Am I really out $1600 - Jet Star

[Limewood]

I've had so many problems with JQ and getting many different answers, I swear I wont be flying with them any time soon.

 

[paulobrien56]

Yes, I understand that airlines, cruiselines and hotels need to sell off their vacancies cheaply at the last minute. That is smart business and I would not complain if I had bought my ticket 11 months in advance (to have more choice) and then the airline discounted the fares a month out but Virgin offered the discount fares 1 month after I booked, 10 months out. That is unfair in my opinion..and they agreed.

 

[JB expat]

Yes, I understand that airlines, cruiselines and hotels need to sell off their vacancies cheaply at the last minute. That is smart business and I would not complain if I had bought my ticket 11 months in advance (to have more choice) and then the airline discounted the fares a month out but Virgin offered the discount fares 1 month after I booked, 10 months out. That is unfair in my opinion..and they agreed.

This is ME - purchased on 15 Jan for flights on 12 Nov (10 Months)...sale on 22 Feb! so 5 weeks post purchase. I too think this is unfair. I do understand the point raised by the other side, but it does not change my overall view that this is no fair and more importantly not good customer service.

 

[JB expat]

Oh...and as of today (because this renewed my interest in looking), the flights are no longer $1600 cheaper but $2,193 cheaper! for F$%^ sake.

 

[Anna]

Seriously dude - stop looking, you're just torturing yourself Prices change all the time - supermarkets, department stores, air fares. It doesn't mean you should get your money back if the price goes down after your purchase.

 

[coco50]

I don't think even being Qantas WP would make any difference. Airline fares change constantly. It really depends when you want to book and secure your tickets and seating. If you want to take the chance and wait for a special to occur you could be disappointed. As a consolation, have an evening drink at the Mai Tai bar at the Royal Hawaiian and enjoy the experience

 

[JB expat]

I don't think even being Qantas WP would make any difference. Airline fares change constantly. It really depends when you want to book and secure your tickets and seating. If you want to take the chance and wait for a special to occur you could be disappointed. As a consolation, have an evening drink at the Mai Tai bar at the Royal Hawaiian and enjoy the experience

What I'm really hoping for is what another member suggested. Wait for a business class sale - given how much I paid, it may be that the price difference for business class is minimal/worth it to make the change. With the package I purchased, I can make the change to a different class without penalty or something like that. That would make this issue go away (for me). Otherwise, drinks it will be.

 

[geoffl]

It certainly doesn't !! (Make any difference to prices quoted, accepted and paid). Had the same experience, but with Shoes at DJ's, and, same result...no refund !

 

[sirjeff]

I am a member of a huge world wide travel club. Not expensive to join. It offers at least two topical (amongst many) valuable benefits.
1. They guarantee the price you pay , in this case for an airline ticket, will be the cheapest available on the day. Yesterday I had the opportunity to put this to the test. After getting a quote for a family of 4 (my children and grandchildren) for an international flight direct from the airline I called the club and was quotes about $1,000 more. I was told make the booking with the club, produce the airline's quote within 24 hours and the club will refund (by way of a credit to account) 150% of the difference. The club will then take the matter up with the airline.
2. The club also offers a rate shrinker service free. Once a booking is make either for an airline or a hotel the club monitors future prices and rebooks at the lower price. This continues until the day of travel.
One very experienced travel agent told me she would never have believed this was possible. Now she is a member of the club and has verified the truth of the statement.
I am happy to share details of the club privately.

 

[welltravelled]

I feel you pain and frustration in relation to this, especially such a big difference in the fares from when you purchased to now.
I cannot offer any suggestions in relation to this particular booking as I tend to agree with what has been posted here already, however for future airline or hotel bookings for you and any other members of this forum I have discovered a relatively new to Australia booking engine that does exactly this - automatically.
After the purchase is made, the web based technology monitors the reservation, either flight or hotel booking, if it finds the exact same booking for a cheaper price it will rebook and refund the difference.
Additionally, the original purchase of airline tickets I have found can be made cheaper via this booking engine than directly from the airlines!

The company is in its 10th year of operation and operates in 28 countries, but as I mentioned only introduced to Australia June 2014.
If you would like to know more information you can PM me, and I can give you more information.

Sorry I cannot reply to PMs, so click on my Avatar and use the homepage link to contact me.

 

[mooingchicken]

Oh...and as of today (because this renewed my interest in looking), the flights are no longer $1600 cheaper but $2,193 cheaper! for F$%^ sake.

Not meaning to be rude or anything but they really dont owe you much of an explanation, If they had to credit everyone who complained after bookings were made they would never have sales, as this would be a massive potentially unknown cost risk. If i brought a flex fare as I though i might have to cancel/change dates and then 2 weeks or even months out knew that i didnt have to modify the booking. should I be able to ring up and say thanks but i dont need a flexable ticket anymore, can you change me to the cheaper saver price 4 months ago when i brought the ticket and credit me back?

They have a price they need to make a profit, if people who have to travel buy tickets as soon as they can at say $1000 and they have made there profit or are close then sales all of a sudden hault, of course they are going to reduce prices and have a sale to get some extra seats sold as thats going to be profit. Same if they have sold hardly any seats they will drop prices to get people to buy (the flight has to fly if it is full or not).

People buy tickets for a couple of reasons.
- They have to be somewhere on a specific date for work/other people travel plans etc. will pay any cost as it necessary
- People think lets go to XX place for a holiday, oh we can only go this week because of work/kids ect - will pay what they budget, often not a sale unless well timed
- People oh there look at this sale fare so XX ive never been there and its cheap lets go. - often they get the cheapest flights.

A little bit of research prior would of helped you be more educated on whats a good price. You brought tickets 11 months out these are when they are first released and most often are full rack rate. 8-10 months out is when they often have sales. A little bit of searching on random dates you can find out whats the cheapest price you can get ie check dates of past sales, check a random day each month. then you get a range of price. Might be from 700-1600. Now you have this information you can say hey these tickets are 1500, thats on the high end, do i buy them cause i have to be there (person 1) or hey not much risk of going up more as they are almost at the top, so i will monitor them each week and see if they go on sale. I have never flown to HNL but i know just from a quick search unless you are flying school holidays and peak periods (which most of november is not) you can often get sales for about 360 each way. On that basis I wouldnt pay 800 to go there unless it was peak period and I had to go at that time.

To offer some advice, you could look into credit card price guarentee if you have it. Not sure if this applys to flights or what the conditions are as I have never used it. But might be a way to get some money back

 

[JB expat]

Purchased with a Qantas American Express Ultimate Card as I wanted the travel insurance to attach. Will look at T&C's benefits (and exclusions). Wouldn't it be ironic if my Qantas badged AmEx had to make good on the difference.

Yes, I learned a lot about airfares etc. from this experience. If you go back to one of my earlier posts I go into some of the details of why I purchased so early.

 

[dmouy]

I'm reminded of the expression "what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts". I make it a rule never to speak with the passenger next to me on a flight about what they paid for the ticket. They may have got a bargain and I'll feel aggrieved or I may have landed a bargain and they may feel aggrieved. A colleague recently bought a new Apple computer and the model specs were upgraded yesterday. Their policy is to allow a return within a certain number of days (10 I think) for a full refund and he can order the new model. That's a nice bit of customer service, but then again it's a well-heeled company. I've seen fares go up and down within minutes of making a booking and couldn't do much about it. It's a bit like the stock market I'm afraid and sadly there's no crystal ball we can rely on. I'm sorry to hear of your situation.

 

[Baysider]

Oh...and as of today (because this renewed my interest in looking), the flights are no longer $1600 cheaper but $2,193 cheaper! for F$%^ sake.

I'm guessing that because these are flights to/from a US state, the fares are pegged to the forex rate (i.e. USD fares held constant and AUD fares varied). Forex has changed by about 16% since November 12. Also QF heavily reduced fuel surcharges, did JQ do the same? I thought QF were offering rebates for the fuel surcharge difference on flights booked earlier though.

 

[taxmaster]

Easy way to avoid this problem is to not travel Jetstar. My three bookings with this group have been painful.

 

[welltravelled]

JB, I cannot reply to PMs so best to contact me via the contact link on my homepage - click on my Avatar and the Homepage link

 

[Alanslegal]

Oh...and as of today (because this renewed my interest in looking), the flights are no longer $1600 cheaper but $2,193 cheaper! for F$%^ sake.

You bought tickets at a price you were happy with at that time, you bought it with conditions that you were happy with, that you did so voluntarily and that nobody was forcing you to do anything you did not want to do. Jetstar did not wave a baseball bat saying you must buy these tickets or else.

Prices can change, they go up, sometimes they go down. Just like anything you buy out there - except maybe Sydney housing property that only goes up.

If you believe you are entitled to a fare refund because prices went down, well I hope airlines can get your details too and invoice you everytime the prices go up after you have bought. Similarly, with every other item you buy out there.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm guessing that because these are flights to/from a US state, the fares are pegged to the forex rate (i.e. USD fares held constant and AUD fares varied). Forex has changed by about 16% since November 12. Also QF heavily reduced fuel surcharges, did JQ do the same? I thought QF were offering rebates for the fuel surcharge difference on flights booked earlier though.

Qantas did NOT "heavily reduce fuel surcharges". This is what they said (my bolding):

Overall fares will not change as a consequence of the surcharge gradually being absorbed into base fares, as prices advertised to customers already include taxes and charges. Qantas will continue to price competitively, with fares moving in line with the broader market.

While global fuel prices have fallen in recent months, international air fares are extremely competitive and are significantly lower than when surcharges were first introduced 10 years ago.
Given the size of the Qantas International network the process to absorb fuel surcharges into international base fares for up to 200 destinations will take time. As overall fares are not changing, customers will not be disadvantaged.

What they did is to reduce the fuel fines on some Award tickets - but not to Europe, and not on any route that's part of the EK stitch-up.

But well done to Qantas marketing - it appears you can fool some of the people some of the time.

 

[coco50]

Good luck with JQ making a change without penalty. I don't think that will happen. Being a LCC, JQ really hammer people who want to make booking changes.

 

[dajop]

Easy way to avoid this problem is to not travel Jetstar. My three bookings with this group have been painful.

Actually this specific problem can happen on most, if not all airlines.