Jetstar Blues

[dizey47]

A little off the track, but fits into Jetstar Blues if you ask me. There were three flights on Christmas day from Sydney to Maroochydore, morning afternoon and evening. My partner chose the afternoon flight so he could spend the morning in Sydney with his family and the evening with my family in Maroochydore. He has booked this flight for the last three years, first year it worked well. Last year he was rung at 5.30am to inform him the flight was cancelled (due to technical difficulties) and offered the choice of the morning flight (not possible for him) or the evening flight 6.40pm, which he took. This year no phone call, but at check in was told the 2.30pm flight was cancelled (due to technical difficulties) and only option the 6.40pm flight. He had arrived at the airport one hour before departure, so that meant over five hours wait at the airport on Christmas Day. There were a lot of angry people, can you imagine people with a family spending five hours of their day (especially Christmas) at the airport. Does anyone believe that the same flight two years running had to be cancelled due to technical difficulties? Unfortunately Qantas doesn't fly to Maroochydore anymore and Virgin has a more limited service than Jetstar, which leaves us often with little choice.

 

[rhjames]

Dizey47

I'm curious - was the flight full or empty? I wonder if the flight could have been cancelled due to lack of travellers?

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I wonder if the flight could have been cancelled due to lack of travellers?

Airlines often do cancel a lot of flights on christmas day due to lack of demand. Still not as bad here as in UK.

 

[N860CR]

Virgin's lack of capacity on the SYD-MCY route has caused me a few hassles this year as well. With the $59 sale fares I thought I'd just make a quick trip up to the Sunshine Coast to visit some friends in January. Obviously, DJ is the first choice however their one daily flight was pretty full and the "Blue Saver" fares were all sold out, so I was looking at about $400 return.

JQ on the otherhand, $59 seats on all 3 flights (good indication of which airline people prefer to fly!) so really it was a no-brainer.

Hopefully with the new ERJ's DJ will able to increase frequency on some of the routes where JQ has a schedule advantage

 

[rhjames]

Airlines often do cancel a lot of flights on christmas day due to lack of demand. Still not as bad here as in UK.

Despicable practice. They should be keelhauled under the plane at 10,000m while flying. If I make a booking I turn up in time or pay the penalty. It seems to me that if an airline accepts payment for a flight, then that flight should go, even if there's only one passenger. In other words, if I turn up in time, so should they.

It's up to the planners to predict whether it's worth running the flight. If it's to be cancelled, do it before accepting bookings. If they got it wrong, that's their problem.

I'm all for cutting out the frills for providing low cost flights. However, accepting payment then cutting out the flights seems a little extreme. I don't usually regard the flight as one of the frills.

 

[dizey47]

Dizey47

I'm curious - was the flight full or empty? I wonder if the flight could have been cancelled due to lack of travellers?

My partner said there were a lot of people there, some families, all very upset. They did also offer the option to cancel, which I thought was unusual. Perhaps it was because the 6.40pm plane was full (at least when it left with the extra people), they may have wanted off load some. Last year with the morning phone call (5.30am was very early though) the trip wasn't made to the airport for the 2.30pm, so all the people didn't have a long wait at the airport. That was the worst part about the whole thing.

 

[NYCguy]

Airlines often do cancel a lot of flights on christmas day due to lack of demand. Still not as bad here as in UK.

That sucks! If they are prepared to sell tickets, they should be prepared to make sure the service flies.

As for Jetstar's Xmas-day antics to MCY, I can see how their new-build A320's could give them all sorts of trouble, since they are so unreliable...

 

[Mal]

Maybe Jet* had quite a few attendants call in "sick" on Christmas Day, causing them technical issues?

Similar things happen to other airlines at times...

 

[dizey47]

Maybe Jet* had quite a few attendants call in "sick" on Christmas Day, causing them technical issues?

Similar things happen to other airlines at times...

Two years running, exactly the same flight???????

 

[Mal]

Two years running, exactly the same flight???????

Maybe the same crew were rostered on

I agree with you. Dodgy treatment from Jetstar. Unfortunately though it's the future of a lot of Australian domestic flights...

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Unfortunately a ticket doesn't guarantee a particular flight time, only carriage from A to B.

Yup it sucks when it happens - I've had it happen to me too (not on Christmas). LH claimed they notified me but first I found out was checking in (early for a change) to be told flight was cancelled and we rebooked you on the early flight, which you have just missed.

Their first offer was to put me on the late flight, which would have meant a turnaround at destination and missing the meeting. They then managed to find an AF flight via CDG (more than doubled the distance and flying time) which I could just make by running to AF counter in the other terminal and running to their gate.

Given the tiny revenue share of a RTW for a short intra-europe flight, and the need to pay AF full fare for last minute purchase, they did badly out of not letting me know about the cancellation. If I had been notified I could have flown the early flight.

Anyway, the point of this ramble is all airlines do it to a greater or lesser extent. At least in the EU they have strict compensation laws which require notification at least 7 days in advance and the onus is on the airline to proove they have notified you correctly.

QF cancels flights also. I'm sure many here have seen and experienced 2 SYD-MEL vv flights being combined into 1 when loads are light. I don't fly that route very often and yet it has happened to me several times.

 

[anat0l]

My mum almost had a similar run in with MH. She was trying to book a flight on the day that a special was about to end. Our connection was OK, but the MH website was really dodgy. We had several run ins with trying to book with mum's CC and it was really worrying us. It'd get to 'wait for transaction to approve - don't refresh etc. etc.' and just freeze there.

Needless to say, we didn't get "overcharged" but the number of calls we had to make (to MH customer service to correctly book the flight (with the special) and the banks to check that we weren't double or triple charged) couldn't be counted with hands. This was over about 4 days or so. A lot of trouble for a heavily discounted flight that won't even get mum any points! (But it was pretty darn cheap...)

Regarding Jetstar, let's not forget that they are a discount carrier. They are set up with a business model that assumes that no one needs refunds. Not entirely ethical, but it's "legal "...

As for cancelling flights, it's more common than overbooking. Common example? AirAsia...they cancel flights left-right-and-centre in order to cram up their planes. Or so I hear.

 

[Soundguy]

AirAsia...they cancel flights left-right-and-centre in order to cram up their planes. Or so I hear.

It is so common to have to wait 2 / 3 / 4 hours for an Air Asia flight that it is vitually standard practice. Then after waiting for a good while to be served (eg in the KLLC, a big tin shed) they hit you for extra luggage charges (their limit is very low), just not worth the hassle IMO...... I guess it depends on if you think your time has a tangible value or not!

 

[Industrybuff]

I read this forum quite regularly and constantly amazed and dis appointed by the ill informed comments that I ready by some posters...

Let me correct some of the pathetic comments that I have seen on this thread today.

SYDMCY - Jetstar flies three times a day - sometimes up to 5 times a day during the height of peak period. The dont do this to fly empty planes, they do it because they have the lions share of the MCY Market and fill the planes quite easily. DJ on the other hand neglects the market, serves it with one flight a day most days - two on weekends......... Pax are not choosing DJ to fly with they choose JQ - and if DJ didnt have the famed $49 of $59 seat you were looking for - perhaps they never offered it to begin with ..... Wake up !

Xmas day SYD MCY - JQ had a tough day with delays on 25/12 ex SYD. A flight to OOL was delayed 3 hours due to mechanical issues with the aircraft, and as consequence to keep the aircraft on schedule it was deemed necessary to cancel a flight. MCY afternoon flight was chosen. I think you will find it had a lower load than the other flights and would impact the operation the least .... no other reason...

As for Cabin crew going tech of xmas day, I know three crew and all those crew on airport standby in SYD on 25/12 all went home again as they were not called to operate .... there we go another load of garbage cleared up ....

For all you that say that he will never fly JQ ever - its interesting because I guarantee that I will end up sitting next to any one of you in a JQ flight in the future, .... if the price is right you will fly JQ !

And for the poster that mentions about the 30 min cutoff for checkin and he arrived at 29 mins before to fly JQ BNE SYD - what planet is he is !!! JQ has never flown BNESYD in its 31 months of operation !

As for the credit card refund issue. Every airline is pretty pathetic when it comes to refunds. In june this year I cancelled a QF FF redemption that had $349 of taxes. Since booking and the day I cancelled it I had left amex for dust and switched to a visa card with a better points earning opportunity (my right by the way as a consumer).

I had to fax QF a stat dec and a closed statement prooving it was done - and I made sure comments were put into the booking to advise the new credit card number for the repayment to be sent to - despite all this - the moron at FF that did the refund did so to my cancelled Amex card .....
Today is December 30th and after 6 months of fighting the monkeys at American Express in India - I AM STILL WITHOUT MY $349 refund.
All I got from QF was a basket of food worth $40 bucks... I want my refund not the food !!!!....

Im so pleased I got all that off my chest ...... I read some of the smartest, best advice from many worldly frequent flyers on this post, sadly I read stuff that is over the top bollocks aswell !

Cheers
Industrybuff !!!

 

[N860CR]

SYDMCY - Jetstar flies three times a day - sometimes up to 5 times a day during the height of peak period. The dont do this to fly empty planes, they do it because they have the lions share of the MCY Market and fill the planes quite easily. DJ on the other hand neglects the market, serves it with one flight a day most days - two on weekends......... Pax are not choosing DJ to fly with they choose JQ - and if DJ didnt have the famed $49 of $59 seat you were looking for - perhaps they never offered it to begin with ..... Wake up !

DJ don't "neglect" the MCY market as such, they simply don't have the aircraft to operate the route with the frequency JQ does (remember, DJ has to serve trunk routes with its aircraft as well). The introduction of ERJ's will no doubt help to solve this problem as it will allow the 73's to focus on the higher yield markets while the ERJ's can focus on increasing frequency to the less popular (and more fare driven) holiday markets.

If DJ don't have the $59 fare available, it means the fares allocated with that price have been sold. As with all airlines, DJ as well as JQ operate a fare system that increases as the aircraft fills. It's not that DJ didn't offer the fare, its that someone else had already bought it and hence the new "lowest fare" is now more expensive.

 

[serfty]

Why do JQ have "the lions share" of the MCY market? Because Qantas stopped flying there!

They then forced people who had booked on QF to either 1) Fly JQ or 2) get a refund.

I know of a family that booked three award seats and one paid seat on QF for MEL-MCY between Christmas and New year. They did this at the limit of award bookings in January of that year.

Come August they are called to advise they had been put on JQ and the flight was departing 4 hours earlier at ~7am! If they did not like that they could have a full refund of points and dollars.

Yeah... right.. get different award seats for the Christmas/New Year period 4 months out :evil:

 

[straitman]

Industrybuff,

My thought are that your post is way too aggressive for the second post on a forum :!:

You could still pass your message politely and no one would get upset.

 

[Soundguy]

Industrybuff do you work for Jetstar or are in some way affiliated with them? Just your post seemed to come accross that way....

Soundguy (just another forum dolt)

 

[Reggie]

Industrybuff,

My thought are that your post is way too aggressive for the second post on a forum :!:

You could still pass your message politely and no one would get upset.

Sounds a little d00t - ish. Didn't he make some interesting comments about our call centre friends before being d00ted?:shock:

 

[Soundguy]

.... but buffy is right that deathstar don't fly BNE to SYD - wonder what Bolman was on about?

Soundguy (forum klutz)