What a nightmare. First time flying JetStar again after roughly 4 years, and I get to enjoy sitting in the plane like a chump unexpectedly for 2 hours for 'maintenance', after racing madly through Auckland almost rush hour traffic to make it on time. The flight is only 1 hour long, so tired, hungry at the end of a races work day - no lunch, was hungry at 4pm before flight and would have stopped to eat if had known, will now be 7pm or later before eating, as they won't serve us food, although we did get a drink. [The last JetStar flight my bags (inside & out) arrived soaking wet in Queenstown with no explanation, and nobody to contact. Fun times.
If I was 30 seconds late for check in, I bet they would have not let me fly. Only flight have ever missed (not been able to fly) was JetStar, for being roughly 2 minutes 'late' on check in (before online check in). I know Air NZ has a similar policy, but at least their flights generally run on time too, and they handle delays better.
Like another recent poster here, I only booked JetStar to use Qantas FF points before expiring [where my cash 'taxes' were also half flight value + a heap of points, like the other poster]. For this reason, I could not check-in online, which would have saved all my race to the airport dramas.
Note: Still waiting - they keep saying "safety first..." etc, but they should have a much better maintained plane, AND/OR should warn people in advance. The paperwork alone for this issue has taken 50 mins on its own, so they should have known that before flight time.