Run for your baggage

Dear Jetstar,
Your pilots have always got me to my destination quickly and safely. Your cabin crew have always treated me professionally and courteously. Your Sydney staff have always given me great service with a smile – even helped me above and beyond. Your Adelaide ground staff on the other hand …
What is with your Adelaide ground staff?
Minutes before I was due to board my flight from Adelaide to Sydney, a cabin baggage nazi singled me out for my cabin baggage (a small wheeled bag and a laptop bag) to be weighed. My baggage was found to be overweight. I was told to check in one of my bags.
While it was true that my bag was overweight, (1) I had flown from Sydney to Adelaide with exactly the same cabin baggage without issue, (2) my laptop bag fits under my seat and doesn’t take up any *precious* locker space, (3) informing me at the gate that I had to check my bags in minutes before boarding and minutes before the check in counter closed meant I had to run from the gate to the check in counter to get my bags checked in, (4) I travel regularly and have carried the same items with me in the same way many times before (on Jetstar and other airlines) without issue.
Your Adelaide ground staff were quite hostile and very unsympathetic to my plight. They treated me like a criminal just because my bags were a little over weight.
Your staff forced me to run from the furtherest gate at Adelaide Airport to the furtherest check-in counter just so I could get my bags to my destination. And that meant I had to go through security *again* and hurry back to the gate to be in time to board.
When I asked to make a complaint, the woman at the check in counter would not initially help me. I had to demand quite strongly three times before a card was thrust at me and I was “dismissed”. In the heat of the ‘discussion’ I suggested that I would never fly with Jetstar again, the woman did not seem disappointed in the least – I got the impression that that would suit her just fine. I really don’t think your Adelaide staff realise that their jobs depend on people flying with your airline.
While I did have more weight than the baggage limit, when I purchased my ticket I had actually paid for 20kg checked in baggage allowance that I hadn’t used. So I don’t feel that I was ‘getting away with anything’.
Your Adelaide staff could have been nicer and more helpful in enforcing the limit. Your staff could enforce the limit equally and consistently for all passengers. Your staff could be more sympathetic to passengers in my situation. Your staff could help passengers avoid having to run through the terminal with their bags to sort out the situation.
I really think your Adelaide staff could do with some remedial customer service training – they treat passengers as enemies rather than customers who help pay their wages, they don’t represent your company in a very good light and they are out of step with your other staff.
Maybe some of your senior managers should try flying cattle class – undercover (i.e. don’t wear a business shirt) - and see how they are treated when they infringe the ‘rules’ in even a minor way.
If your staff are going to weigh cabin baggage, maybe your staff should do this earlier than minutes before boarding and in such a way that any ‘problems’ can be sorted out quickly and without hassle.
I used to be a fan of Jetstar (it’s not a luxury service, but I have always had reasonable service for the price I have paid), and I have friends who work for your company, but this incident has left a bad taste in my mouth and I will be telling anyone who cares to listen about my now low opinion of your Adelaide ground staff. I have never had such bad service from such unsympathetic and unhelpful staff ever before.
I don’t want any money, but I would like an apology and I would like you to make sure that customers like me are looked after better in the future.
Yours in disgust,
Simon Fuller