Two months after I purchased my ticket for a family holiday to Christchurch, Jetstar re-scheduled my flight for the first time. I was more than happy to accommodate Jetstar and accepted their new flight schedule. But apparently this is not the end of it. A month after that, another request to accept a change of flight. This time I was pretty upset and request for a refund my case ID. CAS-913051-G4XF1X. Jetstar came back to say that I have no right to a refund even though they are the ones who forced upon us to accept the new flight schedule not once but twice.
I had also experienced one of many flights that were delayed and delayed the longest, flight from Auckland to Dunedin where it took us 6 hours to get to our destination timed from check-in. In that time I could fly from Auckland to Sydney and return, omg....
TO EVERYONE WHO IS READING THIS, TAKE HEED DO NOT FLY WITH JETSTAR EVER AGAIN AS THIS IS HOW THEY OPERATE THEIR BUSINESSES :
1 ) Those who fly Jetstar know that delays and cancelled flights are far more common than other airlines.
2 ) Jetstar has the dubious practice of combining flights if passenger loads are low without regards to disrupting their passengers’ schedules although they always claimed that it is unavoidable, yeah right, for their benefit not the customers
3 ) Those whose flights have been cancelled and are entitled to a refund find dealing with Jetstar an exercise of patience and perseverance
4 ) Long upfront payment (you can purchase ticket 1 year in advance), inflexibility, inconvenience, risk of delay and poor service. Its service has fallen to abysmal level and it is treating its own customers with contempt.
Ask yourself is it worth experiencing the above just for a little savings in the airfare?!!
Comments
Despite what Jetstar say you
Despite what Jetstar say you are legally entitiled to a full refund if they cannot give you a flight alternative that suits you. Their terms and conditions are not valid. Take them to small claims and you will get your money
Michelle, I totally agree
Michelle,
I totally agree with Ash. Jetstar cannot refuse to give you a refund if they change or reschedule your flight at will despite what they say in their contract. I went through the exact situation less than a year ago and decided to take them to court. I won the case and received all my out of pocket expenses as well as the cost of the tickets. You can read my story at http://www.dontflyjetstar.com/complaints/result-my-law-suite-against-jet....
It is probably too late for you and you may have accepted and used the rescheduled flight. But for anyone reading your story should understand that the Consumers Laws in Australia are very clear. Amongst many conditions the following two applies in these cases.
1. "A product must match its description". If you buy a flight for a specific date and time that is what you should be given. Anything else is not what you purchased. Jetstar will tell you that the flight date and time do not form part of your contract. That claim is rubbish. It doesn't have to. The consumer law overrides any scam contract conditions that Jetstar makes you agree to.
2. "A contract must be fair and not cause significant imbalance in the parties rights". The Jetstar contract is blatantly in favor of Jetstar. You cannot make any changes to the flight once you part with your money but Jetstar can make as many changes as they like (in your case twice) without you having the rights to accept or reject the change.
Continue fighting this company and with popular pressure hopefully we may either force them to stop treating their customers with contempt or better still see them off our skies for good.
Your legal entitlement to a
Your legal entitlement to a refund depends on how many hours' difference there is between the original flight and the re-scheduled one, if it's a certain number of hours then you have your choice of flights as close as possible to the ones that were cancelled/delayed or even the choice of a refund but if it's only one or two hours' difference then you do not have that option. Flight date and time and seat allocation are not confirmed as part of your contract and that's made blatantly clear in the terms and conditions you have to say you've read before you can complete your booking.
Please don't waste your time with small claims court as you consented to having your flight times changed when you confirmed your booking and agreed to the conditions of carriage. The contract itself is indeed blatantly in favour of Jetstar (what contract written by a massive company isn't in favour of the company?) but once you've read it (and you should always read contracts carefully when they're presented to you) you should be able to understand all your rights as a passenger and exactly what you consent to by completing a booking. Virgin are much the same, Tiger are far worse.