My family and I have just returned from a Holiday which we had been saving and dreaming of, for a long time.
We arrived at the JETSTAR (Sydney) check-in counter at 06:57 for a 07:25 departure. I almost fell over when the person behind the counter stated that it had closed luggage check-ins for our flight because by his watch we were 2 minutes late.

JETSTAR staff did not show any compassion with regards to being 2 minutes late on a rainy and busy morning which was the first day of school holidays. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had already paid $2000 for the original tickets and then an extra $2,200 to prevent a total destruction of our holiday to purchase new tickets with Virgin Blue.

JETSTAR staff did not consult with baggage crews or any other personnel when they made the decision to cancel our seats and do not refund or rebook. I have heard bad reports about Jetstar prior to our departure, but being affiliated with (owned by) QANTAS, I thought these reports would not have been true. I have had to learn the hard (expensive) way that the stories were true.

In total, it cost me an extra $2200, but the most hurtful outcome for me was to watch my family’s first holiday in 15 years, fall apart at the seams. If this is the way JETSTAR treats its customers, I will not be traveling JETSTAR again. To top it all off our missed flight departed 20 minutes late anyway.

I have spoken to numerous people after this incident and I was quite amazed at the number of people who had nothing good to say about JETSTAR. It has also been stated that this is a common ploy by some airline companies to make more money. They take the seats which we forfeited (by a couple of minutes) and resell those seats to standby customers. They don’t refund or re-book flights so they double dip and make sales on 8 seats. If this is the case, then it is despicable and the public should be made aware. :evil:

PS: Virgin blue airlines were still accepting check-ins until 20mins from departure.