Getting a refund out of Jetstar

[opusman]

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has some advice I can pass onto my Dad, as I've never flown Jetstar and hopefully never will

He had tickets for an ADL-SYD flight which Jetstar rescheduled for 8 hours later. As this was after his SYD-DBX flight he had to rebook onto Virgin and has been trying for the past 6 weeks to get a refund out of Jetstar.

From my reading of their T&C he is definitely entitled to a refund, but the problem has been actually contacting Jetstar to ask for it. Apparently they never answer the phone - either he ends up in a queue through which he never seems to progress (and frequently gets disconnected), or just gets a message saying they are too busy and to call back later.

He has also sent them a registered letter which surprisingly they did answer, but only with a request for him to ring them!

I've also told him to try the credit card chargeback route but I was wondering if anyone had been down this path before and had any tips on how to expedite this process?

Thanks!

 

[Grooba]

Refunds and Jetstar usually don't go in the same sentence.

Good Luck!

 

[NM]

Keep trying to call them. Try different times of the day. But do keep some sort of record of the times you call, the wait time on hold, and the end result (i.e. disconnected, termination message, gave up after xx_ mins/hours/days on hold etc). The only real option is going to be to talk to a person.

Do they have a ticket counter at the airport? That may be another option.

 

[lampardcl]

My sister received a full refund from jetstar, when 2 weeks before travel she fell and broke both of her arms.She supplied a medical certificate and about 4 weeks later she was fully refunded for both her and her husbands non refunable tickets.Best of luck

 

[FL360]

Opusman hopefully your wish will come true,
beware JQ flights with a QF flight number

As aside, beware of QF fully refundable tickets, never use the cancel
flights button on the web view booking page, if you do you will have a credit note which need to be used in 1 year, for any cash refunds, you will need to call them they will send you a cheque several weeks later

Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone has some advice I can pass onto my Dad, as I've never flown Jetstar and hopefully never will

 

[ike]

My partner got a letter from the doctor to say she was unable to travel to NZ for medical reasons. The doctor wrote it and we sent off and about 2 weeks later, had a email from JQ saying that a refund 100% will be refunded onto the credit card. And about 2 days later we got the refund! Would of been happy with credit to use another time but a full refund was a added bonus!! I am a happy JQ customer! Another complained about a flight KIX to OOL as it was delayed for about 4 hous and got voucher and letter to use to the value of $100. So I dont have anything negtive to say about JQ really

 

[Jetstar(t)]

Funny I chose today to visit the AFF web site!

I took a Jetstar flight to Singapore via Darwin and Melbourne in October last year. They hadnt loaded any comfort packs on the flight, so were given "Sorry" vouchers for $25 off the next flight. In the fine print, it says that if you want the amount you actually paid refunded instead, you need to write in.

So I wrote in with all the stuff they asked for in December 08. In Feb 09 I got a letter to say that they hadnt forgotten about me and they would answer my letter in due course.

Then today I checked my email and noticed they had resent my itinarary from Oct 08. Upon opening, it showed a -$7.00 charge.

So I guess it's been refunded. I can't complain as I got my money back although it did take a fair amount of time. Saying that, if it was a $1000 air fare I was waiting on being refunded, I would have probably chased it up.
​

 

[Flashback]

Thanks for letting us know of your experience Jetstar(t) and welcome to AFF!

 

[opusman]

Some semi-good news; yesterday he actually managed to get through to someone who after putting him back on hold for about 10 minutes did finally acknowledge that a refund was due - and that it would take about 6-8 weeks. They sure aren't in any rush are they!

 

[NM]

Some semi-good news; yesterday he actually managed to get through to someone who after putting him back on hold for about 10 minutes did finally acknowledge that a refund was due - and that it would take about 6-8 weeks. They sure aren't in any rush are they!

Glad to hear he finally got to speak to a human. The 6-8 weeks is normal in the airline industry. Most airlines will quote that timeframe for a refund, though some will actually make good with the money somewhat faster than their quoted timeframe. There are various justified reasons for the delayed refund. However, in the case where its a result of an involuntary airline-initiated change, I believe there is no justification for such a delay. Please report back with the refund timing when its actually be processed.

 

[turtlemichael]

Glad to hear he finally got to speak to a human. The 6-8 weeks is normal in the airline industry. Most airlines will quote that timeframe for a refund, though some will actually make good with the money somewhat faster than their quoted timeframe. There are various justified reasons for the delayed refund. However, in the case where its a result of an involuntary airline-initiated change, I believe there is no justification for such a delay. Please report back with the refund timing when its actually be processed.

At the start of November we had to cancel full fare star class BKK-MEL due to sudden hospitalization. We were given a cancellation number and the advice at the time was it would take 6-8 weeks for a refund. After 8 weeks with no sign of the refund, the call centre advised that we must have misunderstood. It would take 6-8 weeks not from the cancellation but from when it was processed.

Ahhh, silly me!

So when was it processed? Miraculously and coincidentially it had been processed the day before! Ranting may have helped marginally as the refund arrived on the credit card 5 weeks later. So all up, 13 weeks. This was for a full no restriction fare. The other cancellations we made at the time included a QF award flight (points refunded that day, fees within 24 hours) and a no refund fare on TG. Fees were refunded within 72 hours. Jetstar is setting new standards.

 

[savydog]

Was catching a Jetstar flight from Rockhampton to Brisbane to link with a Virgin Flight to Sydney. Got the email a few days ago, flight changed now arriving in Brisbane 10 minutes before Virgin check-in closes was previously 25 minutes. Did not click on accept in the email and rang about a refund. I was told that since the flight was not delayed by more than an hour no refund was possible, Jetstar policy. Told them not happy, QC life member blah blah no exceptions sorry.

Got an email within a minute of hanging up with the changed itinery even though I told them I would not be flying on that flight, even talking to them must be some form of acceptance Luckily flight was a $32 cheapie booked months ago so I can throw it away. Can't win them all.

 

[serfty]

If you have no checked luggage, you could OLCI beforehand.

It's not a long walk from JQ in BNE to DG gates.

 

[Flashback]

If you have no checked luggage, you could OLCI beforehand.

It's not a long walk from JQ in BNE to DG gates.

I guess the only issue would be, what if there is some sort of delay and he misses the next flight .. another ticket would then need to be bought for that. Catch 22, eh!

 

[savydog]

Yes that is the problem. I am thinking of getting a ticket on virgin from rockhampton which gets in the same time as jetstar,but i could check in through to sydney and may be okay with short delay or a later flight if they are delayed. I can get one for $59

 

[Matt P]

The one and only time i've ever gotten a (very speedy) refund out of jetstar was one of my usual flights to see the inlaws in adelaide (usually go 4-5 times a year).

2 Days prior to the flight we get a call that our flight has been cancelled (we assumed due to lack of interest - heck we got the flights for $79) so we book the return sector with QF at a cost of about $250. On the upside, we managed to book a QF bird at about the same time the J* was due out. The money landed in my fiancees CC about a day later.

Sunday comes around and we rock up at Adelaide airport to board our flight and what do ya know, our J* flight is boarding at the next gate. Flight still ran after all, we just got booted due to cheap tickets.

As soon as we touched down in sydney, we called J* absolutely furious but of course, there was no record on their systems of our booking....

 

[Evan]

But you had the record of the refund right ? i would have followed it through, no doubt you would have atleast got the difference back in a voucher at the minimum.

 

[mysavings789]

6 to 8 weeks is almost 2 months...hhhmmm...good customer service...

 

[JohnK]

I'm wondering if anyone has some advice I can pass onto my Dad, as I've never flown Jetstar and hopefully never will

I hope I never have to fly Jetstar even if I need to be somewhere urgently and there is no other alternative or civil war has been declared and Jetstar are the only ones to offer a flight out of the country....

 

[k_sheep]

I've been pretty lucky it seems with j* refunds. A while ago I made it a point to get a refund every time they changed their flights, as my small form of passive resistance. The refunds take a while, but I've never had an issue getting them.

Heck, one time flying BNE-SYD to make a connecting HNL flight, they changed the BNE-SYD leg so we couldn't make the HNL connection. First they offered to fly us down to sydney the night before and put us up in a hotel (any one we wanted apparently, just had to give them the receipt). That didn't work for us, so they found us a flight leaving from OOL.

Mind you the OOL flight was 4 hours late, so we almost missed our connection anyway! But in any case, they worked pretty hard to make sure we were happy.

I still won't fly them any more though. Stupid schedule changes every single time!