Hi all,
I booked a flight BNE to MEL using Jetstar price beat policy with Tiger. I now need to change the flight dates - I realise there is a change fee, but now I need to pay the fare difference to the full price Jetstar fare on the new dates. Is there any way I can get around this? Eg just pay the change fee, but the price beat the new dates, so the fare difference is not so large?
Thanks
Edit: and if it is possible, is there an online chat I can use or should I call up?
I can answer this, and well you likely will have to pay the difference. Unless you just hope that they may have to reschedule the flight on their own accord and then you get to choose when you want to fly (within a few days i think). Its happened to me the last two jetstar flights I've had.
Anyway, I would try to do the second price beat if you can.
Yeah that's what I'm getting at - whether or not they will let me do the second price beat
nope, doubt it.
book an entire new flight and write this one off. after fees, you should be paying less with this method if you got the original flight at a good price
Just did some research - to change flights through the Jetstar website would be a total extra cost of $181, whereas to book totally new flights through the price beat and just abandon the old ones would be $165.
This seems insane!
This seems insane!
Not really. Jetstar is a low cost carrier - they sell cheap tickets, offer insane price beats, and make their money by charging for every single bit of flexibility you want. Food, costs money. Seat allocation, costs money. Entertainment, costs money. Flight changes, costs money. Name changes, costs money. Late for you flight? Too bad. A few KGs over baggage? Too bad.
If you want flexibility or understanding, don't book with a low cost budget carrier.
They absolutely 100% will not let you pay the difference to a new price-beat. You'll have to pay the difference to their standard fare or you'll have to abandon your tickets and get a new price-beat. You can't even on-sell the tickets because change of name fees will cost more than the tickets are worth.
Price you pay for a budget carrier, zero flexibility especially when using a price-beat.
I understand what you're saying - but I'm looking at it from Jetstar's perspective: if I ignore the existing booking and make a new one, they are having to reserve an extra seat each way that they could have sold to someone else. Essentially they are losing money by making the change cost higher than the cost to get another ticket
They overbook flights, and they often hold some passengers with flexible fares on standby to take seats from passengers who are no-shows. They'll most likely fill your seat (if it's a busy flight). Otherwise the seat probably would've been empty anyway and at least now they've got money for an empty seat. In the meantime they've made you regret your decision to use the price beat and given you incentive to pay their full fare next time.
They know their maths, and it works out in their favour 99 times out of 100.
Their strict policies most definitely make them much more money than it loses them. It's how they effectively subsidise their cheap fares and still turn a decent profit.
I think they will see a duplicate booking in the system and action that first. Not sure if they call you and ask what the deal is and cancel one or just cancel one of them, with JQ everything is different it seems.
With normal airlines you cannot hold a dup.booking, the first one made gets an auto cancel.
Indeed. Poor JetStar.
Perhaps you could support Tigerair who are bringing us these cheap flights next time. If everyone just price matches and uses Jetstar then you are biting the hand that feeds you, so to speak.
It's $79 BNE-MEL on a light fare and $93 with baggage, Q jump, and seat selection on a random date I picked 23rd June.
Getting to/from both airports would likely cost more than the fare.
If you'd booked with Tiger they have a much more cost effective change regime. I changed a flight (using their app I think) once a couple of hours before (as I was about to miss the flight) and it was pretty affordable.
Another time I let a flight lapse as I was early at the airport and booked a business Virgin fare using points.
I've also let cheap flights SYD-ADE lapse because had too much on at the time and they were only about $60-70
I've flown them probably 20 times SYD-BNE with only one delay when the whole of Sydney airport was put on hold due to lightning storms.
Probably saved about $1200-1600 all up. Enough to pay for a long haul flight.
The very basic Tigerair terminal in MEL is something that would make me possibly orient towards a different airline for ex-MEL flights but everywhere else I've experienced the facilities are the same.
So if you're concerned about the dollars and not bothered about going to the lounge just rebook and give them a try. You may be quite positively surprised. :)
The only person that can answer this is Jetstar themselves…. Call and find out