Jetstar 9 hour difference with no alternative, and no compensation? Why no change to Qantas??

[jeremy83]

Hi All,

I recently got notified that a domestic Jetstar flight I have booked in April has been "changed", and I am now seemingly booked on a flight that leaves 9 hours earlier. We have arranged transport to the airport that cannot be changed, and as such the new flight time (9:40am rather than 6:30pm) will come at a substantial financial cost in addition to the obvious inconvenience.

I noted that there are several Qantas flights doing the same route that have flight times much closer to the one we originally booked and I contacted Jetstar to request we get moved to one of these. The request was rejected.

I was told that I could either get a refund, or take the flight 9 hours earlier, there were no other options. Re-booking the flight with Qantas (or any of the other available options) would now cost double what I paid for the original flights (because of the time that has elapsed between when I booked these flights and now).

Has anyone else been successfully transferred to a Qantas flight? How??

I asked if there was anything else they could offer, suggesting that perhaps they could at least pay for the alternative travel arrangements I would need to take to the airport, or put us in a hotel near the airport that evening so we could still use our original travel plans and so on, but I was told I could stick with the flight I was given or get a refund.

Are there any other avenues apart from the Airline Customer Advocate, or contacting the airline direct using their complaints processes that people have found successful?

The representative I spoke to repeatedly mentioned that the conditions of carriage specify that they can make changes to schedules for a variety of reaons such as bad weather, technical disruptions, etc. Since the flight is not for some months I asked them why specifically this flight was delayed such that I could check whether this reason is covered under the conditions of carriage and they kept telling me they couldn't provide this information??

An excerpt from my chat that summarizes the options I was given is as follows...

Jeremy: Please confirm that;
1. You will not provide any form of compensation, even to cover obvious and proveable extra expenses that would be incurred by getting to the airport 9 hours earlier than expected.
2. You will not be able to provide me with accomodation to be able to use my existing travel plans and catch a flight the following morning.
3. You are not able to book me on a Qantas flight, or escalate the issue to someone who can.
4. You are not able to give me anything at all except the replacement flight that leaves 9 hours earlier, or a refund.

Wilfredo Jr.: I'm sorry but we cannot cover any form of compensation incurred by schedule change for the affected flights we can offer is free move on the next or prior available flight.

We can only cover accommodation ,etc if the flight disrupted by overnight
- I'm afraid we have limited access on Qantas flight we can move the flight to Qantas if there is a Qantas flight marketed on your preferred date
- The options what we can offer is free move or refund if the changes is not suitable

Jetstar's Conditions of Carriage state that Schedules may change without notice for a range of reasons including bad weather, technical disruptions and late inbound aircraft. Flight times do not form part of your contract of carriage with Jetstar.

Thanks,

Jeremy.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think that’s about right unfortunately.

Have you checked Jetstar’s customer charter? The ACA is only able to assist in matters relating the the charter.

In the absence of any mandated compensation scheme in Australia, your available options can be limited to a full refund, or accepting and alternative flight. They don’t have to put you on another airline.

You could also ask to go on a flight the day before, if that’s of any use to you.

 

[jrfsp]

For last minute changes and cancellations they will offer QF but for reservations far in advance its either accept or get a refund

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF @jeremy83 Sorry about the circumstances.

As the others have said, unfortunately you are stuck with what JetStar have offered you. 'The fine print' unfortunately allows them to do what is occurring here.

 

[jeremy83]

Thanks for the replies all!!

Genuinely quite surprised as the options I am left with will incur significant cost (not to mention the inconvenience) with no option for compensation. Had we known when we booked we could have booked with a different airline, but now its too late. Since this flight is bringing my family home from a trip we can't just cancel it.

We have travel insurance which may help us here but I would be surprised!

If anyone else has exploited some sort of alternative avenue for this type of issue and had any success at all please let me know!

Thanks again!!

Jeremy.

 

[Mwenenzi]

jeremy83 Welcome to AFF

For a flight that far in the future (~5 months) even EC261 would not cover if in the EU/UK. So no recourse for you.
Can you change the transport at destination?. Others on the same flight may be effected just like you.
What is the route? It may change again

I recently got notified that a domestic Jetstar flight I have booked in April has been "changed", and I am now seemingly booked on a flight that leaves 9 hours earlier. We have arranged transport to the airport that cannot be changed, and as such the new flight time (9:40am rather than 6:30pm) will come at a substantial financial cost in addition to the obvious inconvenience.

I noted that there are several Qantas flights doing the same route that have flight times much closer to the one we originally booked and I contacted Jetstar to request we get moved to one of these. The request was rejected.

I was told that I could either get a refund, or take the flight 9 hours earlier, there were no other options. Re-booking the flight with Qantas (or any of the other available options) would now cost double what I paid for the original flights (because of the time that has elapsed between when I booked these flights and now).

Has anyone else been successfully transferred to a Qantas flight? How??

I asked if there was anything else they could offer, suggesting that perhaps they could at least pay for the alternative travel arrangements I would need to take to the airport, or put us in a hotel near the airport that evening so we could still use our original travel plans and so on, but I was told I could stick with the flight I was given or get a refund.

Are there any other avenues apart from the Airline Customer Advocate, or contacting the airline direct using their complaints processes that people have found successful?

The representative I spoke to repeatedly mentioned that the conditions of carriage specify that they can make changes to schedules for a variety of reaons such as bad weather, technical disruptions, etc. Since the flight is not for some months I asked them why specifically this flight was delayed such that I could check whether this reason is covered under the conditions of carriage and they kept telling me they couldn't provide this information??

An excerpt from my chat that summarizes the options I was given is as follows...

Jeremy: Please confirm that;
1. You will not provide any form of compensation, even to cover obvious and proveable extra expenses that would be incurred by getting to the airport 9 hours earlier than expected.
2. You will not be able to provide me with accomodation to be able to use my existing travel plans and catch a flight the following morning.
3. You are not able to book me on a Qantas flight, or escalate the issue to someone who can.
4. You are not able to give me anything at all except the replacement flight that leaves 9 hours earlier, or a refund.

Wilfredo Jr.: I'm sorry but we cannot cover any form of compensation incurred by schedule change for the affected flights we can offer is free move on the next or prior available flight.

We can only cover accommodation ,etc if the flight disrupted by overnight
- I'm afraid we have limited access on Qantas flight we can move the flight to Qantas if there is a Qantas flight marketed on your preferred date
- The options what we can offer is free move or refund if the changes is not suitable

Jetstar's Conditions of Carriage state that Schedules may change without notice for a range of reasons including bad weather, technical disruptions and late inbound aircraft. Flight times do not form part of your contract of carriage with Jetstar

 

[jeremy83]

jeremy83 Welcome to AFF

For a flight that far in the future (~5 months) even EC261 would not cover if in the EU/UK. So no recourse for you.
Can you change the transport at destination?. Others on the same flight may be effected just like you.
What is the route? It may change again

Hi Mwenenzi,

Thanks for the response! Good tip RE it may change again, probably not worth booking alternative transport yet as we could be even more in the red!

The flight/route was not so much changed as we were just removed from this flight and put on the only other direct flight with the same airline on that day. I am not sure why, they wouldn't give me any other details (the email just says "your flight has changed").

The flight number is:

JQ800​

The only thing I can think of is that it was overbooked and we have been bumped (but obviously I have no idea).

The transport to the destination was being provided by someone with a different flight dropping a hire car back to the airport, I cannot ask them to change their plans by several hours to suit us so I will need to find alternate transport.

Thanks,

Jeremy.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi Mwenenzi,

Thanks for the response! Good tip RE it may change again, probably not worth booking alternative transport yet as we could be even more in the red!

The flight/route was not so much changed as we were just removed from this flight and put on the only other direct flight with the same airline on that day. I am not sure why, they wouldn't give me any other details (the email just says "your flight has changed").

The flight number is:

JQ800​

The only thing I can think of is that it was overbooked and we have been bumped (but obviously I have no idea).

The transport to the destination was being provided by someone with a different flight dropping a hire car back to the airport, I cannot ask them to change their plans by several hours to suit us so I will need to find alternate transport.

Thanks,

Jeremy.

I don’t think you are going to get anywhere with this to be frank.
A flight that’s been changed to a morning departure from Brisbane airport 5 months ahead of schedule will not get you any compensation, hotel or transfer to a Qantas flight.

I think your expectations are a bit unrealistic.
I would accept the changes and investigate public transport to BNE or take the refund and rebook with VA or QF.
I assume accepting them would be the cheaper option but of course don’t know how far away you are from BNE.

 

[elanshin]

Welcome to AFF and sorry to hear your situation.

In regards to why noone is able to tell you whats going on, it's because the support staff won't be privy to fleet management and upper management decisions. At this far out, it is significantly more likely that they are doing a flight schedule and timing shuffle more than anything else. It appears that Jetstar only has 1 flight per day so shuffling it to another flight isn't an option in this case.

Also try reaching out to the company that is transporting you to the airport, you may find that they may be willing to accomodate you if you ask them to change the times (not cancelling their service). Generally the better businesses will accomodate a schedule change like this this far out in advance (they may not like cancellations though).

Otherwise it's basically doing the math on how much it costs to get new flights (which I'm guessing being Easter / School Holiday period based on your 9:40 timing) is a bit pricier.

 

[jeremy83]

I don’t think you are going to get anywhere with this to be frank.
A flight that’s been changed to a morning departure from Brisbane airport 5 months ahead of schedule will not get you any compensation, hotel or transfer to a Qantas flight.

I think your expectations are a bit unrealistic.
I would accept the changes and investigate public transport to BNE or take the refund and rebook with VA or QF.
I assume accepting them would be the cheaper option but of course don’t know how far away you are from BNE.

Thanks for your input!

Yeah it seems to be the general consensus that you are right. I expected that a switch to QF would be reasonable since a 9 hour time difference is a pretty big gap, and I figured this would be an easy change for them to make.

In general terms I wouldn't say its unrealistic to expect that I would be given another option, the fact that I am still 5 months out does not change the fact that this will end up costing me money and considerable inconvenience.

Having said that you obviously know a lot more about the actual industry and in context of the industry my expectations may well be unrealistic!

Thanks again!!

Cheers,

Jeremy.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Thanks for your input!

Yeah it seems to be the general consensus that you are right. I expected that a switch to QF would be reasonable since a 9 hour time difference is a pretty big gap, and I figured this would be an easy change for them to make.

In general terms I wouldn't say its unrealistic to expect that I would be given another option, the fact that I am still 5 months out does not change the fact that this will end up costing me money and considerable inconvenience.

Having said that you obviously know a lot more about the actual industry and in context of the industry my expectations may well be unrealistic!

Thanks again!!

Cheers,

Jeremy.

Stick around and you will find a wealth of information here and members willing to help you.

I hope your family trip goes smoothly.

 

[jeremy83]

Welcome to AFF and sorry to hear your situation.

In regards to why noone is able to tell you whats going on, it's because the support staff won't be privy to fleet management and upper management decisions. At this far out, it is significantly more likely that they are doing a flight schedule and timing shuffle more than anything else. It appears that Jetstar only has 1 flight per day so shuffling it to another flight isn't an option in this case.

Also try reaching out to the company that is transporting you to the airport, you may find that they may be willing to accomodate you if you ask them to change the times (not cancelling their service). Generally the better businesses will accomodate a schedule change like this this far out in advance (they may not like cancellations though).

Otherwise it's basically doing the math on how much it costs to get new flights (which I'm guessing being Easter / School Holiday period based on your 9:40 timing) is a bit pricier.

OK, that makes sense.

Unfortunately I was basically just catching a lift with a friend from the Gold Coast. The friend has a flight in the afternoon, so I didnt want to burden them with getting their family up at 5am and then sitting in the airport all day. The alternative as I saw it was an 85km taxi in peak hour which would likely be horrendously expensive and likely would need to leave very early to make sure we get there on time.

I am investigating the train which would be $100 but still much cheaper than an alternate flight.

Again, I am obviously just a little inexperienced as the consensus seems to be that this is acceptable, I just figured that there would be another way.

Thanks again for everyones input!!

Post automatically merged: Dec 8, 2023

Stick around and you will find a wealth of information here and members willing to help you.

I hope your family trip goes smoothly.

Will do, thanks again!

 

[TomVexille]

Take the refund and book OOL-ADL instead? Might be cheaper to get to the airport there?

 

[dajop]

Would flying direct from Gold Coast be an option for you? The ADL flight leaves at 11:50am which is better than 9:40am out of Brisbane.

 

[jeremy83]

Take the refund and book OOL-ADL instead? Might be cheaper to get to the airport there?

Genius!!

Investigating now. Thanks!

 

[Flyfrequently]

Genius!!

Investigating now. Thanks!

Welcome to AFF @jeremy83
Let us know how you go - happy travels

 

[Andy72]

You can even try getting Jetstar to change you to the Adelaide flight, but might even be less than your current flights.

 

[Vic]

I've successfully dealt with this type of issue in the past.
Firstly, when is the next jetstar flight?
What I did was tell them the prior flight is not acceptable. This was because I had to be at work at the time of the prior flight.
They offered the next flight which was the next day.
I then asked which hotel they were going to place me due to the disruption over night.
Jetstar then move me to Qantas.

All pre-covid.
But the advice to suck it up here is not really that helpful.
I suggest working through the logical steps. Offered flight not suitable, what is the alternative that jetstar offer? Let them make the offer, which we know will be next day. That then makes them responsible for accomodation. In my case I said something like 'Great next day is perfectly acceptable, what hotel will you put me in?'

In terms of Jetstar conditions of carriage:

Jetstar's Conditions of Carriage state that Schedules may change without notice for a range of reasons including bad weather, technical disruptions and late inbound aircraft. Flight times do not form part of your contract of carriage with Jetstar.

In relation to a flight that is 5 months away all of the example reasons are completely irrelevant. Unless Jetstar can predict the weather, aircraft operational times, and technical issues in April next year. If they can can they give me the powerball numbers for next week?

I hope you pointed out that the disruption was clearly within Jetstar's control.

 

[CaptJCool]

I’m surprised there was no booking from OOL to begin with

I’ve not encountered the idea before that somehow it’s the airlines. Obligation. To get you to the airport on time
(Like cheap fares are often less than the taxi fare into the CBD eg Melbourne)

Now the flights been changed on you, you’ve encountered the hassle of working out how to adjust your timings because if the flights cancelled, it’s an inconvenience one way or the other. Fly earlier or as suggested above the next day

Of course also now apparently caught in the wash of Easter prices

I’ve done the train a couple of times for afternoon flights - usually first service doesn’t work for early morning flights and then there’s potential taxi delays on the Motorway as well

Personally from ALL the stories I’ve heard from people I worked with forced to use JQ (BFOD) or only option I wouldn’t go there when it involves time dependant travel

This of course means paying more for the initial fare to ensure reliability

Jester Jestar

 

[jeremy83]

I’m surprised there was no booking from OOL to begin with

I’ve not encountered the idea before that somehow it’s the airlines. Obligation. To get you to the airport on time
(Like cheap fares are often less than the taxi fare into the CBD eg Melbourne)

Now the flights been changed on you, you’ve encountered the hassle of working out how to adjust your timings because if the flights cancelled, it’s an inconvenience one way or the other. Fly earlier or as suggested above the next day

Of course also now apparently caught in the wash of Easter prices

I’ve done the train a couple of times for afternoon flights - usually first service doesn’t work for early morning flights and then there’s potential taxi delays on the Motorway as well

Personally from ALL the stories I’ve heard from people I worked with forced to use JQ (BFOD) or only option I wouldn’t go there when it involves time dependant travel

This of course means paying more for the initial fare to ensure reliability

Jester Jestar

Hi,

Thanks for the response!

As mentioned earlier I was catching a lift to the airport with a friend, so it made sense to go to Brisbane Airport for "free" rather than a $70 taxi to BNE. Also preferred to spend the morning with my friend rather

I am not suggesting that it is the airlines obligation to get me to the airport on time, but rather to provide me with a flight somewhere within a reasonable timeframe of my original flight such that I can use the transport that I have already arranged. It seems to me that a 9 hour time difference is pushing the friendship a little and is likely to inconvenience anyone in this situation. I mention the transport specifically because it has a direct financial impact, and I was willing to accept the considerable inconvenience if the airline was able to compensate me for the direct cost of their change to me.

I've successfully dealt with this type of issue in the past.
Firstly, when is the next jetstar flight?
What I did was tell them the prior flight is not acceptable. This was because I had to be at work at the time of the prior flight.
They offered the next flight which was the next day.
I then asked which hotel they were going to place me due to the disruption over night.
Jetstar then move me to Qantas.

All pre-covid.
But the advice to suck it up here is not really that helpful.
I suggest working through the logical steps. Offered flight not suitable, what is the alternative that jetstar offer? Let them make the offer, which we know will be next day. That then makes them responsible for accomodation. In my case I said something like 'Great next day is perfectly acceptable, what hotel will you put me in?'

In terms of Jetstar conditions of carriage:


In relation to a flight that is 5 months away all of the example reasons are completely irrelevant. Unless Jetstar can predict the weather, aircraft operational times, and technical issues in April next year. If they can can they give me the powerball numbers for next week?

I hope you pointed out that the disruption was clearly within Jetstar's control.

Thanks for the suggestions, this was exactly what I was after!

Fortunately the alternative flight leaving from Gold Coast turned out to be a reasonable option for me so I have cancelled the original flight and rebooked from Gold Coast. I expect it is still going to be a reasonably hefty taxi fare from my accomodation, but the flights worked out about $70 cheaper overall so that should hopefully cover it!

Jetstar has told me I will need to wait a "minimum of 14 business days" for them to process my refund which seems pretty ridiculous but hey, ho.

The last Jetstar flight I took was coming back from Bali to Adelaide earlier in the year and that was cancelled last-minute requiring me to stay an extra night abroad, so I think I might need to look at other airlines in future and not be such a cheap-skate!

Thanks again all for the responses, happy with the result. Hopefully they dont mess with my new flight!!

Cheers,

Jeremy.