Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight cancelled (Monday 13 April)

[kevind]

Hi,

A month ago, a friend and I booked 2 seats, Jetstar, Melb-Bangkok, Tuesday 13 April and last week I received an email that the flight had been cancelled.
So much for planning an itinerary. The options given where to either fly via Sydney on the same day, and get there 3 hours later than originally planned, or fly the next day. The return flight previously booked was also cancelled. Is this all about cost cutting? Has it happened to others?

 

[presto]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

The same thing happened to my son's jetstar flight from Bangkok to melb in Feb. They automatically booked him on a flight the day later, he was pleased with that but it would not have suitted everybody.

 

[FL360]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

I remembered MEL<=>BKK flights was on Friday fare frenzy at the end of last year...

It was selling for about $200 one way...

Sometimes if it sounds too good/cheap to be true, it really is !

 

[dajop]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

Hi,

A month ago, a friend and I booked 2 seats, Jetstar, Melb-Bangkok, Tuesday 13 April and last week I received an email that the flight had been cancelled.
So much for planning an itinerary. The options given where to either fly via Sydney on the same day, and get there 3 hours later than originally planned, or fly the next day. The return flight previously booked was also cancelled. Is this all about cost cutting? Has it happened to others?

At the moment this is very common, on both Low Cost and the traditional full service airlines. Qantas and many others (for example Singapore Airlines) have taken the axe to underperforming services, sometimes specific dates, sometimes on specific days of the week for a certain period of time. Jetstar would be no exception to this. Better to rebook a small number of pax onto different flights than lose lots of money flying the airplane.

I'd definitely take the Sydney option ... and wouldn't be complaining about it as that is Qantas and not Jetstar (unless JQ have sneakily started flying to BKK). In fact I'd be rather happy about the situation!

 

[FL360]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

If they give you SYD=>BKK direct on QF it would be good !

it could be SYD=>DRW=>SIN=>BKK on JQ and 3K....

 

[taswegian77]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

I would be over the moon if you had a * class booking and they gave you MEL-SYD-BKK on QF J class with sky bed etc.... Yippee. I would definitely check what JQ is offering via SYD as I would not really want to do a trip via DRW as it would mean the whole trip on a A320 as opposed to an A330

 

[misstam]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

I recently received this email from Jetstar, also for a Mel>BKK return flight (dep. 30 April/ ret. 11 May):

Since you made your booking, we have changed our flight schedule. Please be advised that your flight now departs later than your original booked departure time.

Please check the itinerary below for your new flight time. Please click the link below to be directed to our website. Once there follow the prompts to accept the change.

Departing flight now leaves 45mins later, return 1hr 15 mins later than original schedule. Not such a big deal - but seeing as I'm leaving from BNE, it's good I hadn't booked the connecting BNE>MEL flights yet.

Maybe i should hold off for a bit on those, in light of cancellations?

 

[dajop]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

it could be SYD=>DRW=>SIN=>BKK on JQ and 3K....

That definitely wouldn't be the case... or would it .... If such a routing were to be offered to the OP it would surely be MEL->DRW->SIN->BKK... and in any event DRW->SIN doesn't connect with SIN-BKK.

But don't give them ideas!

 

[stryker]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

At the moment this is very common, on both Low Cost and the traditional full service airlines. Qantas and many others (for example Singapore Airlines) have taken the axe to underperforming services, sometimes specific dates, sometimes on specific days of the week for a certain period of time.

I'm sorry but do you know what you are talking about?

I'm flying to HNL on JQ shortly and I see from the seatmaps that it appears to be lightly booked.

But has it been cancelled?

Don't ask me for a couple of days.

And then, I'll still ask the same question.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

Yesterday I received an email that my MEL-BKK flight has also been cancelled in April.

I am assuming the loads are too light so they are consolidating and flying Melb folk via the SYD-BKK QF service (fine by me).

Interesting the last 3 JQ sales have all included the MEL-BKK route yet flights are still being cancelled...a sign the route be cancelled altogether?

 

[Mal]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

I'm sorry but do you know what you are talking about?

Qantas, Virgin Blue and Jetstar have all been cancelling flights recently. Sometimes it's just a reduction in frequency (eg Wed / Fri flights cancelled), sometimes it's trashing a flight number completely. Other times it's only flying a plane part way through the route where it's a multi segment route.

Plenty more to come in the near future. Hopefully your flight won't be affected - but I wouldn't be too surprised if JQ reduced capacity to HNL.

 

[dajop]

Re: Jetstar. Melbourne-Bangkok flight concelled (Monday 13 April)

I'm sorry but do you know what you are talking about?

I'm flying to HNL on JQ shortly and I see from the seatmaps that it appears to be lightly booked.

But has it been cancelled?

I refer you to the following threads ....

Another round of QF schedule changes
It's really the apocolypes - SQ to cut capacity by 11%
QF29/30 MEL-LHR-MEL frequency reduction?

Also important to remember that JQ, being a LCC may be able to tolerate lighter loads than the full service carriers who depend a lot on the pointy end of the plane. And because it is lightly loaded in one direction, loads in the other may warrant operating the flight to get the plane there for the flight back.

Of course there could be a number of other reasons for the cancellation (maintenance, staff availability etc), but my money's on low loads in both directions.

 

[JohnK]

How can Jetstar passenger numbers be up ~25% in Feb 2009 compared to Feb 2008 and they are cancelling services left, right and centre. Seriously is Jetstar going to make a success of any international routes it has operated?

And yes I know I am very critical of Jetstar but all I can see is botched up routes and constant scheduling changes and the attitude that comes with the scheduled change....

 

[markis10]

How can Jetstar passenger numbers be up ~25% in Feb 2009 compared to Feb 2008 and they are cancelling services left, right and centre. ....

I guess the 9 additional aircraft added to the fleet to bring it to 40 aircraft in total probably accounted for te 25% increase in numbers assuming loads remained constant on average.

 

[JohnK]

I guess the 9 additional aircraft added to the fleet to bring it to 40 aircraft in total probably accounted for te 25% increase in numbers assuming loads remained constant on average.

So statistics lie again....

 

[serfty]

So statistics lie again....

Not Lie as it were; passenger numbers are up - for what ever reason.

It's a matter of perspective.

Now PAX per flight or PAX per available aircraft may give a different view of things.

 

[Mal]

Not Lie as it were; passenger numbers are up - for what ever reason.

Could have something to do with the money Rudd is splashing around, or Jetstar sales that have enticed people or just people switching from Qantas to Jetstar etc... interesting though.

 

[JohnK]

Not Lie as it were; passenger numbers are up - for what ever reason.

It's a matter of perspective.

Now PAX per flight or PAX per available aircraft may give a different view of things.

So if Virgin folded and those passengers split between QF, JQ and TT then those 3 airlines could claim that their passenger numbers are up as well. It may well be factual but does not accurately describe the situation.

I would much rather base my analysis on passenger load factors on flights including cancellations so that the statistics reported do not again get distorted or can be easily misinterpreted by someone. I had actually thought that Jetstar was doing well and then discover that even though passenger numbers are up one of their international routes is in jeopardy.

That article should have mentioned that Jetstar passenger numbers are up by ~25% due to 7 additional aircraft and a swing of passengers numbers from QF to JQ. But that would not be beneficial to Qantas or their plans for the JQ domination of the skies....

 

[markis10]

That article should have mentioned that Jetstar passenger numbers are up by ~25% due to 7 additional aircraft and a swing of passengers numbers from QF to JQ. But that would not be beneficial to Qantas or their plans for the JQ domination of the skies....

Revenue passenger Kilometres are the accepted measure used by the financial folks, which has been down for QF for quite some time now. Statistics can always be made to be positive by the spin doctors.

 

[k_sheep]

I HATE when Jetstar changes their itineries - I don't think I've had a flight with them in the last 18 months where there hasn't been some change. Most of the time, these are in the order of 12 hours, which of course means I'd miss any connections.

About 4 months ago I made a rule - if they changed the flight times, I'd get the refund and go with Virgin or Qantas. A month ago I got fed up, and now my rule is no Jetstar.