Fly Jetstar? Not me
They should rename it 'Sh*tstar' airlines.
If you want proof that passengers opting to fly on budget airline Jetstar are treated as second-class citizens look no further than this story about how today (Wednesday) a routine Sydney to Melbourne flight turned into an eight-hour, 3700km journey for about 130 Jetstar passengers
We’re right under the major flight paths here in Bright and in the morning I noticed a lot of circular vapour trails in the sky indicating planes being made to circle while they waited for the Melbourne fog to clear. Not so for lowly Jetstar, who were ordered to divert 1400km north to Brisbane.
The flight departed Sydney at about 7.30 am but did not arrive in Melbourne (Avalon) until 3.30pm with passengers having to sit in the A320 Airbus for more than eight hours. And all they got was a bread roll and a soft drink. Stuff Jetstar, they treat their passengers like shit; I’d rather pay just a few dollars more and fly Virgin, which has to be the best airline in the country.
Promoting 'Beautiful Bright'.
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I usually fly VirginBlue. But tomorrow evening, I’ll be flying JetStar to the Sunshine Coast, only because they had cheaper flights when VB’s cheaper seats were all sold out.
Wish me luck!
Good luck, Bron, but if you get diverted to Melbourne don’t forget to wave as you fly over GG in Bright. Look for the place just
eastwest of snow-capped Mt Hotham with the mad guy in the front yard. I’ll paint ‘G’day’ on the roof.DeathStar shit me to tears, I should really post on them. They have such a fucking attitude when you’re checking in, like you’re putting them out. One time, had only a few kilos more baggage than was allowed and the silly bitch said, with attitude, “well, aren’t you going to remove some?”
Where was I supposed to put it? Just take the extra baggage money and shut up ya snarly cow. And of course if I was 20 or 30 kilos heavier in body fat instead of baggage it would not have been a problem, but don’t get me started on that chestnut.
JetStar SUCK
Good luck Bron. Last time I flew from the Sunshine Coast to Hobart, they changed my itinerary 11 times. Starting with cancelling the whole Brisbane-Hobart direct route, which I found out from the newspaper.
This year we’re driving up to, and back from, Noosa in preference to those bastards.
Perhaps come and live in Tasmania for a while, where often we dont have much choice as to who we fly with, it depends mainly on the time you want/need to fly.
I flew to Melb and back y’day, which I do quite often on business. Over with Jetstar – slightly late due to fog (hardly thier fault) – we had a few circuits over Wilson’s Prom – and the pilot did am amazing job even landing as passengers could hardly see the runway until we were a couple of metres above it. Back with Virgin – on time.
Last week – Jetstar return was 15 mins due to weather in Qld late AND they txt msgd everyone to let them know. No loss of points there. The week prior though the 3 pm flight to Hbt left only 30 mins or so before the scheduled 5.35 flight (also late, but due to a weather holdup in Adelaide). Not exactly their fault either.
I could go on but basically over the last 6 months Jetstar have improved enormously and I have renewed confidence in them (lost last year when their delays were quite bad, we could never fly to Melb from Tas in the am – even when there was no fog – and plan a meeting before 2 pm with any confidence of making it).
The longest delay I’ve had so far is with Virgin – a 6 pm departure from Melb saw me get home at 1 pm…. don’t even ask, Basil Fawlty could not have done better. But the real test was w 2 ppl who had had major surgery – one flew home J’star and the treatment was absolutely fantastic, the other w Virgin the day prior – no wheelchair, no help, no lift, no nothing.
However I do agree with the luggage comments above, J’star have really gone overboard with imposing that whereas Virgin have a degree of flexibility (eg 2 extra kg or so).
I’ll wave to you over Bright sometime!
How’s it Jetstar’s fault if they were ordered to fly to Brisbane? They can’t control fog.
I flew Jetstar ro Hamilton Island, they were excellent. You can fly any airline and have a good or bad experience.
You’ve got to ask how nuts Jetstar are not to divert to Canberra! Why fly all the way to Brisbane when you can stop in Canberra – and the Canberra runways can take up to a Boeing 747.
It’s just that you hear a lot more customer complaints about Jetstar. As for this incident, it didn’t happen to any other airline. I’m not sure who “ordered” the absurd diversion but the plane was scheduled to fly to Briisbane after Melbourne anyway. So it seems they flew to Brisbane, dumped the passengers and came back and picked them up later.
Canberra was probably fogged in too. Air Traffic Control would have told them to divert to Brisbane, it’s not like an airline enjoys chewing up extra fuel just to shit their passengers.
Gee Wah, I never thought I’d see the day where you became an apologist for ‘The Man’.
I just checked to see who it was I flew with last year up to Byron Bay – it was JetStar. And it was one the more enjoyable flights ever. Left on time, arrived on time, plane crew polite, helpful and courteous.
Hmm. I guess the cliche about one bad apple applies here.
Meaning that those of you who have had a bad experience on a particular airline makes you create an aversion for that airline.
That said, I’ll never fly Qantas!
There’s an update on this on the HS website and it does seem like it was the airline’s decision to divert so far. The “order” may have been made after they suggested the Brisbane diversion as an alternative to circling around Victoria.
I don’t think there’s much doubt that Jetstar attracts more customer complaints for the way they treat customers than any other airline, and the general thrust of comments here tends to confirm that:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25652585-661,00.html
Are you still in the plane, Bron?
Who’s ‘The Man’ Wah’s apologising for, Dave? Lindsay Fox?
No, I’m still at work, Ray. Get on the plane at 6.45pm. Such a loooooong day!
Get on the (Jetstar) plane at 6.45pm …
…. arrive 6.45 am?
Dunno what you lot are grizzling about! I travelled the South Pacific for 13 years flying in aircraft that the Wright Brothers would have been too scared to use.
The local airlines had nicknames – Air Agony, Air Pathetic, Crashair. They worked on the “hurry up & wait” principle – you must check in three hours before departure, get yourself weighed, have your baggage weighed, then hang around a dusty, smelly & humid airstrip.
I could write a book on my flying experiences. Like the time I flew from Vava’u to Nuku’alofa in Tonga in a 12 seater. Too much luggage – no problem – simply remove the life rafts at the rear of the cabin & squeeze more cases in. That was a two hour flight over the Pacific Ocean!
Or coming into land (uphill) at a small town in the PNG Highlands to find a pack of wild dogs on the runway doing what Ray’s dogs are good at. That was fun as the aircraft was almost at stalling speed. Taking off the next morning was easy – you just fly off the edge of the mountain making sure to dodge the hi-voltage power lines thoughtfully placed just below the edge.
Where do I go to volunteer, Noel, I need some of that.
You could try Vanuatu, JR.
Their local airline’s chief pilot flew better pissed than sober. I know from experience when after a heavy Sunday with him drinking warm French red wine he made a faultless flight in an elderly Britten Norman Trilander from PortVila to Espiritu Santo, a large island about an hour north.
The return flight early the next day was delayed because the plane had a flat tyre & a spare had to be flown up from Port Vila. We finally took off around 3pm, grossly overloaded (again) and promptly flew into a tropical storm. The plane couldn’t get enough altitude to fly over the storm so we battled straight through it.
By the time we got to Port Vila it was dark, and being an “International” airport, it had landing lights. Of course, the arrival time meant they had to drag staff out to turn the lights on & open the terminal. That was fine, but the minute we landed & got the cases out of the plane they turned all the lights off & closed the terminal.
Out pilot, who never drank before breakfast, was sober. I suspect that if he knew what was ahead of him he would have fallen back into his usual state. We’ll never know of course how he would have coped with the storm with a few under the belt, but he would have probably flown back skimming the waves.
Er, I’m sticking to Virgin & Qantas.
Back home safely in Sydney. Can report that JetStar was fantastic. No delays, friendly staff.
Eat your hat, Dixon!
I don’t have a hat, Bron, how about I eat humble pie instead?
I had a flight booked with Jetstar to fly Adelaide to Cairns. They cancelled the flight and didn’t tell me (they didn’t even try to contact, which they admitted). I arrived at the airport and they simply said ‘oh we cancelled that flight months ago.’ Then they said – bad luck, there is nothing we can do about it, you’ll just have to go a book another flight with another airline. I had other travel and accomodation booked and had to be there on time, so I had to book a Qantas flight leaving later that day (and paid a massive premium for booking on the same day). The staff were rude and completely unhelpful. I ended up hundreds of dollars out of pocket. I will never ever fly with Jestar again and I would not recommend them to anyone. (In contrast Qantas have always been helpful and corteous). I often tell people in conversation how bad my experience has been with Jetstar and they often reply with horror stories of their own. Don’t fly with Jetstar.