Flight JQ 935, from Cairns to Brisbane.

my mum, dad and wife and I flew from Cairns to Brisbane on 19th Jan 2010.
My mum and dad ordered a beer, but my pregnant wife was sleeping so I didnt bother.
My Dad got up and passed me half of his beer in the can.
Then, a rude lady approached, jumped on the 3rd seat which was empty, woke my wife up and said in a loud stern voice, "where did YOU get that beer?" this designed to embarass me as she had clearly found out from one of the other cabin members that I hadnt purchased a beer.
My reasons for beleiving this are that lady didnt serve me and wasnt around when the drinks were being offered.
I explained to this lady that my father passed me half of his beer as I didnt want to wake my wife.
She accepted this, but it left a nasty after taste and I was furious.
The next time I saw a cabin crew member, I complained about the attidtude of the lady and the fact that she had awoken my wife.
The lady sheepishly informed me that this was the team leader Lisa.

At that point it became clear to me that this was an "I'll show you how its done!" approach.

There was no apology or any attempt of communication from Lisa or any other of the cabin crew members thereafter.

In fact, Lisa avoided me like the plague for the rest of the flight,

A nicer approach would have done, or even an apology or general explanation, but there was none of this, she just upped and left.

I manage 12 managers who manage 275 frontline staff, I have to say, If I were treat to treat people like that, I would not last long.

Lisa, get a grip. If you make a mistake, admit it. You were hard faced enough to approach me in the first place, at least have the decency to see the job through and explain the error or thought process.

I have to say, I flew with Jetstar from Briabane to Avalon on 6th Jan 2010, and back on 8th Jan, both flights were superb, as was the flight to Cairns from Brisbane.

Unfortunately however, you tend to remember when you have been treated in such a manner and this overshadows the brighter aspects of Jetstar.

I would like to see Jetstar take the correct action towards this 'team leader', I believe an emotional intelligence course would suffice.

Scott - UK

I have many problems with this airline and hyere are the letteres I have sent to the with stil no outcome. Please help.


Ref: BNE JQ 826 06 JAN 10 / V1V46L

Dear Jetstar Customer Relations,

I am writing to now make an official complaint regarding the way that I have been treated, spoken too, messed about, lied too and had costing made to me in an unacceptable way by your airline that advertises as ‘an airline that likes to save you money’.

The bullet points below summarise what has happened:

* I booked a flight from Sydney to Brisbane whilst in the UK, I called the service centre at a later date to add baggage allowance. After an hour on the line and not getting to speak to anyone, I gave up as it was costing me so much money, I tried a number of times to do this.

* On the 6th Jan I checked in for my flight at Sydney airport to be charged $110 for baggage allowance, I explained the situation that I had tried to call and arrange for it to be added to my booking as it was cheaper, but I was told I would have to pay the amount or not allowed to take the baggage.

* Around the 8th Jan I called the customer care centre to wait over an hour to speak to someone who then told me I would have to write in and gave me the address to do so. Around this time I sent a letter to you at this address to explain what had happened.

* A member of your team called me to resolve the issue, and stated that there would be a $50 voucher issued to me via email within 5 days and when I book another flight the voucher could be used.
I was happy with this outcome.

* Over 2 weeks later the voucher had not arrived so I called you ounce again to see what was going on and I was told ‘we are very sorry the voucher was not sent and we will send it again’. I was told it would arrive within 48 hours via email.

* Funny enough 2 weeks later the voucher had not arrived! Once again having to call your ‘service’ centre to once again see what was going on! On this occasion I was told that a member of the customer relations team would be contacting me within 48 hours!

* A member of your customer relations team (Adam) contacted me and said that there was a mistake made, apologised and said that he would increase the value of the voucher to $100 and this would be issued within 48 hours and that he was also passing this onto supervisor to see if anything else could be done. I was not happy with this as the previous phone calls had already cost me $80 so the problem from the beginning with the baggage charge had not been resolved. This was around the 15th Feb.

* Then guess what? 4 days later I still had no voucher! (Eric) in customer service (yes I had to call again) said that he would get a call back within 48 hours from customer relations….. 48 hours later…SO did (Rob) in customer service…. As I had to call again as no call back was given.
In-between all this I have sent 2 emails to which guess what? I have had no reply.

* I booked a flight to Sydney to leave on the 25th Feb. I paid full price for this flight.
The $100 voucher arrived the day before the flight. As you can imagine, I found this very useful or not as I had just paid full fare for a new flight, a very good way to save your customers money indeed.
The day before my flight to Sydney, I went to the check in desk 2 hours early to speak to someone about the problem I was having, I went to the check in desk as obviously there was no customer service desk.

After nearly 2 hours a member of staff at the airport in Brisbane managed to get one sector refunded for me at a value of $89, this would have covered the cost of my Phone calls and then the voucher that was sent would have resolved the issue at the beginning. I then thought that I would not have to speak to anyone else from Jetstar again! How wrong could I be.

* When I returned from Sydney, I went to book a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne for a date in May, using the voucher that I have waited nearly 2 months for, to find the voucher was invalid and could not be used.

I called ‘customer service’ and once again waited 45 minutes to get through to then be accused of using the voucher already and how dare I call. Apparently I had used it for a flight to Sydney on the 25th Feb, Which works out the refund that was issued was given instead of the voucher, which was not the agreement. I was disgusted at this attitude, lack of respect and rudeness by your customer ‘service‘ agent. But there again what can I expect from such a badly ran company.

I requested a call back from the customer relations team to find out what was going on. This was on the 14th March. Funnily enough it is now the 19th and I have had no call back.

I have no idea why you have a customer service centre that has no idea how to provide a service and a customer relations department that have no idea how to build good relations with customers?!

What I want from this is to resolve this issue with a written apology, the voucher returned to me at a higher amount and within a time frame that is kept too and to be at least treated with respect as a customer.


I want to make you aware that I will not be contacting you via telephone, email or letter again, I will be going direct to a newspaper, news company and use the internet to publicise your extremely bad and ignorant way that you think you can treat customers that spend money with you.

For an airline that advertises ‘An airline that likes to save you money’ I find this to be a total lie, and from recent events that are already on the news I think others agree.

I look forward to your reply very soon, and I hope not to be waiting another 2 months for this, also I do not wish to be left voicemail to call you back as like I have stated already I will not do so.


I then sent a letter to The CEO of jetstar with stil no reply...

Dear Bruce Buchanan of Jetstar Airlines,


I write to you in reference to my previously sent letter which is attached and which your company emailed me stating that they had received.

After waiting 3 weeks for Jetstar to reply I have no option but to do what I stated in the previous letter unless we resolve this matter immediately.

I will commence distribution of this complaint along with witness statements and call records over to the news agencies, reporters and various websites around the world if I do not have a reply within 5 days.

I will be doing this with the support of, witnesses who have been present when I have called Jetstar time and time again, call records that I have gained from my telephone network company and the help of Robert Heath Solicitors, Brisbane.

I see Jetstar as a company that has total disregard for customers. So much so that your complaints team can’t seem to deal with complaints in a time frame that is set by themselves.
As for a call handling agent, answering a telephone call in a decent manner, is unheard of and a waiting time for them to do that is a disgrace and if you are lucky to get in contact with one of these rude agents you normally get ‘cut off’ as they don’t seem to be trained to be able to transfer a call in a correct manner, all of which I have proof of.

I hope to get a reply from you to resolve this issue.


Regards


Jay Williams

I had been planning a trip to go and visit my girlfriends home town near Hiroshima for about a year. I thought I would fly the cheapest airline and Jetstar was the obvious choice, I even splurged a bit and paid for starclass to japan but economy back (starclass was not really worth it unless you have over 20kg of baggage). The flight to Japan went smoothly but problems occurred on the flight back.

The flight from Osaka back to Australia was originally scheduled to depart at 8:05pm but about a 2 days before the departure date I received an email from jetstar saying that the flight time had been changed to 8:20pm, this was not a problem as it was only 20 minutes later. I arrived at the airport about 2 hours before the new departure time and checked my baggage and had a walk around before going to wait at the gate. The plane arrived about an hour late, not really a problem as I was just happy it was there. All the passengers boarded the plane and it began to taxi out onto the runway. After moving about 10 meters the plane stopped and the captain came onto the speaker saying that there was a problem. We just sat there for about half an hour until the captain said that there was a problem with the front wheel of the plane and that we all had to get off until they fixed the problem.

After getting off the plane I headed straight for the beer vending machine and then to the smoking room where I met Yuki, a Japanese girl and Leighton, a guy from New Zealand. We spent most of the next few hours there chatting and debating whether we were actually going to fly until about 1am in the morning there was an announcement that the flight had been canceled and everyone would be put up in a hotel for what remained of the night. All the passengers then went back through security to collect their bags and wait for about another hour to be assigned a taxi to take us to a hotel. While waiting in the line a woman went around asking if people had any duty free items. She would then take the items and give you a small bit of paper with a barcode (more on this later). When we got to the hotel we were each given a room and headed straight for a little convenience store inside the hotel as we were all starving hungry. We spent the next hour and a half chatting over a couple of drinks before going to bed.

The next morning I woke about 9:30 and went to see if Yuki or Leighton had heard anything. They both had received phone calls from Jetstar informing them that they had to go to Tokyo to get a flight that night. I waited about 20 minutes for my phone call from Jetstar but no call came, so I rang Jetstar. I was told that I could wait another 2 days for a flight out of Osaka or make my way to Tokyo to get a flight which departed at 7pm that night. I was obviously not happy with these options but chose to go to Tokyo. Luckily Yuki also had to go to Tokyo to get her flight and could help me (as I don't speak Japanese).

We had to take a total of 4 trains to get from the hotel in Osaka to Narita airport in Tokyo. Navigating Japanese train stations was a nightmare with heavy luggage, but we finally got to Narita airport just in time to check in for each of our flights, Yuki had to run to her gate. The trip from Osaka to Narita airport took neally 7 hours and cost me 16, 460 yen (just over $200 australian)

The upgrade debarcle
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As I had bought a starclass seat to Japan and an economy seat back, I thought that if I had enough yen left and had over the economy luggage limit that I would upgrade my return flight to starclass. When checking in at Gold Coast airport for my flight to Japan I asked the receptionist what the process was to upgrade. I was told that if I called jetstar within 24 hours of my return flight that I would be able to upgrade. So, The morning of my flight I phoned jetstar and asked if I could upgrade to starclass, the person on the other end of the phone told me that there were plenty of starclass seats still available and in order to upgrade I had to do it when checking in for my flight, no worries I thought. But when I went to check in for my return flight and asked to upgrade to starclass, I was then told that while there were starclass seats available, jetstar no longer allowed people to upgrade. Why the hell wasn't I told this before?

Duty free... not with jetstar
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While waiting for the original plane to come home from Osaka, I thought I would buy a carton of smoke as they were so cheap (about A$20 for a carton of 10 packs). But when waiting in line to go to the hotel that night after the flight was canceled, the jetstar staff went around asking if anyone had and duty free and if so it was taken off you and you were given a piece of paper with a barcode on. (I am assuming this is because you are not allowed to go outside the airport with the duty free).
The next day when I checked in at the airport in Tokyo for my new flight, I asked about my duty free. The receptionist did not have a clue, so spoke with her manager who went and made a phone call and then came back to me and told me that I would be able to pick it up when I arrived at the Gold Coast.
When my horrific journey was finally over and I had arrived at the Gold Coast I went to the jetstar baggage counter to collect my duty free cigs. The receptionist there told me that she had no clue about the duty free or the piece of paper with barcode on which I was given in Osaka and that the duty free might be on the plane but would be unloaded last, so I had to wait.
I waited about an hour until the receptionist said that it wasn't on the plane and that she had no idea where it was. She then took my name and number and a description of the duty free and said I would get a call when it arrived (she also did this with a few other people who were in the same situation).
Two weeks went be when I finally recieved a call about the duty free, It was a woman from customs and she said that my goods were available to be picked up from customs at the Gold Coast airport. This wasn't really a problem as I had to go and pick my girlfriend up a couple of days later anyway. When I went to pick up my duty free, I was in for a surprise, I had to pay A$57.84 in Tax...WTF. After telling my story to the customs officer, she said she could not believe what jetstar had done but that there was nothing she could do and that I should take the matter up with jetstar. I just paid the tax and got the hell outa there.
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After being back in Australia a couple of days I thought it would be a good idea to phone jetstar to express my complaints and try to get a refund for the train trip from Osaka to Tokyo (which I had been told I was entitled to by jetstar staff). This in itself was not a pleasant experience. After searching the jetstar site for a while, it seemed that jetstar only had one number that they can be contacted on, so I rang that number. When I rang the number I was presented with a few automated options, the standard for a large company these days I suppose. As no other options related to my call, I chose the last option which was to speak to a representative. This then diverted me back to the same options again, hmm I thought, I'll try again. This then took me back to the same options once again, What the hell? Even there phone options are broken. After selecting the option to book a flight I eventually got on to a sales rep. who was obviously based in India. After explaining the situation to the rep. I was told that someone would phone me back in the next 72 hours.

The next day I received a call from a jetstar employee and I proceeded to explain the situation to him. He gave me the standard spiel on how he understood my situation and that he would help me, he also told me that I could get a refund for the train from Osaka to Tokyo. I told him that I did not really think this was enough and he then offered me a $100 or $200 (I can't remember) voucher to fly on jetstar but that the voucher had to be used on a flight that was booked within 3 months and departed within the next 12 months. This voucher was of no real use to me as I had no plans to fly within the next 12 months, and even if I did I wouldn't be booking within 3 months. I explained this to him but was told that this was all he could do. I then asked to speak to his manager but was told there was no one above him that would speak to me on the phone and that if I wanted to take the matter further I would have to put it in writing and send it to them (he then gave me an address). The call ended there, I was not really satisfied but was happy that at least I would get a refund on the train.

Just under two weeks went by and I still had not send the information to jetstar for a refund on the train trip. I had just returned from collecting my duty free (outlined above) and thought I should phone jetstar again to explain the duty free situation. When I phoned jetstar I once again got into the stupid phone message loop but finally got on to someone who once again told me I would get a call back within 72 hours. I got a call back a couple of days later and explained the duty free situation to the rep. She told me that it was a matter I would have to take up with customs and I then told her that customs had said I had to take it up with jetstar. I also explained that I believed it was because of jetstar that any duty had to be paid at all because it was jetstar who had taken the good off me in Osaka and had failed to return them before I arrived back in Australia. She then told me that there was nothing that she could do and that if I wanted to take the matter further I would have to put it in writing and send it to jetstar at the same address given to me the first time I called. This is where the call ended.

As you can see from my long post, I am not happy. My complaint is not really at the jetstar employees, they always seemed to help me and do what they had the power to do. My problem is really with the whole management and seeming lack of communication within jetstar, even trying to make a complaint is an overly complicated process, which is no doubt intentional.

I have just been delivered the most traumatic experience of my life by Jetstar and face a huge bill, which I will struggle to pay, in what I believe is a case of theft.
I was refused permission to board my Jetstar flight from Launceston to Brisbane over what amounts to two pots of honey. I had flown to Tasmania with Virgin with carry-on luggage only without a problem. When I came to return with exactly the same luggage plus the honey, Jetstar staff told me I had to pay $80 for extra weight.
I then used the ‘f’ word, a word we now regularly hear on TV, in relation to this being a lot of money, which it is to me as a single-income family member. My reaction was a straight out exclamation of shock. “F*** $80.”
The Jetstar manager was called and without any further discussion or negotiation he advised me I was not permitted to fly.
I’m a 50-year-old woman, just 5ft tall, and was not drunk, disorderly, drugged, carrying a weapon or doing anything else that might constitute a threat to the airline staff or its passengers and yet my flight, for which I had paid $350 and which took me months to save, was simply denied me.
I was publicly humiliated, and given no chance, with no checks of CCTV footage or other enquiry. I was simply thrown off my flight, rudely, abruptly and unfairly by this haughty little manager who really should be doing a course in people skills, or better still, sacked. I also had my credit card on the counter ready to pay the exorbitant last-minute fee even while I was being turned away.
The manager also refused to provide a phone number or attempt to negotiate. I am wondering if his flight was over-booked as there seems no other reasonable explanation.
The only bright point was that the Virgin crew, having heard the fuss, were extremely comforting and helpful. I had to pay $427 for another ticket, and a much more reasonable $10 excess baggage fee. I was given a front seat, champagne and treated like a princess. They saved my day.
Nobody should be using “customer service”, “compassion” or “understanding” in the same sentence as Jetstar and I would urge travellers to be very, very careful if they plan to book a Jetstar flight. They literally don’t deliver.
D Bianchi
Palmwoods
Queensland
[email protected]

I am writing as a very disappointed customer as my claim with went in early October 2009 .
As you see it is now the end of Jan and have not completed this claim
the service has been below standard.

I am sending a copy of all correspondence to consumer affairs.

I have been patient and compliant with all requests to have this resolved promptly however this has not been reciprocated.

Communication from your department had been few and far between

I understand my air fare was reasonable but I did not encounter the service to be of this low standard.