Cancellation and bags of nothing.

I had booked my flight to Cairns months ago. I was to fly up on November 12, view the eclipse on November 13 and fly home on November 14. As I had never flown with Jetstar before, I had no reason to believe that they would be different to any other of the many airlines I have previously flown with.

Cue the phone call telling me my flight had been cancelled. I was the offered a choice. I could fly up on November 14, 3 hours after I flew back from Cairns, or I could go on November 8. Since I don't do time travel, I was left with no option but to fly up on November 8. A whole 4 days ahead of my original plan.

As I was to now be in Cairns for close to a week, I could no longer get away with packing a couple of changes of clothes in a backpack and travelling light. I now needed to take a week's worth of stuff. As I had to pay for 4 extra nights of accommodation in a city that was being flooded with tourists for a once in a lifetime event, it's not surprising that this was not only difficult, but expensive.

All I was offered by Jetstar was the option of having my outbound flight refunded, meaning I would no longer have a seat on that flight, but I would have one on the flight back from Cairns. How they expected me to get to Cairns in the first place was beyond me. This, however, was the only remedy I was offered. No baggage allowance to cover the luggage I would now have to take, just told to accept the flight change and shut up. They actually had the nerve to make it sound as though they had done me a favour by letting me change the flight without paying an extra fee. Well, how very generous of them.

I have had flights cancelled before. Every time, the airline has placed me on the closest available flight and some have even gone out of their way to sell my ticket to another airline to get me where I needed to go as close to when I needed to go, without ever expecting me to pay anything extra. One even upgraded me to premium economy, even though there were still seats left in regular economy as an apology for making me take a flight that was only 45 minutes later than the flight I was originally to take.

Not Jetstar, however. I was left with absolutely no option but to accept the flight change and now have to make sure my bag is within carry-on limits. This will be a feat of packing unrivalled in the history of air travel.

This is the first time I have ever used Jetstar and I can absolutely guarantee it will be the last.