Grounded in Maroochydore

Nothing prepares you for Jetstar

Recently, it was essential for my husband to be in Melbourne the next morning for business, so he booked a Jetstar lunchtime flight from Maroochydore, reasoning that if there was a delay, he could catch either of the next two flights or he would have time to drive to Brisbane and pick one of the many Melbourne flights from there.

He arrived early and was told there was a delay because of a computer failure. He boarded the rescheduled flight for 3pm but after sitting on the tarmac for an hour, passengers were offloaded because staff had overrun their allowable flying time. Not to worry, extra staff were on their way from Brisbane and the new time was 5.15pm.

It got to 5.30pm without any announcements when one passenger accessed Jetstar's website and found the flight had been cancelled. Soon after, an announcement was made: come back tomorrow morning, we are offloading your luggage. My husband had to wait another 20 minutes for his luggage and rushed home to book the last flight from Brisbane.

His extra expenses were $200 for another flight, $200 for an extra night in a hotel to enable him to see the clients he missed, $120 for a taxi at 1am as his pre-arranged car had gone, $100 car parking in Brisbane and petrol.

Told he would get a refund, my husband phoned after a month and was informed he had to wait 15 days. He explained it had been more than that.

The refund finally came through but not the full amount. No mention was made of the Jetstar charter that promises $50 if the airline fails to deliver a service. Glad I stumbled on to it, because it is going to hear from me now.

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