My Jetstar flight experience

Forums › Off topic › My Jetstar flight experience - be warned!

1 | 2 | 3

nakedmolerat

4631 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 874

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#458051 12-Apr-2011 23:28

lchiu7:
However I don't think it was relevant in this situation. Visibility was fine. It was the wind that caused the problem. And this is an Airbus 320 so it's not a prop plane. Put it down to tough conditions and conservative Jetstar policies.

Whatever, I won't experience it again since I will never willingly fly them again.

this reminds me of my experience last year. flight between chch - dunedin on air NZ.

my flight is at 9am-ish. took off to dunedin, unable to land due to fog. return to chch.

they reschedule our flight to noon. we were told of good news that another plane before us able to land. so, we boarded the plane (jet) and again, unable to land due to fog. return to chch airport.

they have our flights reschedule at around 5.30PM.we finally landed at dunedin airport around 7PM - after few times circling above the airport.

in summary, took about 10 hours to reach dunedin that day from christhchurc. air NZ did not give us food what-so-ever for lunch. so i expect jetstar (being the cheap flight) will not be able to give you anything. you can still have the same problem on air NZ in the future if mother nature decided to play tricks on you.

wmoore

510 posts

Ultimate Geek

#458067 13-Apr-2011 00:29

timmmay: Does anyone regulate the industry? Surely there are rules or laws that say if they don't get you to where you're meant to be by about the right time you get a refund or compensation?

A friend flew Wellington to Auckland with Jetstar last weekend. She said it was a real budget flight, jammed full of people including a very very fat person sitting next to her which made her flight quite uncomfortable. It sat on the runway for ages before it took off, so there were delays. She said she's never fly with them again, even if it meant paying double.

In comparison her half dozen AirNZ flights recently between the two cities were uneventful.

I to have had a fat person sitting next to me on a flight. They seem to take up half your seat.
Also this guy was sweating like a pig as well.
Fun times.......not.

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -
-- Abraham lincoln

sahyun1

64 posts

Master Geek

#458075 13-Apr-2011 03:43

I believe it's because we have low competition in nz. While I was travelling in Europe, had similiar or worse weather problem but my experience was quite good.

I went to England and France last december, and on the way back from france to england, I planed to take easyjet flight which was the cheapest flight. However there was heavy snow in London and France, so flight couldn't take off, easyjet told me either I can get next flight which is 3pm on the next day or get refund. I decided to take the next flight and they arranged me accomodation and gave free meals and drinks during my stay in the hotel.

On the next day, weather condition did not get better and all the flight got cancelled, I had two choices. Get refund or wait for one more day. I had to get to England by the next day morning so I chosed to get refund and they had done it after 7 days.

I was surpirsed at their customer service quality when they are the one of the cheapest flight company.

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

Trusted

#458277 13-Apr-2011 15:40

Competition is a wonderful thing. Earlier this year I had to travel from San Francisco to Las Vegas. I had planned travelling with a friend whose firm had booked him on United as the corporate airlines of choice. The price - $440(USD!).

Since I was paying I went online and paid US$200 for a return on Jet Blue (not to be confused with JetStar). OK - they didn't go direct but had a stopover in Long Beach but the planes were nice (Airbus A320), had leather seats, plenty of legroom (the most of any coach class in the US they claimed), complimentary snacks and refreshments and 10 channels of DirectTV (as a matter of interest I wonder how they kept aim at the satellite during the flight) and 100 channels of Sirius Radio.

So you can be cheap and still not compromise on service. Jetstar isn't cheap and its service leaves a lot to be desired as others have reported in this thread together with an article on Stuff today.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Batman

Mad Scientist
30013 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#458365 13-Apr-2011 18:51

it's an open secret isn't it? that certain things are worse than their competition. with all the publicity about jetstar's problems it's one of the airlines i wouldnt fly. here's the latest: http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/new-zealand/4879645/Jetstar-stops-disabled-pair-flying

unfortunately qantas is the other as there seems to be a near miss every other week. here's the latest: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/4881586/Fuel-valve-problem-grounds-Qantas-flight-in-Sydney

the problem with low cost aircraft is (apart from air asia) ... they're NOT even low cost! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

Trusted

#459133 15-Apr-2011 13:43

Just a quick update. Jetstar Customer Relations finally called me back to say they would be taking no further action on this situation. Since the plane could not land because of weather (or perhaps pilots who have insufficient experience in his weather situation) I had no recourse. And they did offer to fly me back at another time but since it was not convenient for me, they would not refund the sector or offer me a voucher.

Yet another reason (as if I didn't have enough already) to travel Jetstar.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

scheduler

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 25

#459140 15-Apr-2011 13:54

Hi Just a thought. Jetstar normally charge travel insurance by default on their tickets and you have to manually deselect the Travel insurance option. If you did not deselect the travel insurance option I would have thought you would possibly have a claim under Travel insurance.

Laurie

allstarnz

1720 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 24

Trusted

#459283 15-Apr-2011 23:29

lchiu7: Competition is a wonderful thing. Earlier this year I had to travel from San Francisco to Las Vegas. I had planned travelling with a friend whose firm had booked him on United as the corporate airlines of choice. The price - $440(USD!).

Since I was paying I went online and paid US$200 for a return on Jet Blue (not to be confused with JetStar). OK - they didn't go direct but had a stopover in Long Beach but the planes were nice (Airbus A320), had leather seats, plenty of legroom (the most of any coach class in the US they claimed), complimentary snacks and refreshments and 10 channels of DirectTV (as a matter of interest I wonder how they kept aim at the satellite during the flight) and 100 channels of Sirius Radio.

Sounds a lot different than my experience of flying internally in America. I found it to be pretty awful to be honest.

Flying both American Airlines and US Airways was the epitome of cattle class, where they charged you for everything, and the ancient planes were jammed packed full of people trying to cram on huge bags so they didn't have to pay for checked baggage.

Maybe i'll look at Jet Blue next time :-/

rphenix

990 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 127

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#459967 18-Apr-2011 09:37

alasta: It's unfortunate that Jetstar ever entered the domestic market here. Without them it may have been possible for Pacific Blue to continue their domestic operation, hence giving us some real choice.

+1 to that. I wont ever fly Jetstar.

mikerussellnz

283 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#459984 18-Apr-2011 10:22

I just went chch to melbourne, melbourne to sydney and sydney to chch in the last 3 weeks all on jetstar.

Apart from a quite long wait at bag drop in melbourne airpot (I left myself plenty of time though), I had no issues whatsoever or delays with the flights.

Perhaps I was just lucky.

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

Trusted

#460108 18-Apr-2011 13:33

allstarnz:

Flying both American Airlines and US Airways was the epitome of cattle class, where they charged you for everything, and the ancient planes were jammed packed full of people trying to cram on huge bags so they didn't have to pay for checked baggage.

Maybe i'll look at Jet Blue next time :-/

My friend did not like UA either and when we compared notes, it was clear Jet Blue was way better. And he was flying business class!

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

Trusted

#460110 18-Apr-2011 13:35

rphenix:
alasta: It's unfortunate that Jetstar ever entered the domestic market here. Without them it may have been possible for Pacific Blue to continue their domestic operation, hence giving us some real choice.

+1 to that. I wont ever fly Jetstar.

My daughter wants to fly to Auckland in July. Her friends want to fly Jetstar. I told her if she flew Jetstar and got into problem with flights, not to call me! They have since decided to spend a bit more and go AirNZ.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

timmmay

20858 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#463848 29-Apr-2011 21:29

A friend of mine flew from Wgtn to Chch tonight... they ran four hours late.

Wellington Scheduled Departure: 4:35 p.m. Actual Departure: 8:33 p.m.
Christchurch Scheduled Arrival: 5:30 p.m. Actual Arrival: 9:18 p.m.

Another Jetstar flight from Auckland to Chch was also delayed by four hours.

All Air New Zealand flights appear to be running to schedule.

1 | 2 | 3