My experience through jetstar has been excruciating. As they understood the situation me and my friends were stuck in, as at the end of our trip my friend was rushed to the emergency room and this affected our ability to fly home on the correct dates. I explained this first of all.
- [ ] The first person I spoke to told me I could fly out Monday night from Bangkok and arrive in Melbourne Tuesday morning , which is what we needed as all of us had already told work we couldn’t make Monday. He even started to give me the seat numbers, moments into giving me the seat allocations he told me there was a glitch in the system and was no longer able to give me those seats. Leaving me with two options of leaving on Sunday which we would not be able to make and insurance wouldn’t cover as my friend had to be out of the hospital for 24hours before they Would cover it as you can’t fly when your sick.
- [ ] After loosing the best option we had, they told us the only option was to fly back Tuesday night and arrive Wednesday morning. Leaving us stranded and broke for two days in Bangkok, even after explaining the situation, they refused to temporarily hold seats for us while we tried to scrape together the money they asked for.
- [ ] As Jetstar seemed more than happy to screw me around with different flights and poor options. When we finally scraped together the money we needed, I was given three different prices, ok they weren’t big differences but it was frustrating as the price slightly increased each time, it started as $867.63 then increased to $871.89 then a further increase to $876.15 each time I asked to confirm the price. I blame this due to the ignorance of the telecommunication workers employed by the company as they continued to be unhelpful and changing details every time I asked to confirm. I know it’s not there fault for the changing dates and they were just doing there job, but the lack of solid answers and constantly give slight changes in times and prices made me have to re-confirm everything they told me multiple times and I got different answers each time.
- [ ] They told me I had to pay using there automated phone service, I explained that it hasn’t worked for me previously and would rather pay over the phone normally. She disagreed and connected me to the automated phone service and I entered my card details not once but twice and it did not work, I spoke to another telecommunications worker, at this point I was getting frustrated as I explained to her I told her it doesn’t work, I said can we please do this over the phone and she told me yes absolutly, only to connect me to the automated phone service after telling me she wouldn’t. This time the payment worked. And by this point I had called back and forth three times and had taken almost an hour to process my payment.
- [ ] Jetstar has caused extra stress to an already stressful situation. Seemed to be more than happy to leave us stranded and broke in a foreign country by openly taking the last of all of our money. Just for changing a flight we had already payed for.
- [ ] I would say the automated phone service is useless and frustrating when you need to talk to a person and it simply doesn’t understand you. The people I spoke to on the phone continuously gave me false hope for coming home at an earlier date, continued to add random extra charges out of nowhere for nothing. Like they asked me if I wanted to pay card there’s an extra charge, like I had a choice... ignorant.
- [ ] Perhaps the most infuriating part was the fact when booking our flights originally, we organized our ensurance through a separate more reliable company. Our ensurance company payed for absolutly everything up until the Jetstar flight changes which they told us would be reimbursed. They told us that Jetstar the company refuses to communicate with them, when I asked Jetstar why they told me it’s because we didn’t book our ensurance through Jetstar. This is inexcusable, and meant I was constantly on the phone to both one after the other.
- [ ] I am done with Jetstar, they are on my blacklist of companies never to use again. I guess you get what you pay for, cheap flights: unhelpful, unreliable, ignorant and full of extra charges they seem to pull out of thin air.
I would normally finish an email with a “ thank you” but after the experience I just went through I’m not thankful for any part of this. I’m just glad I booked my ensurance through a separate company as they have saved me and my friends from being stuck and broke.
The only thing I’m greatful for is the ensurance company (not Jetstar), told the hospital we were coming before the ambulance arrived and instantly paid the bills, offered accommodation, and to pay us back all our losses due to the incident. Best of all they didn’t have an automated phone service and answerd the phone straight away, and was empathetic for how stuck we felt.
I would appreciate a written apology from the company for the horrific service I have received although I don’t think I will get it. Please understand it was only the phone service I had issues with and the people I spoke to. My flights were fine, flight attendants were fine. The issues were deep seeded in the company policies and lack of regard for the customers who contribute to there pay checks.