A family of four was left stranded in Bali for 18 days after Jetstar cancelled their flight home and didn’t offer an alternative flight until more than two weeks later.
After a holiday in Indonesia, AFF member Hutch0007 and their family was booked to return to Melbourne on a Jetstar flight departing on 16 September 2022. Unfortunately, around this time, several of Jetstar’s Boeing 787 aircraft were out of service with unexpected maintenance issues and many Jetstar international flights were delayed or cancelled. This flight from Denpasar to Melbourne was one of those impacted by a last-minute cancellation.
Delays and cancellations can happen with any airline. But what happened next was definitely not typical or standard procedure.
No alternative flights offered until 17 days later
Hutch0007 called Jetstar and was advised that the next available flight would be on 3 October 2022, or 17 days later than originally booked. They were very unhappy about this, but felt that they had no choice but to accept this.
By this time, many other flights back to Australia were already full or very expensive.
This is what the member wrote on the AFF forum:
Booked with Jetstar for family of 4 holiday to Bali.
Was was scheduled to return to Melbourne on 16/09 on flight JQ36. The day prior, i went to ‘manage booking’ to order meal plans and saw the flight was cancelled. Called the customer service team and was advised the next available flight JQ44 on 03/10 (17 days later). I was furious but had to move on.
Then on the 02/10, i got another cancellation and was put on flight JQ1044 on 04/10. I kept an eye out on their flight status and JQ44 on the 03/10 did go ahead and i was lied to and kicked off the flight after already being delayed.
They said they’ll offer $150AUD per room and $30 per passenger and will not cover Travel Insurance extension (+$210), VISA extension (+$520). I’ve read their conditions of flights and everything stipulates around the 72 hours cancellation and delay period. Nothing talks about 19 days.
I’m at a loss, financially and mentally on what to do because their reimbursement policy does not cover the cost of living in Bali for the additional 3 weeks.
– Hutch0007
While waiting for a flight home, the family incurred expenses such as accommodation and food costs. They also had to pay to extend their travel insurance and extend their visas for Indonesia which would have otherwise expired while waiting for Jetstar to fly them home.
Meanwhile, they lost wages due to being unable to work, missed a relative’s funeral and missed a specialist medical appointment with a months-long waiting list.
After also being bumped off the replacement flight 17 days later, they did eventually return to Melbourne after being stuck in Bali for a total of 18 days.
A fight for compensation
Mentally and physically exhausted, Hutch0007 (who has asked for their real name to be suppressed) then tried to claim compensation from Jetstar for the extended delay. Unfortunately, this proved almost as difficult as securing seats on a flight back to Australia.
Jetstar had offered to pay for some accommodation and food expenses, but this did not cover all of the additional costs incurred as a result of the extended stay.
The airline did eventually agree to reimburse all of the costs incurred, and offered a voucher for future travel on Jetstar. However, this only happened after the passenger lodged a complaint with the Airline Customer Advocate and we contacted Jetstar.
Jetstar has apologised
In a statement to Australian Frequent Flyer, a Jetstar spokesperson said they had contacted the passenger to sincerely apologise for their recent travel experience.
“While we do everything we can to avoid disruptions unfortunately, they are sometimes unavoidable. In the event of a cancellation, we’re committed to getting customers rebooked on the next available flight and we are investigating why this did not occur in this instance,” the Jetstar spokesperson said.
“We have reached out to [Hutch0007] to confirm reimbursement is being processed for accommodation, meals, travel insurance and visa extensions while waiting for their return flight. We have also offered them a travel voucher to apologise for the inconvenience and frustration caused.”
Jetstar recommended that the passenger contact their travel insurance provider about any other outstanding out-of-pocket expenses.
When passengers are stuck away from home due to airline disruptions, Jetstar says that it will help cover accommodation expenses, meal costs and other reasonable expenses including visa extensions.
It’s still not clear why Jetstar did not offer an earlier flight back to Melbourne, as a 17-day delay is clearly unacceptable.
At the time, Jetstar had paused new ticket sales on flights to and from Bali due to the number of flight disruptions and one possibility is that the call centre agent was simply looking for the next commercially-available seat for sale (of which there weren’t any for several more weeks). But the call centre staff should have been treating this as a disruption caused by the airline and looked for any available seats to get the passenger home, even if it meant rebooking them on another airline.
Know your rights
With the benefit of hindsight, Hutch0007 probably should not have accepted the offer of rebooking onto a new flight 17 days later, and pushed harder to get an earlier flight back. Jetstar told us that they do occasionally rebook passengers onto other airlines, which could include Qantas, Virgin or Garuda, if they are unable to re-accommodate them on another Jetstar flight within a reasonable timeframe.
However, it would also seem that Jetstar’s communication to the customer about their rights as a consumer has been poor in this instance.
This passenger claims they were under the impression that they weren’t entitled to a refund as they had been given a replacement flight, albeit 17 days later. To be clear, this is not Jetstar’s policy and passengers are generally entitled to a request a refund if their flight is cancelled by the airline.
Even so, requesting a refund may not have been that helpful in this kind of situation as there were very few alternative flights still available to book at short notice and the prices would have been many times higher than the original ticket cost. Jetstar should have taken more initiative to try to get this family home sooner.
Thankfully, these kinds of cases are rare. A large number of Jetstar passengers have been impacted by network disruptions over recent months, but most got replacement flights home within a few days.
Either way, this case study highlights the need for better consumer protections in Australia for airline passengers – such as the EU261 laws in Europe that mandate minimum compensation and standards of treatment (including clear communication about a passenger’s rights) for lengthy delays, cancellations, involuntary bumping from flights, downgrades and lost luggage.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Abandoned in Bali by Jetstar
