Jelly2003 Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 As some of you might know, I went to Melbourne on the weekend, and we flew with a new Australian discount airline called Jet-Star which is a child company of the Qantas airline. Jet-Star was set up to compete with Sir Richard Branson's budget airline called VirginBlue The trip down to Melbourne with Jet-Star was fine, although you could see a few things missing from the service such as you have to write your own name tags on your bags, and you are not allocated seats on the plane, its a case of first come first serve. The real fun started on the trip back from Melbourne. We got to the Jet-Star check-in point 20 minutes before the flight was due to leave (running a bit late) and were told that we need to check in 30 mins before the flight leaves, and that we were not allowed on the flight. They clearly hadn't boarded yet, and there was plenty of time to put our luggage on the plane, in fact at the time they would have still been loading the plane. Since Newcastle isn't a huge city, there is only one flight per day. The staff said that we could catch a flight tomorrow morning or we could go to Sydney, on the same day, but we had to drive to a smaller airport about 40-60mins away. That was no good, because we had no car, and all of our luggage was too much to haul around (expecially since we had collected heaps of stone from a trade show), and we both have stuff to do, and needed to get back home on the same day. We left the Jet-Star desk angry and went to VirginBlue. Once we got there we told them the story, the Virgin staff didnt seem supprised and said that they had heard of people who had only been 30 seconds late, and they wern't allowed to check in. Unfortunatley the only Virgin flight to Newcastle had left for today, but they had flights to Sydney, which left from the same airport. They ended up getting us a good deal on a flight, and checked us in straight away and looked after us. After that we had to hire a car, drive from Sdney to Newcastle (2.5 hours because of traffic), and 40 mins further again to Newcastle Airport, had to pick up our car, drop off the rental car, and drive another 40 mins back home. I have used Virgin Blue before, both airlines have almost identical pricing, yet VirginBlue's service is MUCH better then Jet-Star. They put name on your luggage, you get a safe grace period in case you are late, bigger and better planes, more friendly service, you get seats allocated, they have the works. If you have a choice between Jet-Star and Virgin, make sure you pick Virgin. Jet-Star isnt worth the bother. I have also heard that Jet-Star do not have fully qualified engineers check the planes before every flight. * It was our fault that we were late (although not because of me), and it was a stupid reason why we were late * We never expected first class service on Jet-Star, but their policy sucks, and now they have our money despite us not getting the flight * Since then I have spoken to quite a few people who know people who have had similar horrible Jet-Star experiences * I'm not saying "don't fly Jet-Star" because as long as you abide by their strict guidelines they are ok, but from now on I will definatley fly VirginBlue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxpor Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 Good Advice (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b3ta Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 I fly Virgin Blue within Australia. Jet-star is not an airline I'd risk my life with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#47 Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Thanks for the advice, I'll remember that next time I fly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophism Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 thnx man. was actually looking into flying with the airline ill go with a different one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHiZZy Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 Agreed that sucks.... but.... its the same all over the world m8. Even you admit that it was your fault you were late, your tickets or the T's and C's of your booking would have said your checkin times... YOU AGREED TO THAT Theres probably a hundred different reasons why they wouldnt let you on the plane, most of which would've been decided by some suit in an office 10,000 miles away, but some of them (i would hope) means that their service runs smoothly for the customers that READ THE SMALL PRINT!!!! just taking the p*ss but from the hassle that you actually had to go through to get home, i hope whatever it was your were doing was worth it, i would have waited till the next day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jelly2003 Posted June 22, 2004 Author Share Posted June 22, 2004 I would have waited too, I even said that we should wait. Basicly it was me and my dad who went on this trip. My dad wanted to go to a trade show, I went because I'm thinking of staying in Melb for a few weeks of serious partying and this is a great chance to check the place out without spending big $$$, because my dad paid for most things (even though I offered to pay for 100% of my needs). The reason that we were late was because he wanted to take photos of the wall of a McDonalds resturant. I told him we were cutting it too close, but he incisted on taking these photos. Whats worse was that we were already half way to the airport, he turned around and went back into the city! The whole detour took 25 mins, so if he hadn't have taken those pictures (which he will probably never use), we would have made it. Anyways, my dad is stubbourn, and after we got in this situation I just bit my tongue and shut up, and let him do whatever he wanted to do. I would have stayed another night, but we still had to find transport back into the city, and accomodation. Basicly my dad is developing a multimillion dollar retirement village unit complex, with 26 villas, and he NEEDED to get back asap, so the money was probably worth it. I agree that we SHOULD have been there on time, and we DID agree to those terms and conditions. But VirginBlue does have a much better service, and I will fly with them from now on. This isnt a thread devoted to bashing Jet-Star, it is more so a warning to anyone who uses the service, MAKE SURE YOU GET THERE WITH 40 MINS TO SPARE!!!!! I know a couple of times I suggest people fly Virgin instead, thats my opinion, and the opinion of many other people I've spoken to. By all means, if you like Jet-Star go with them, the incident was our fault, but they still could have let us on the plane, and their super strict 30 min cut off period sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jelly2003 Posted June 22, 2004 Author Share Posted June 22, 2004 (edited) Hows this for co-incidence, I just heard this on the radio... Yesterday night a Jet-Star flight from Avalon (near Melbourne) to Sydney was canceled because as the plane was being taxied to take off, there was damage to the cabin door because the docking thingo was still attached. The flight was canceled and the passangers were taken from Avalon to Melbourne airport where they were put aboard a Qantas jet and flown to Sydney. Wasn't anything serious, but obviously it wasnt safe to fly the plane with a cabin door which wasnt functioning properly. Here is a link to the SMH.com.au story: Clicky Edited June 22, 2004 by Jelly2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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