Jetstar’s Downgrade Compensation Policy

Recently, we wrote about the downgrade compensation policies of Virgin Australia and Qantas. But what about Jetstar?

In general, when Virgin Australia needs to downgrade a passenger, they’ll refund the difference between the Business fare paid and the lowest Economy Choice fare that was available at the time of booking. But Qantas’ downgrade compensation policy is not clear at all. Qantas doesn’t make it publicly available and the refund amount depends on many different factors.

Jetstar doesn’t publicly publish a downgrade compensation policy either. However, Australian Frequent Flyer got in touch with Jetstar and the airline has explained how it calculates this. Overall, it seems to be a fairly reasonable policy.

What happens when Jetstar downgrades a passenger?

Downgrades are less common on Jetstar than other airlines because most of the airline’s planes do not have Business Class. But Jetstar does still occasionally have to downgrade passengers for a variety of reasons.

For example, there might be an aircraft change from a Boeing 787 to an Airbus A321neo LR without a Business cabin. Or, Jetstar might have to cancel a flight and rebook passengers onto another flight without any spare Business seats.

When it does need to downgrade a passenger, a Jetstar spokesperson told us the airline will still provide inclusions such as their full baggage allowance and on-board meals.

“We know that having to change seats is frustrating. This may happen for reasons including the flight being operated by a different aircraft type,” the Jetstar spokesperson said.

“Where possible, we make sure affected customers are provided with in-flight entertainment, meals, and their original baggage allowance.”

Passengers can also opt to travel on a different Jetstar flight with available Business seating, for no additional cost.

How does Jetstar calculate the refund?

“When a customer has to fly in a different seat, we always make sure they’re fairly compensated for the inconvenience which includes refunding the difference between their original fare and the new fare,” the Jetstar spokesperson said.

In addition, Jetstar says that it offers customers who are downgraded a $400 travel voucher to use towards a future booking.

But how exactly does Jetstar determine what the “new fare” should be?

In the past, Qantas has used the most expensive fully-flexible Economy fare as the basis for calculating the “new fare”. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be Jetstar’s approach.

Jetstar told us that it uses the “H” class Starter fare price as the basis for calculating the equivalent Economy airfare. This is the second-lowest fare class used by Jetstar for commercial Economy airfares (after “C” class). It’s roughly the same or slightly higher than what you could expect to pay for an Economy Starter ticket when Jetstar first puts the flight on sale around 10 months before departure.

For example, the “H” Starter fare from Melbourne to Bangkok is around $409 one-way. From Sydney to Bali, it’s around $388 one-way.

This airfare is not necessarily the lowest available price for an Economy seat on the same plane. You can often get cheaper tickets when Jetstar is having a sale, for example. But it does represent a fairly typical Economy fare on the lower end of the pricing scale.

A fairer way for Jetstar to calculate the refund would be by determining the lowest Economy fare that was available on the same flight at the time of booking. But, at least, Jetstar’s policy doesn’t seem unreasonable.