Booked Wrong Dates with Jetstar Charged $240 Change Fee

quackster on 26/06/2021 - 10:31
Last edited 26/06/2021 - 11:46 by 1 other user

Highly recommend avoiding flights with Jetstar at the moment.

I booked a flight for two on my phone late last night. During my booking the flight timed out I needed to re-complete the booking flow and in the rush I accidentally picked the same days but two weeks earlier.

I checked the itinerary when it came through this morning and realised it was wrong and immediately started a web chat with an agent who offered zero sympathy and my only option was to pay a $240 change fee, more than half the actual booking!

Has anyone ever made this sort of mistake and had the change waived on short notice? I was under the impression it was fairly standard practice in the airline industry. I have now paid that fee but I'm feeling extremely disappointed with their response.

I've booked flights during COVID before with other airlines such as Virgin. I needed to change that flight much later for a non-COVID but legitimate reason (close family member was hospitalised) and there wasn't even any questions asked and I just had to pay the flight difference

Other airlines offer much more flexible fares, sometimes around the same price and include luggage.. Unless you have no other choice I really don't recommend flying Jetstar right now…

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              Trying2SaveABuck on 28/06/2021 - 13:43

              @RockyRaccoon: It is temporary cut his but he does have an investive based contract. - thus my orginal comment Is STILL correct.

              'So his "salary" still wasnt even $24million. Its his renumeration'

              Fair enough you are correct - sorry his renumeration is outragely high.

              My issue is he is happy to donate millions to LGBITQ political parties then has no issue turning around and ask for govt handouts!

              The guy isnt even Australian!

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  Aerith-Waifu on 28/06/2021 - 00:10

  Now there is covid everywhere all of a sudden, would they still charge you though to change the days?

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  Castcore on 28/06/2021 - 07:52

  +2

  Just for future reference, the change of flight fee/s are cheaper if you change flights via the itinerary and not customer service.

  The lack of sympathy ozbargainers have never ceases to surprise me.

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    rarelyscene on 28/06/2021 - 10:43

    +3

    I think the "lack of sympathy" is due to OP blaming Jetstar rather than just asking for help/advice.

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      Castcore on 28/06/2021 - 12:22

      You are right, althought I could also say OP is the one giving advice (not to go with Jetstar due to lack of flexibility). And the lack of sympathy seems more to me around OP not having known how shoddy their policies are before the experience.
      You tend to figure it out two ways, you get told about it by someone else or you get slapped with the change fee, I wouldn't be surprised if most people talking smack saying to have read the T&C's didn't find it out by reading the T&C's themselves.

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        Ughhh on 28/06/2021 - 13:35

        you get told about it by someone else or you get slapped with the change fee

        Or read the conditions of your flight. I've purchased jetstar flights before, there's clearly different levels of service/entitlements with increase in price.

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  JungliChilli on 28/06/2021 - 07:59

  +1

  LulZ….

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  leeroys_dad on 28/06/2021 - 08:40

  just tell them you are covid symptomatic and need to change the dates, they have a policy to allow changing for covid issues

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    snirodha on 28/06/2021 - 11:21

    If the flight dates are out by few weeks or months this wont work. Even if you change it closer to fly date it will cost op more money to change the date later than sooner. You must pay for the fare difference and flights tend to be more expensive when the dates are closer.

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  jaypee06 on 28/06/2021 - 11:55

  Sheesh. I remember stuffing up my dates to Japan and only paying a $30 fee. This was in 2015 though. I remember being annoyed cos it cost something like $300 (return for free sale), and ended up costing 10% more cos I stuffed up the date.

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    DingoBlue on 28/06/2021 - 13:39

    +1

    Japan may have stronger protections.

    In Australia you’re not supposed to charge arbitrary penalties, but I’m sure they have a spreadsheet showing they incur a cost of $240 to go to the extreme trouble of changing a few values in the booking database.

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    macrocephalic on 28/06/2021 - 15:30

    Hell, we flat out missed a flight domestic in the US a few years ago (because we were late to the gate and thought that it was not yet boarding rather than everyone else had already boarded). I thought it was going to cost us hundreds to book a new flight. I nearly laughed out loud when the airline staff told us that we could put our name down on the waitlist for the next flight, or, we could pay somethins like USD20 each to secure our place on the next flight.

    Apparently in the US they will let your bags travel on the plane without you - which they won't do in Australia (for obvious safety reasons). Our bags went round and round on the carousel at the other end and then into lost property until we caught up with them.

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  theoracle30 on 28/06/2021 - 14:10

  As mentioned, Jetstar has a publicised 1hr quick fix period where changes like this are free of charge. If you booked overnight, you have 1hr the following morning (when the call centre opens) to request, or you can do the change online.

  Qantas and Virgin have 24 hours or 'until midnight' change policy, but of course, the overall fares are more.

  Unfortunately, everything is within the rules and the only thing you can do is to be more careful and check the itinerary immediately after booking. I've made a similar mistake before with AirAsia. Never again.

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  macrocephalic on 28/06/2021 - 15:27

  The amount you save by booking with Jetstar is almost never worth it. By the time you factor in baggage it's normally only slightly more expensive to fly Virgin - and you get an entirely better experience.

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  Saver Scott on 28/06/2021 - 17:08

  If it makes you feel any better, I once booked with Virgin, an entire year in advance before the flight date. I realised immediately after paying for eight tickets, their times are in 12 hr - not 24hr. I called them and explained the mistake and their response was “Too bad for you.” And their change fees were the same cost of buying new tickets.

  I remember being so pissed off at them and me. I’ve used 24hr digital clocks for at least 25 years, so I’m not used to seeing 12hr time, but it wasn’t just that, their website had the am and pm quite a bit of distance away from the numbers so it wasn’t noticeable. When I asked them why they don’t use 24hr time they said, “Too many people can’t read it.”

  I get I made an error but the tickets were an entire year away and I called them straight away. And their further scam is, you can’t sell the tickets you’ve bought, so if you cancel or don’t turn up, not only are you not refunded your money, they then sell the seats again.

  It left such a bitter taste in my mouth I’ve never flown with Virgin since.

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  Homr on 28/06/2021 - 18:10

  +2

  wow OP got roasted big time.

  OP is also a member since 2008. Sorry but I would've expected a veteran ozbargainer to have more common sense that this and less self entitlement

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  Brianqpr on 28/06/2021 - 21:23

  My sister in law had something similar happen with jetstar and eventually got her money back. Had to be persistent though.

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  Salty Pretzel on 28/06/2021 - 21:42

  So you want the flexibility of a full priced ticket with qantas but at the cheap prices of jetstar

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  Abaddon on 29/06/2021 - 00:56

  They suck, I'd avoid them even as legs on a Qantas booked flight going forward.

  Flew to Sunshine coast with no problems a fortnight ago, had to pay extra to fly back due to different carry-on allowances between Qantas and Shitstar :A

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  kyoba on 29/06/2021 - 18:41

  +1

  I think people are forgetting that we all make mistakes. Now Jetstar as a corporation knows this, and this is why they pay big dollars to setup support staff to help people. The question is, how much is the cost of a mistake? For the business, they have to account for loss of potential revenue, this includes, any loss of revenue from potential customers looking to book those seats, any arrangements they have to make to "restock", which includes monetary expenses from the IT infrastructure or manual work involved, and the time and infrastructure for the support to take on that case.

  Honestly i think $240 is too much. The reason for this is because this was next day change of mind. Although it would matter depending on when the flights are actually taking place, where the closer the flight, the more potential losses. If the flight is more than 1 week away, i would say the potential losses are minimal, in which case, the only thing you're paying for is the cost to change, the support staff to take the call, and the IT system change.

  Now, businesses can bake this into their systems but Jetstar DO NOT. Let's take that into consideration for a moment. If you compare most booking services, or any ordering system for that matter (IT parts, etc) i think change of mind within a certain timeframe is acceptable and already baked into the booking system. Why airlines such as Jetstar do not do this is simply GREED. They know the amount of money they can make out of this, they know the potential losses involved, this is all a calculated strategy to milk more money out of it's consumers.

  Imagine if you ordered something at a maccas register and just as they put through the order, you wanted to change your bigmac to a quarter pounder and they raked you a cost of a burger for that change. I think that would seem unreasonable right? Yet most people here seem to think that's fine. I don't know what the current ACL is but for most transactions, a reasonable cooling off period is acceptable and i think we forget that and companies take advantage of this.

  Honestly, OP, it sucks for you and i feel for you and i think people here are abit unreasonable or brainwashed to start thinking for themselves rather than get washed up in sheep mentality.

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    Ughhh on 30/06/2021 - 08:23

    +1

    Now, businesses can bake this into their systems but Jetstar DO NOT.

    So then they'll turn into Qantas and might as well charge Qantas prices.

    you wanted to change your bigmac to a quarter pounder and they raked you a cost of a burger for that change

    That's a change of mind.

    I don't know what the current ACL is

    Yes.

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  Eeples on 06/07/2021 - 00:50

  $240 change fee plus fare difference…..

  Or, are you including the fare difference in the $240 ?

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