Absolute disgust and disgrace

RE: Complaint of Jetstar’s Service, Operations and sheer obvious disrespect for the customer and a lack of respect for Passenger Privacy

To Whom It May Concern,

I would like to complain to Jetstar about Jetstar as a whole. This is not going to pretty or gentle, but it will be direct and honest.

Firstly, we (my wife, son (9 years old) and I) booked flights to Melbourne from Hobart on Thursday April 16th 2015. Although the online booking process for my wife and I was smooth – as it went through Flight Centre – the booking of my son was a nightmare, and the Over the Phone Staff are pathetic. I am not going to sit here and preach about the negative impacts outsourcing has on a company, as you should know it by now. Your Call Centre Staff asked for my name 3 times my contact number 4 times my address 6 times and still stuffed it all up. My confirmation email was incorrect, I didn't receive my son’s itinerary until the very last minute, because my details, my son’s details and flight number were sent to an email address that was nothing close to mine. It was even a different web service (Hotmail instead of Gmail). This is a severe breach of privacy and complete disregard for the respect of the customer and the customer’s details.

Once this was all sorted out, we arrived at the Hobart International Airport one hour before our scheduled flight. As we were lining up to check in – as we could not use the self-check in tools due to the Flight Centre Bookings – we were directed to another line dedicated to passengers flying to Melbourne on our flight. We were not given a reason. The people in front of us were given a reason, and the people at the end of the line were as well. We and the people in the middle were not. When I tried to ask your staff as they walked passed, they did not respond to me nor acknowledge me. When we got the service desk to check in – with about 40 minutes remaining until our flight – we were told by the staff member at the counter, that we have been pushed to another flight, as Jetstar decided to downgrade the plane from a 220-seat to a 180-seat jet, without any reason.

I had asked as to why, she could not give me a reason and did not even bother to try and make one up. We were given no alert to this, no explanation, no SMS, phone call or email, of this change, which occurred due to ‘Jetstar wanting to downgrade’. We received a measly $8 Voucher for refreshments at the airport for each passenger, which I found to be little compensation for the extra hour that we had to wait. On top of this, the plane that we had to catch in the end, was too delayed by nearly 45 minutes. Little apology was made to this delay, and it seems that Jetstar does not care for the people that pay them – the customer.

The staff on the plane were friendly – this is the only positive.

When it was time – on Monday April 20th – to return home to Hobart, we were slightly optimistic regarding the upcoming flight. Surely nothing could be like the flight in on Thursday. My how we were wrong. Upon arriving at the Tullamarine Airport at 07:00 – ONE HOUR AND TEN MINUTES before the schedule take off – the airport was packed… and I mean packed. However, Jetstar’s line was at least over 200 people in line, and was passed the Security Gates. The staff were of little help. I left my wife and son in line to keep our spot that was in front of the security scanners. This is how far we were away from the checkout. As I left my wife and son, I walked around to try and find a Jetstar Staff Member. Initially there was none, but eventually I found a woman helping another man. When she was free, I approached and asked, “Could I please as a question?” She simply replied with yes, but let me help this gentleman, which I was happy for her to do. Once she was finished… she proceeded to walk off away from me. She saw that I was following her, in a way that showed I needed her attention. Five other people approached her and asked her questions, I eventually had to butt in and ask about my flight to Hobart, as I didn’t think we were going to make it.

This was 30 minutes prior to my flight. She pointed in the general direction of a shorter, but closed off line and said, ‘Just go over there and line up!’. The way she said it made me feel unimportant, disrespected, and a waste of her and Jetstar’s time. This was the third time that I had to ask. The previous times, we were told that we had to wait. There was nothing we could do. We finally go to the head of the line, and with now 25 minutes before take-off, I was a little nervous, but relieved that we were finally able to check in. The staff member behind the counter was cold, distant and I felt that she was sitting there counting down to her break. She didn’t say a word, did not respond, didn’t ask for ID or any questions what so ever. I eventually after asking not once but twice about my luggage, put it on the belt, and told her it was there. I am uncertain if she had printed the tags for this.

Finally we got through to security – which took over 5 minutes to get through, (which I understand is not Jetstar’s cause), but as we finally got through security, my son needed to go to the bathroom, but couldn’t as we had to run, because the flight was marked as Final Boarding – please keep this in mind. So telling my son, who had to go to the Bathroom, had no breakfast, was hungry and was not comfortable because of this, we ran to gate 26 to make the boarding call. We were anxious, stressed, panicked and overall this was how we felt all morning. The only thing that could go wrong now was the fact that we were not allowed on the flight. We ran with my son in pain and tears because he had to go to the bathroom, we finally go to the gate, still showing as FINAL BOARDING… with the gate closed and NO ONE BOARDING and a MASSIVE LINE.

When we got on board, my son jumped up and went straight for the bathroom – once the Seat belt sign was off. He was then told to go back to his seat, as he is not allowed into the bathroom, as they are closed for another 10 minutes. This is not my first flight. This is not my first flight with Jetstar. NEVER have the toilets been closed and locked for 10 minutes after the seat belt sign has been turned off. Do you want people to piss in the seats?

During this flight, I was hit in the knee by a stewardess who was removing the above storage luggage due to an issue. My knee was whacked by the reinforced corner of another passengers suitcase. This would not have been an issue HAD I RECEIVED AN APOLOGY. I cannot describe my disgust in Jetstar as a customer. Their Customer Service is shit at best, their care for the passenger is not there. We – my wife, son and myself – have suffered through anxiety, stress, disgust, anger and a complete loss of faith.

During the long wait in the line to return HOME to Hobart, my wife and I were subject to the most horrific and stressful hour of our trip, as we didn’t know if we were going to miss our flight, and in turn have to pay extra money that we don’t have. This was never answered in line by your staff. If we had been answered and notified that this would not have been the case, our fears would have been quelled and we would not have had to go through this painful experience. Jetstar as a company from Contact Centre to Airport Staff need to have a serious look at their quality of service. Putting the Customer First and at the Centre of Everything you do is paramount in this day and age.

On the flight back home to Hobart, we were approached by one of your on-flight staff, Gabrielle. She mentioned that one of the other staff had noticed a very large email that I was writing, and realised that it was a complained email. This very email. I am assuming that Gabrielle was one of the senior staff aboard the flight, and she came over to ask if everything was alright. I appreciated this. I truly did. However, as much as we couldn't fault the flight staff, the fact that one of Jetstar’s staff was reading over my shoulder and recognised that I was writing a complaint to Jetstar, shows that the boundaries of personal privacy and personal space means nothing to this staff member (not Gabrielle I believe), or that Jetstar Staff have no regard for passenger’s personal space or privacy. This can only be described as a MASSIVE breach of Passenger Privacy!

This is not the first poor experience I have had with Jetstar sadly. I will not go into detail of any previous moment or moments, as one in particular has still, to this day left a bad taste in my mouth, and one that I had hoped would be repaired by this experience. Boy, was I wrong! I will say this though, this will be last poor / bad experience with Jetstar, as I am certain that I will NEVER fly Jetstar again.

In disgust,