rugbyskier
Junior Member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2010
- Posts
- 13
- Qantas
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- Emerald
As Canberra is my home airport I haven't had much to do with with Jetstar, in fact my only flight with them was a short Wellington-Auckland flight during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
I booked Jetstar for travel to Honolulu for the World Vintage Rugby Carnival at the end of September 2012. The carnival started on a Sunday evening and finished the following Saturday, so I booked in October 2011 for flights on the consecutive Sundays. I booked 'Business' as the fare was only marginally more than Qantas and Hawaiian Economy.
Fortunately in March I decided to check my booking and found that Jetstar had cancelled both flights and I was booked onto a flight leaving Sydney a day earlier and returning a day later. I had the displeasure of dealing with the robotic call centre staff in their Manila call centre, with inflexibility combined with an attitude of "I don't give a **** about you and your first-world problem' that was extremely frustrating. I ended cancelling the return flight (with a full refund) and after looking at Qantas and Hawaiian decided to book again on Jetstar and found that the fare ex Honolulu was $300 cheaper than booking it from Australia - that ended up covering most of additional two nights accommodation in Honolulu. I was annoyed that the flight change meant that I lost my preassigned seats but as I later discovered Jetstar's 'assigned seats' are a myth anyway.
I used the online check-in 24 hours out from the SYD-HNL flight and discovered that the seat that I had pre-assigned in March was not there. Fortunately I was first in the online check-in and was able to get it back through the check-in process. I was also pleased that the Qantas check-in staff at Canberra were able to link the two bookings so that I could check my bag through to Honolulu and use the QF inter-terminal transfer.
The flight to Honolulu was quite comfortable. Although it's a similar seat to the Qantas domestic Business (and therefore not lie flat) I was able to get a few hours sleep - getting changed into my Qantas F pjs from an earlier JNB-SYD flight was a good move. The supper meal out of Sydney was quite reasonable and the breakfast before Honolulu was also pleasant. The iPads are good in that you can choose what you want to watch, but the drawback is that it's impossible to watch when you're having your meal as there's insufficient space for both the meal tray and the iPad on your lap or table. The cabin crew were great on the flight - I appreciated the CSM waiting until the movie had finished before collecting my iPad.
The 'pre-assigned' seat farce occurred again for the HNL-SYD return flight. I could only get a aisle seat in the middle, when I had requested a window seat. All of the passengers on that flight were extremely annoyed - a mother was separated from her 10 year old son and a group of four ladies travelling together was spread out across the whole cabin. The check-in agent at Honolulu told me that this happens all the time and they and the cabin crew have to sort out the problem it creates. Apparently Jetstar reservations re-assign the entire Business cabin for the start of the online check-in process. I cannot understand why Jetstar bothers with the 'Select Your Seat' function on the website if they totally ignore it - all they are doing is annoying their customers.
The cabin crew on the Honolulu-Sydney was again quite good. They were friendly, helpful and efficient with the meal service. The return flight was a little less comfortable being in the third row, with a seat in front, and being a day flight. We arrived in Sydney on time and I had no problems making my connection to Canberra.
Would I fly Jetstar again? Only in Business and only if there was no oneworld alternative. I think there are a couple of things that require a major overhaul - they need to get rid of that offshore call centre, it's false economy when they piss off customers, and they need to either make their seat selection process actually work or get rid of it totally.
As for the World Vintage Rugby Carnival, it was a fantastic experience playing teams from around the world. The highlight for me was playing alongside Wallaby legend Stephen Larkham and getting a behind-the-back flick pass from him (I didn't have to call for it, he just knew I was there). Former All Black Greg Somerville also played at the Carnival and he's a great guy too. In addition to the rugby I did a day trip to the Big Island to see Kilaeua volcano, we had a sunset cruise off Waikiki, a luau and went turtle watching on the North Shore of Oahu.
I booked Jetstar for travel to Honolulu for the World Vintage Rugby Carnival at the end of September 2012. The carnival started on a Sunday evening and finished the following Saturday, so I booked in October 2011 for flights on the consecutive Sundays. I booked 'Business' as the fare was only marginally more than Qantas and Hawaiian Economy.
Fortunately in March I decided to check my booking and found that Jetstar had cancelled both flights and I was booked onto a flight leaving Sydney a day earlier and returning a day later. I had the displeasure of dealing with the robotic call centre staff in their Manila call centre, with inflexibility combined with an attitude of "I don't give a **** about you and your first-world problem' that was extremely frustrating. I ended cancelling the return flight (with a full refund) and after looking at Qantas and Hawaiian decided to book again on Jetstar and found that the fare ex Honolulu was $300 cheaper than booking it from Australia - that ended up covering most of additional two nights accommodation in Honolulu. I was annoyed that the flight change meant that I lost my preassigned seats but as I later discovered Jetstar's 'assigned seats' are a myth anyway.
I used the online check-in 24 hours out from the SYD-HNL flight and discovered that the seat that I had pre-assigned in March was not there. Fortunately I was first in the online check-in and was able to get it back through the check-in process. I was also pleased that the Qantas check-in staff at Canberra were able to link the two bookings so that I could check my bag through to Honolulu and use the QF inter-terminal transfer.
The flight to Honolulu was quite comfortable. Although it's a similar seat to the Qantas domestic Business (and therefore not lie flat) I was able to get a few hours sleep - getting changed into my Qantas F pjs from an earlier JNB-SYD flight was a good move. The supper meal out of Sydney was quite reasonable and the breakfast before Honolulu was also pleasant. The iPads are good in that you can choose what you want to watch, but the drawback is that it's impossible to watch when you're having your meal as there's insufficient space for both the meal tray and the iPad on your lap or table. The cabin crew were great on the flight - I appreciated the CSM waiting until the movie had finished before collecting my iPad.
The 'pre-assigned' seat farce occurred again for the HNL-SYD return flight. I could only get a aisle seat in the middle, when I had requested a window seat. All of the passengers on that flight were extremely annoyed - a mother was separated from her 10 year old son and a group of four ladies travelling together was spread out across the whole cabin. The check-in agent at Honolulu told me that this happens all the time and they and the cabin crew have to sort out the problem it creates. Apparently Jetstar reservations re-assign the entire Business cabin for the start of the online check-in process. I cannot understand why Jetstar bothers with the 'Select Your Seat' function on the website if they totally ignore it - all they are doing is annoying their customers.
The cabin crew on the Honolulu-Sydney was again quite good. They were friendly, helpful and efficient with the meal service. The return flight was a little less comfortable being in the third row, with a seat in front, and being a day flight. We arrived in Sydney on time and I had no problems making my connection to Canberra.
Would I fly Jetstar again? Only in Business and only if there was no oneworld alternative. I think there are a couple of things that require a major overhaul - they need to get rid of that offshore call centre, it's false economy when they piss off customers, and they need to either make their seat selection process actually work or get rid of it totally.
As for the World Vintage Rugby Carnival, it was a fantastic experience playing teams from around the world. The highlight for me was playing alongside Wallaby legend Stephen Larkham and getting a behind-the-back flick pass from him (I didn't have to call for it, he just knew I was there). Former All Black Greg Somerville also played at the Carnival and he's a great guy too. In addition to the rugby I did a day trip to the Big Island to see Kilaeua volcano, we had a sunset cruise off Waikiki, a luau and went turtle watching on the North Shore of Oahu.
