Explanation of an additional charge at Virgin Blue Checkin?

[rach18]

Please note: the below post actually relates to a Virgin flight, not Jetstar - I got my flights confused... Not sure how to change the subject line?

Hi All

My family has been making regular flights too and from Brisbane recently at short notice as my Grandfather has fallen very ill, and I have been in charge of arranging these for them.

Last Friday, I booked a late afternoon flight with Jetstar, Flexible flight for $469 to leave on that Sunday (2 days after I'd booked) for Melbourne. Checked in luggage was allowed, although not required as he only had a small carry on bag.

He was an hour early for checkin, no extra luggage, but was informed that he would have to pay a further $60 to be able to get on the flight. As my family is all very tired at the moment, he handed this over without much argument as he just wanted to get home, but we are wondering what on earth this charge was for? We all ready paid a premium price for a ticket on this flight, seems that the extra $60 was just a further rip off.

The seat was no different to standard Economy, he was not upgraded.

If anyone could shed some light that would be fantastic so if it happens again in future we can be more prepared.

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

Do you have a receipt?

 

[markis10]

What was the actual flight number, JQ do not have a late afternoon flight to Melbourne ex Brisbane any day and its not more than $329 for a jetflex even around Melbourne Cup.

 

[munitalP]

Another JQ bash by the sounds....

JQ fly to Avalon from Brisbane (I will stand corrected if there is a CS flight somewhere)

so.. the very most you will pay is $299 for a jetflex fare. Now there are fare differences in the other 2 available options, so based on the original post, I can't find how this value is achieved

AVV/BNE @ 1715 (jetsaver light) 199, (jetsaver) 209 or (Y) 299
BNE/AVV @ 1040 (jetsaver light) 169, (jetsaver) 179 or (Y) 299

Fare combinations respectively: $368, $388 and $598

Another combo found

AVV/BNE @ 0905 (jetsaver light) 139, (jetsaver) 149 or (Y) 299
BNE/AVV @ 1320 (jetsaver light) 129, (jetsaver) 139 or (Y) 299

Fare combinations respectively: $268, $288 and $598

I have tried to reach the magic $469 figure as well as the $529 figure but can't do it based on online fare purchase on the JQ website...

Perhaps the OP is mistaken on the airline - its not a QF (JQ code share) is it and there was a $30 each leg ticket change fee?

"He was not upgraded..." JQ? Huh?? The original poster needs to supply just a little more information to be taken seriously IMHO

Mr!

 

[markis10]

Another JQ bash by the sounds....

.... the very most you will pay is $299 for a jetflex fare.

Actually the most is $359 not $329 as I pointed out in the above post, as evidenced by the fare being requested on Monday before Melbourne Cup on the last flight at 1.20PM, JQ635.

I certainly agree that a lot more info is need, having said that it could be possible that the OP did actually change their flight, from a $299 to a $359 one, in which case the $60 fee is fully understandable, as per JQ's fares guide:

Changes permitted up to day of departure (including after flight has departed) ##. No change fees apply. You must pay any fare difference to rebook~

~ Fare difference means the difference between the original fare you purchased, and the fare that is available on the day of change. The fare difference may be substantial.


Perhaps the offer was made to get the earlier flight, then the fee??

 

[rach18]

Thank you for all your replies.. my apologies, I led you up the garden path, it was actually a flight with Virgin - I've booked so many flights lately with different carriers there was some confusion!

The flight number was DJ 336. The flight he left on was the same one that we originally booked, not an earlier one. There were no changes to the ticket or the kind of seat that we booked.

I apologise again for the confusion - I probably fly maybe twice a year on domestic flights mostly for leisure purposes, so the lack of detail is more that I'm not 100% sure what extra information I need to give you to get an answer? Usually I would be booking flights well in advance at budget prices and have never had to deal with anything like this before.

There was no receipt given at the time.. Munital P... I'm not really sure why you would think that I'm posting this for fun? My grandfather has just had massive multiple heart attacks while in QLD and all his children are in Melbourne, getting him home at the moment is simply not possible, I don't see why I would want to post something if I didnt want to be taken seriously. I also dont think anything in the original post was abusive or "out to get" Jetstar, I was simply asking the question to see if there was any explanation. Thank you for your response though.

 

[oz_mark]

I am not aware of any additional fee that would come to $60 on Virgin Blue. I would suggest contacting Virgin Blue and asking them what it was for would be a start - although without a receipt it could be a little hard to get to the bottom of. Procedurally, it does surprise me, though, that they would take $60 without issuing a receipt.

 

[markis10]

Thank you for all your replies.. my apologies, I led you up the garden path, it was actually a flight with Virgin - I've booked so many flights lately with different carriers there was some confusion!

....I apologise again for the confusion - I probably fly maybe twice a year on domestic flights mostly for leisure purposes, so the lack of detail is more that I'm not 100% sure what extra information I need to give you to get an answer? Usually I would be booking flights well in advance at budget prices and have never had to deal with anything like this before.

There was no receipt given at the time.. .

The extra charge could have been an upgrade in fare from Flexible to Corporate, on that leg its $60 diff, and a receipt would have been issued on the boarding pass, why there would be a need for an upgrade is unknown.

I would ring Virgin for more info but you are operating on secondhand information from a source that has more important things to worry about, so some of the facts may not be as they are told with all due respects, which makes it hard to get to the bottom of things.

Regardless may I wish your family well in the circumstances and apologize on behalf of the AFF community if some of the comments may have caused offence, this is an internet forum where the true identity of posters and the "facts" that are presented may not bear real world scrutiny, as often there are hidden agendas behind the odd post, making long time participants wary when the facts don't ring true to past experience or an airlines form.

 

[munitalP]

Thank you for all your replies.. my apologies, I led you up the garden path, it was actually a flight with Virgin - I've booked so many flights lately with different carriers there was some confusion!

The flight number was DJ 336. The flight he left on was the same one that we originally booked, not an earlier one. There were no changes to the ticket or the kind of seat that we booked.

I apologise again for the confusion - I probably fly maybe twice a year on domestic flights mostly for leisure purposes, so the lack of detail is more that I'm not 100% sure what extra information I need to give you to get an answer? Usually I would be booking flights well in advance at budget prices and have never had to deal with anything like this before.

There was no receipt given at the time.. Munital P... I'm not really sure why you would think that I'm posting this for fun? My grandfather has just had massive multiple heart attacks while in QLD and all his children are in Melbourne, getting him home at the moment is simply not possible, I don't see why I would want to post something if I didnt want to be taken seriously. I also dont think anything in the original post was abusive or "out to get" Jetstar, I was simply asking the question to see if there was any explanation. Thank you for your response though.

I am sorry if you took my post as anything other than factual. If you look at this forum, you will see that many 1st time posters come in only to moan and groan about their issues and frequently these issues are to do with low cost airlines (LCC) where the terms and conditions of the fare purchased are misunderstood or in most cases I dare say, not even read!

<Quote> The original poster needs to supply just a little more information to be taken seriously IMHO <Quote end>

I was correct in my assumption that more information was needed, this was not making fun at you or anything else - I am sorry if you took it that way. As for my opening remark regarding another Jetstar bash, it could well have been another QF bash or DJ bash. If it was a Tiger bash, most here would have paid to have a shot!

I am sure you will get a very good response especially now you have provided the correct details as well as the flight number - crazydave is a DJ rep and I am sure he will comment

Good luck with gramps



Mr!

 

[straitman]

Regardless may I wish your family well in the circumstances and apologize on behalf of the AFF community if some of the comments may have caused offence, this is a internet forum where the true identity of posters and the "facts" that are presented may not bear real world scrutiny, as often there are hidden agendas behind the odd post, making long time participants wary when the facts don't ring true to past experience or an airlines form.

Well said markis10. I support your comments and wish rach18 and her family all the best in getting through these trying times.

 

[rach18]

Thanks for all your replies and well wishes everyone - it wasn't my intention to put a bleeding heart story out there, just needed to explain myself!

I've called my uncle and checked with him, the $60 was for a corporate ticket, he said that he was advised when checking in that his ticket was not actually available and if he wanted to take that flight he would have to upgrade his ticket, and was too tired to argue, just wanted to get home.

I've looked at the table on the virgin blue website and still don't really understand why his ticket was unavailable as there doesn't really seem to be any relevant differences to the corporate ticket, such as a better seat, and he was checking in for his flight so obviously didn't need to be able to change it 24hours after departure.

Am thinking I'll just have to put this one down to a lesson learned and if it happens again in the coming weeks, we'll definately be questioning it further?

 

[moa999]

The only explanation I can think of is that your uncle didn't actually catch the original flight (and instead moved earlier or later)

and the original fare class was not available so he had to upgrade to the Corporate fare class.

Given your Uncle's focus on other matters he may not have realised that he had been given an option to shift his ticket.

I can't see any reason why he would have needed to upgrade on the same flight, unless the reservation had not been ticketed correctly (which in the days of online ticketing is more unlikely)

 

[docjames]

The only explaination i can think of is that the flight was changed (eg. booked on a 1700hr flight and he was moved to a 1600hr flight) and that corporate fare was the only fare bucket available on the (new) flight when he checked at the checkin counter.

Perhaps your uncle was not really in a position to take this in given the cricumstances of everything going on - as you say he "just wanted to get home".

If it was for the same flight, and the original booking was for that particular flight, I agree it doesnt make sense as he already had a ticket on that flight.

Perhaps when you can it is worth getting the following onfo toegether:
- original flight number
- actual flight travelled on - this is best done by getting the details off the boarding pass
- the boarding pass will also hopefully have receipt of the $60.

Then approach virgin blue (call centre to start with) and see if they can explain it to your satisfaction. If not, then it's time to write to them.

I hope all goes well for you and your family with your grandfather's condition.




Also, one other thought - we wouldnt be a FF forum unless someone suggests the following - have you joined Velocity rewards? If you're all going to be travelling up and down to Brisbane, it's worth joining at least one FF program and trying to stick to that carrier - especially if you're buying fully felxible fares.

I believe both DJ and QF allow you to claim retrospecively up to a point (?30 days post-flight).

 

[brett-au]

This sounds quite normal to me.

A flexible ticket allows you to change to any other flight with out penalty*, but in this case you changed to a flight that had no tickets left at the price you paid. You used your credit and then purchased a new ticket at a higher price, hence the extra $60.

I've seen the cost of flexible tickets increase (slightly) as the flight fills up.

Its possible that they may have charged a booking fee as you needed human help - but they normally wave this for me.

* changing via phone or inside 30 minutes before flying I believe costs more.