotic and sympathetic to their plight and forget my right to claim a refund?

Jokes aside, I was bemused and perplexed. I asked to be transferred to the supervisor. It was obvious to me that poor old “Al” must have somehow managed to get his facts wrong. I know it must sound weird that a call center staff would get anything wrong but what other explanation was there to it?

Unfortunately, “Al” was demonstrating more defiance than an Aussie digger in the trenches and was determined not to transfer me to a supervisor because he was there to ‘solve’ my problem. He once again stated to me why I changed my flight to Qantas via the ground staff? By this time I felt like I was in a witness box. I was being cross-examined by a want-to-be attorney. This was ‘War of the Roses’ and we were not even married.

Convinced this whole Jetstar experience was an illusion, I pleaded with “Al” to retrieve the recording of my conversation with his colleague and assured him that if he or his supervisor listens; all will make sense. He would also clearly hear his colleague state, that I needed to call back to request the refund and also the fact that Jetstar could not offer me a flight tonight. “Al” wasn’t interested! He just kept banging on like a drum machine. Why did you change your flight with our ground staff?

After repeatedly stating the fact that within 1 minute of arriving at the Virgin check in area I purchased a ticket and at no time did I approach any other airline staff, “Al” was still not convinced. He was assured of ‘his’ facts, as Jetstar would never allow a transfer booking without having proof of identity.

Well it seemed that Al was moving as fast as Uluru. Nor could not be convinced to listen to the voice recording of his colleague and myself, and he was not interested in passing me over to a supervisor. The whole experience was turning into a joke. I was sure it was a prank and at any given moment, someone would say, “You’ve been Punk’d!” Unfortunately for me, Ashton Kutcher was nowhere to be seen.

After a good 30 minutes on the phone with Al, we were disconnected…I was beginning to dread dealing yet again with the ‘human teleprompt’, but by this time had managed to memorize the numbers and not have to listen to her whole spiel. This time around I was focused on getting past the frontline staff. No offence, but they were programmed by there script and anything that fell left or right of that was clearly a case of the client is always wrong. Besides, I had to now deal with the fact that I have a clone that was going around rebooking my flight on a night that I was told that there were no flights.

The next cab off the rank was Claudia (agent ref: XJON03); she was a budding Muhammad Ali from the beginning. She was doing everything within her power not to allow my polite request to speak to a supervisor. After a good (or bad) 25 minutes on the phone of waiting for supervisors to attend to me (at one point she told me that one had become available – only to wait another 10 minutes and for her to come back and say, ‘sorry, she was available but the customer asked another question!) However, during our conversation, she once again threw down the book and stated, that I had changed my flight with a ground staff.

Unfortunately, after 25 minutes waiting for the supervisor, another connection with Jetstar’s help number was once again mysteriously terminated. Prior to us being terminated, Claudia did tell me that if I wish to challenge the position of Jetstar, I would need to file a complaint in writing. And if the agent was found to be wrong, I may receive a refund. This was annexed with the on-going issue of me allegedly changing the booking (supposedly after I purchased another ticket…).

I conveyed to Claudia, ‘given the amount of time and frustration that I have dealt with, that the only complaint I would put in writing would be to every media outlet I can source and whoever I can think of that would like to hear this story.’ At that point, I was sure that logic would prevail and someone would say, ‘sorry Mr. Rennie but we profusely apologize for the inconvenience, there has been a major miscommunication and we take complete responsibility and apologize for accusing you of re-booking your ticket after you purchased another ticket from our competitor!No such luck.

It is now the wee hours of the morning. I made it back to Sydney thanks to Virgin Australia. The issue with Jetstar is now no longer limited to the refund of the ticket, it is about principals. It is bad enough having a 180 degree U turn pulled on you (call back for your refund if you don’t require us to rebook) but to state point blank that I had made a change of booking with their ground staff at the airport, when the only ground staff I spoke to was their competition to purchase a new ticket is hotter than the Kimberley desert at noon. I maybe a fool to fly Jetstar in the first place but to accuse me making a booking transfer (when they had told me there were no flights) was ludicrous and insulting.

One would imagine some bright spark with the Jetstar management requesting their call center to provide them with a recording so that can hear the situation between their agent and myself. The moment that they do, they will realize that I purchased a ticket within minutes of hanging up from their first operator. From that point, logic should prevail and one would imagine them being very embarrassed about the actions of their staff.

No matter which way Jetstar wishes to leverage PR to water down this debacle, the facts will always remain with me and every person I share this story with that the company has some real internal problems on its hands.

I wish Jetstar luck in trying to be consistent and establish some real customer service with their ‘in-bound’ call centers practices. I emphasize ‘inbound’ due to my numerous pleas for a call back, which I was emphatically told by their call center agents that they do not make calls out to customers, I needed to call them back! That meant another dealing with my favorite computerized human!!!

Unfortunately, I can’t help but wonder how many other ‘customers’ have shared similar frustrations dealing with Jetstar’s flight cancellation and recovery options?

Dale
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Interesting story - could I just ask or clarify a few things, just to get things straight in my mind.

1. This incident happened on evening of June 5th in Brisbane Domesitc airport?
2. Have you still got the original cancellation txt from JQ?
3. Just to confirm, when you arrived at the airport you went straight to VA to purchase your flight home? (Keep records)
4. Just to confirm that you definately didn't talk to any JQ or QF ground staff at BNE airport in person? Only VA staff.
5. Do you have an incredibly common first and surname i.e. John Smith?
6. Do you have a work colleague or freind whom dropped you off at the airport who heard any or all of your phone calls?

I would suggest putting what you have there in email/writing but maybe taking out some of the more colourful language, and put a timeline on it. The central question you should be asking is to see the what evidence JQ has that you "changed your flight with our (JQ) ground staff".

It sounds to me like there has been a mistake somewhere at the JQ end and the JQ phone operators were under the beleif that JQ ground staff in BNE have somehow arranged to put you on a QF or on a VA flight. From that mis-communication I think that's where all your problems start.

Once this is sorted out other people may be able to advise better, and if it turns out to be a JQ booking system error or JQ phone call centre problem then what should you be entitled to? (beyond the refund of course)

I can definately see that JQ819 was cancelled on the 5th June. Do anyone know what happened to the other PAX on that flight? Seems like you have a genuine complaint - maybe some of the other more knowlegable people here may be able to assist in where to email, or whom to call to resolve this - but I would do my homework/prepare before taking any hasty or possibly confrontational tone.
 
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Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

See my responses in CAPS.

Interesting story - could I just ask or clarify a few things, just to get things straight in my mind.

1. This incident happened on evening of June 5th in Brisbane Domesitc airport?

CORRECT

2. Have you still got the original cancellation txt from JQ?

YES

3. Just to confirm, when you arrived at the airport you went straight to VA to purchase your flight home? (Keep records)

YES

4. Just to confirm that you definately didn't talk to any JQ or QF ground staff at BNE airport in person? Only VA staff.

NO.

5. Do you have an incredibly common first and surname i.e. John Smith?

NO

6. Do you have a work colleague or freind whom dropped you off at the airport who heard any or all of your phone calls?

YES. MY ACCOUNTANT.

I would suggest putting what you have there in email/writing but maybe taking out some of the more colourful language, and put a timeline on it. The central question you should be asking is to see the what evidence JQ has that you "changed your flight with our (JQ) ground staff".

NOTED

It sounds to me like there has been a mistake somewhere at the JQ end and the JQ phone operators were under the beleif that JQ ground staff in BNE have somehow arranged to put you on a QF or on a VA flight. From that mis-communication I think that's where all your problems start.

Once this is sorted out other people may be able to advise better, and if it turns out to be a JQ booking system error or JQ phone call centre problem then what you should be entitled to beyond the refund of course.

I can definately see that JQ819 was cancelled on the 5th June. Do anyone know what happened to the other PAX on that flight? Seems like you have a genuine complaint - maybe some of the other more knowlegable people here may be able to assist in where to email, or whom to call to resolve this - but I would do my homework/prepare before taking any hasty or possibly confrontational tone.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Thanks for the quick response. I won't claim to be as much of an expert as some others here, but what is going to be your next course of action? I assume that you want (and will eventually get) the refund for the JQ flight. Will you also be pushing for JQ to reimburse you the cost of the VA flight back home? If so - you may have to prove that JQ did not offer you an suitable alternative to return home, that is prove that they were unwilling to put you on a QF or VA flight that night at their expense. Its only my opinion, but I think a JQ flight home the next morning is unsuitable, unless JQ offered you taxi fares and accom at BNE overnight.

Could I also assume that a JQ credit voucher is not what you want?

Will be really interested to hear what other people in AFF think about this.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Thank-you eastwest101 for your note.

First and foremost, I would be aiming for a written apology from management. Secondly, I would be requesting the ticket for the flight JQ canceled to be refunded. And yes, I would also be looking for my VA flight to be reimbursed.

I am confident that I have enough evidence to prove beyond doubt that I was not offered a suitable alternative flight. The next day was completely unacceptable. Especially given the fact it was not offered in conjunction with a taxi and accommodation.

You assumed right, a JQ credit voucher is not acceptable.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Not that I recommend it, but if you originally paid for your JQ ticket on a credit card you could call your bank to try to reverse the transaction (if possible) for services charged but not provided. There are a few other threads about this that you could search for, but you may find that JQ are a bit more responsive if you can get your money back off them that way. If you do this you may lose the right to fight to get the VA flights reimbursed, I assume that the VA flights were a lot more expensive than the original JQ flight?


Eventually someone with more experience in these matters will post something here about that.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

To the OP. You have way way waaaaay more patience than me. After about 5 minutes with "Al" I would have hung up and next business day, after writing down all the facts, would pursue a charge back on the credit card. The SMS and a written record of conversation telling you that there were no more flights would be enough in my books and I reckon you'd be successful.

Its just not worth dealing with rubbish companies. Contrast JQ in this case with VA or even QF ... a few hundred dollars saved isn't worth the blood pressure medication I'd have to buy to deal with JQ.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

I agree with Moopere - its up to the OP to try to recover the VA fare as well - if successful - would probably prompt some sort of internal JQ investigation and actually find the source of the problem and maybe prevent it happening to someone else. Its entirely up to the OP about how much financial and/or public relations pain they want to inflict on JQ.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

It is possible that the ground staff had rebooked the OP onto Qantas without advising the OP - this could lead to the situation experienced.

But I agree - poor form from Jetstar.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

It is possible that the ground staff had rebooked the OP onto Qantas without advising the OP - this could lead to the situation experienced.

But I agree - poor form from Jetstar.

This is what I suspected as well, or maybe even the ground staff rebooked the OP onto QF but didn't tell the call centre or update the booking on the computer system. If so - it would seem that if the OP had fronted up to a JQ counter upon arriving at BNE airport this would have been resolved in a much better way. But just speculation at the moment.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Sady for the OP, a perfect illustration of why not to fly Jetstar.

Good luck and I think you'll eventually get your $100 fare back, but they would be unlikely to pay alternate flights (they offered you a flight the next morning so they've given you an option which in their eyes you chose to refuse and seek refund.

You might get the VA fare back on travel insurance (if you have any covering this trip).
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Computers have an audit log. Specifically ask the time date and name of operator who allegedly re-booked you, TRANSACTION NUMBER, OPERATOR NUMBER then ask for a airport video recordings to be 'saved' for Jetstar internal investigation. Your story has poisoned me off Bog*Star, but hey I am the lazy sod who did not collect my $100 voucher when the engine had a fanbelt problem (8 hour delay). Turned out not to be the fanbelt too, but a rotor.

I suggest you call the 7PM Show, and arrange a live recording of getting onto their lines. Other option is like VodaFail, set up a website called JetstarFail, and collect details from ACCC. A Current Affar is still your best bet if their PR are lazy and stupid not to pay dearly for this debacle.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

...think you'll eventually get your $100 fare back, but they would be unlikely to pay alternate flights (they offered you a flight the next morning so they've given you an option which in their eyes you chose to refuse and seek refund.

You might get the VA fare back on travel insurance (if you have any covering this trip).


Aah.. now I remember - this has come up before - see the JQ Terms and Conditions:
9.1 Schedules
(a) Jetstar does not guarantee it will be able to carry you and your Baggage in accordance with the scheduled date and time of the flights specified. Schedules may change without notice for a range of reasons including but not limited to bad weather, air traffic control delays, strikes, technical disruptions and late inbound aircraft. Flight times do not form part of your contract of carriage with us.

(b) Before we accept your Booking, we or our Authorised Agents will tell you the scheduled departure time of your flight and it will be shown on your Itinerary and Tax Invoice. We may need to change the scheduled departure time of your flight after your Itinerary and Tax Invoice has been issued. If you give us or our Authorised Agents contact information, we or they will try to let you know about any changes.
(c) If, after you pay for your Booking, we make a significant change to the scheduled departure time of your flight or the flight is cancelled (except where this is due to circumstances beyond our control) and:
* this change means you are unable to use your Booking for its intended purpose; and
* we or our Authorised Agents cannot book you on another flight which you are prepared to accept;

we will give you a fare refund. Unless otherwise required by law, we will not be responsible for paying any costs or expenses you may incur as a result of the changed time or cancellation.

9.2 Changes due to circumstances beyond our control
Where a delay or cancellation is caused by circumstances beyond our control, whether you have checked in or not, Jetstar will try to assist you to get to your destination, but will not be responsible for paying any costs or expenses you may incur as a result of the delay or cancellation, unless otherwise required by law.

Also see this existing thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....iscussion/jetstar-schedule-changes-29810.html


There was a big discussion in AFF somewhere about the exact wording of airline T&C's and how binding they are. I remember the discussion revolved around various T&C's, and that T&C's cannot over-ride consumer laws or any other laws no matter what they say. JQ could write a small print T&C's promising your first-born child into slave labour if they want but it dosen't necessarily mean that they would be able to rely on their T&C's to allow child slavery in a court of law. I think contract law also came into it.

So the OP would seem to fall into the definition of 9.1 part C or 9.2 ? Have a close look at where the OP was. He wasn't in the 9.1 part A.

Maybe he was in 9.1 part c. In which case this sentance is the key:

* we or our Authorised Agents cannot book you on another flight which you are prepared to accept;

Note that this does not specify a "jetsar flight" but merely "another flight". The next available JQ flight was the next day. So therefore if there were seats available on another carrier (which the OP does have proof of, as there were avail seats on VA and probably QF) and JQ failed to book him on another flight (or failed to tell him that he was booked on another flight). If I were the OP I would contend that the JQ call centre did not present another alternative suitable flight or failed to check if there was a suitable alternative flight. Therefore they may have breached their own T&Cs.

If he was in 9.2 "circumstances beyond JQ's control" - then it will be a different argument, and I would be looking at why the flight was cancelled in the first place, presumably an aircraft went tech or is so delayed that a replacement aircraft couldn't arrive in BNE soon enough to beat the SYD curfew. In this case using thejetstarsource.com.au on page 2 and try to track down exactly which aircraft was scheduled and why the delay. This may not be archived so I would screen capture this soon. If the delay was a rolling delay accross the JQ network due to weather or one or more aircraft being unservicable then it will be an extremely complex task to reconstruct if JQ indeed did give fair warning about this delay. JQ may have cancelled it due to low load factors but I don't know if its possible to retrospectivly find this out on the internet.

Also interesting to note that as far as I could tell in the PDS for Jetstar Jetcover Travel Insurance - I don't think that having the travel insurance box ticked in this case would have helped the OP! Thats interesting in itself but will lead to others to comment.

One day an airline will do this sort of thing to a consumer lawyer, and then we will really see some action about stuff like this.
 
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Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Thank-you for all the information and comments.

eastwest101, after reading through your extensive reply above and dissecting what was offered to me I note the following:

You noted: "If I were the OP I would contend that the JQ call centre did not present another alternative suitable flight or failed to check if there was a suitable alternative flight. Therefore they may have breached their own T&Cs."

In fact, this was the case. No flight on the same evening was offered. They stated themselves that they had no other options for travel on the same day. As a result, if I had of accepted their offer, I would have incurred expenses (hotels, taxis etc) and inconvenience.

It seems clear that on that basis alone, they would be required to offer a refund. Which was one of the options they presented when I first contacted them.

Whichever way I look at the situation, I see it as poor form. They have broken their own terms and conditions, they rescinded an offer of an refund (by stating I had changed the flight with their ground staff at the airport), and wasted both parties time on the phone. They have also lost a customer and have created an on-going negative PR situation.

No matter which position JQ take, I have the facts on my side. One thing for sure, I would not want to be on their end of the PR!
 
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Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

It is now the wee hours of the morning. I made it back to Sydney thanks to Virgin Australia. The issue with Jetstar is now no longer limited to the refund of the ticket, it is about principals. It is bad enough having a 180 degree U turn pulled on you (call back for your refund if you don’t require us to rebook) but to state point blank that I had made a change of booking with their ground staff at the airport, when the only ground staff I spoke to was their competition to purchase a new ticket is hotter than the Kimberley desert at noon. I maybe a fool to fly Jetstar in the first place but to accuse me making a booking transfer (when they had told me there were no flights) was ludicrous and insulting.

I can't for the life of me understand why on earth you never saw Jetstar at BNE Airport first before you went and purchased a new ticket on Virgin. I'm sure the reason JQ BNE Airport rebooked you is they took some initiative to book you an alternative flight as back up until such time they knew what your plans were.

JQ often rebook pax on QF if there is a flight available that evening. If you were going out to the airport anyway I would have gone to JQ checkin not rung the reservations number as these people would have the most up to date information.

Always see the people at the airport who work for the airline that has cancelled the flight before you make any decisions like buying a new ticket with another airline & refunding your JQ ticket.

I know someone who was on one of the evening QF flights BNE/SYD - either QF557 or QF559 & they mentioned that they had a number of JQ disrupted pax on their flight which I'm fairly certain would have been your flight.

I think there's a fair chance that you could have been one of them had you actually spoken to someone from JQ at BNE Airport.

I've heard JQ doing PA's on several occasions telling pax about a cancelled flight and how they've rebooked people on QF.
 
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I am confused as to why you didn't speak to any JQ ground staff at the airport?

Not condoning the cancelling of the flight, but by seeing them may have stopped any of the dramas that you did have.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

What ozbeachbabe has said is absolutely correct. I would definitely have whipped over to JQ at the airport straight away. It does indeed seem JQ had rebooked you on QF for that evening and all this could have been avoided. It does not excuse the poor communication at the call centre of course.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

I can't for the life of me understand why on earth you never saw Jetstar at BNE Airport first before you went and purchased a new ticket on Virgin. I'm sure the reason JQ BNE Airport rebooked you is they took some initiative to book you an alternative flight as back up until such time they knew what your plans were.

JQ often rebook pax on QF if there is a flight available that evening. If you were going out to the airport anyway I would have gone to JQ checkin not rung the reservations number as these people would have the most up to date information.

Always see the people at the airport who work for the airline that has cancelled the flight before you make any decisions like buying a new ticket with another airline & refunding your JQ ticket.

I know someone who was on one of the evening QF flights BNE/SYD - either QF557 or QF559 & they mentioned that they had a number of JQ disrupted pax on their flight which I'm fairly certain would have been your flight.

I think there's a fair chance that you could have been one of them had you actually spoken to someone from JQ at BNE Airport.

I've heard JQ doing PA's on several occasions telling pax about a cancelled flight and how they've rebooked people on QF.

Good question. Very simple answer.

I was told 'point-blank' by the first JQ operator, that they had no other flights available that night. My only alternative was a morning flight. Therefore, it was redundant to visit there ground staff, and waste more time!
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

I am confused as to why you didn't speak to any JQ ground staff at the airport?

Not condoning the cancelling of the flight, but by seeing them may have stopped any of the dramas that you did have.

7pm at night. I was told by the 'recovery option JQ staff' that I did not have any other flight options. Furthermore, it was agreed between the JQ operator and myself that as I would be at the airport in a matter of minutes it was fine to see if I could get a flight via another carrier. If I could, I could ring back and they would refund my ticket. If I couldn't, they would re-book me on the flight the next day.

I arrived at the airport. Booked a ticket on VA, and went through security to board my flight. No time risking flight; to be messing around with ground staff of an airline that I was told by their frontline staff had no flights available.
 
Re: Guilty until Proven Innocent: The customer is always wrong when Jetstar cancel fl

Good question. Very simple answer.

I was told 'point-blank' by the first JQ operator, that they had no other flights available that night. My only alternative was a morning flight. Therefore, it was redundant to visit there ground staff, and waste more time!

Yes that is the impression that I got from your original email as well. But my own attitude would be to ignore whatever the call centre says and see the ground staff at JQ anyway. After your experience - if the same thing happened to me - I would definately see the JQ ground staff just in case the ground staff have placed cancelled flight PAX on a Qf flight! I know its 20/20 hindsight now and is not much consolation for your inconvenience.

I am sorry to hear of your inconvenience but at least it is a good learning experience for others flying JQ who have their flights cancelled. I think that ozbeachbabe's response has some good points and I reckon a lot of others (including me) were suspecting the same about what actually happened to you, but it dosen't excuse JQ's conduct.

I think the take-away from this whole saga is do not necessarily rely on the the JQ call centre to even be on the same page as the JQ ground staff. Its really annoying to think that the JQ ground staff in BNE may have tried to do the right thing and re-book their cancelled PAX on another suitable QF flight, but to no avail in your case, as their communication to you was incomplete and/or misleading. That is JQ's problem.


The apparent failure of either JQ call centre or JQ policy to clearly give you a full set of options will be your very valid point of contention. If you are going to pursue this further could I ask hawthorn2008 to return here and post a quick update, if and when, you get a response from JQ complaints/management? Would be good for others to see how this is settled.
 
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