Low Fare Airlines to come under scrutiny

[Greg McDonald]

Then you get the ridiculous situation I was in last week. Booked an early flight ages ago to Canberra with DJ, booked in online and turned up with heaps of time for the flight. No problems until they called for boarding and every second passenger was setting off the alarm when they scanned the boarding passes. One of the checkin staff told me that they had originally cancelled the flight due to other problems and then decided to reinstate it when the problems were solved. Unfortunately, the computer system cancelled all bookings for those who had already checked in before the cancellation and the only bookings that were ok were the ones that had booked in at the airport on the morning of the flight. The result was that this flight went out with about 20 passengers and the rest of us were booked on the next flight an hour later!!
Staff were friendly enough but flatly refused to allow passengers on their original flight even though it was going out nearly empty. There were a few very unhappy business types on the later flight!!

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by Stephen B

So what's the answer then? LCC's specifically appeal to people/families, normally when they are going on holidays, so for an airline to say as in the post above "if you checked in on-line and had no bags you would have been on the flight" is pathetic, as is for people who arrived on time only to miss their flight because the airline couldn't check them in.

Do we boycott or regulate? All airlines have genuine issues at times, but so few, including the big ones, actually show the slightest care for good customer service outside the aircraft, that I don't think you could "fairly" boycott one and not all.

I boycott airlines like Tiger, Sleazyjet and Ryanair myself and as I said it is a direct result of TV shows like this, and of course the fact that the headline fares they offer are at the end of the day not too different from the new world/full service carriers.

I would have no issue with Jetstar, they have learnt quite a lot from their early customer service problems, and of course Virgin Blue is no longer what I would call an LCC and seems to take care of their customers too. The post above with the issues in Canberra seems bad though and I would be mighty ****ed off if I had checked in online only to be denied or delayed as a result of a DJ stuff up. Surley they would have known before hand there would be issues.

The problem that I see is the LCC's do not have the ability or inclination to take care of customers when a problem is caused by their own issues. At least with the majors like Qantas, BA etc if there are problems, cancellations etc they will try to take care of you, and even put you up in a hotel if you get delayed overnight.

[David Ramsay]

Originally Posted by Ash W

I would have no issue with Jetstar, they have learnt quite a lot from their early customer service problems

Really?

This from stuff.co.nz

Flights have never been cheaper but does reduced pricing equal drastically reduced expectation? If Glenn Cullen's first experience with Jetstar in Australia counts for anything it might pay to prepare for the worst.

I'm not what you'd call an early adopter.

It took me a good five years following Magda Szubanski's grating "Let's fluyyyy Jitstarrr" advertisement before I actually did.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a prerequisite for me to be in the pointy end of the plane, nor do I have any particular affiliation to our national carrier.

Indeed, if the price was right, I would probably consider the cargo hold of Bongo Congo Airways if they could get me to my destination in one piece and close to time.

Simply put there had just never been the need to use Qantas' cheaper, younger brother. Until recently.

The occasion was a 50th birthday weekend on the Gold Coast, and I was initially travelling from Sydney to Brisbane. Despite literally dozens of flights between the two state capitals each day across a number of airlines, this proved something of a task.

When I arrived for flight JQ818 to depart at 2.35pm I was told it would now be leaving at 6.45pm.

No explanation or apology, just that it was delayed until that time.

I discovered I could get a refund but this did not extend to the price of a ticket with another carrier; it would cost me three times as much to fly with someone else at short notice.

I could however attempt to claim a refund on the difference for a new ticket through Jetstar head office.

And that's where the fun began.

Me: "Before I purchase my ticket can I speak to someone about the likelihood of actually getting a refund for this?"

Customer Service: "No sir, you have to post it in and try your luck."

Me: "But how do I know if I will get a refund in the circumstances?"

Customer Service: "I'm sorry sir, all I can do is give you an address."

As I have a function to attend that night I ponder my options. Pay up and hope for the best, wait for the flight or ring Jetstar. I ring Jetstar AUSTRALIA.

After a 20 minute wait I get put through to someone in South East Asia who eventually also tells me to send in a letter.

Me: "Do you not have someone who I can speak to now?"

Customer Service: "No".

Me: "Can I speak to a supervisor?"

Customer Service: "No, I'm the most senior person."

Me: "Well, as the most senior person, can you tell me whether I would be likely to get a refund?"

Customer service: "No I can't."

Me: "Can I speak to someone else?"

Customer Service: "No you can't, I'm the most senior person."

Me: "Can you transfer me to someone at your head office in Australia?

Ad Feedback Customer Service: "No I can't."

And so it went.

Eventually I'm told I can hang up and dial the Jetstar number again and if I press the first option I will get onto someone in Australia.

I ring, wait another 20 minutes to get through and seem to be connected to someone in Asia. Again.

Me: "Can you transfer me to someone locally?"

Customer Service: "No."

Much the same conversation transpires before I eventually hang up. Sigh.

I sit it out for three more hours in the domestic terminal before re-checking in.

Then I am handed a $A10 ($NZ12.60) voucher by a stonefaced Jetstar check-in clerk. I think to myself this may be some compensation -- back as a nine-year-old when I charged out my time at $A2.50 an hour. Be that as it may I take the voucher with me onto the flight.

Once I have boarded the flight is delayed a further 45 minutes due to two missing passengers. The pilot points out our collective frustrations should not be taken out on his crew as the flight staff were on standby and it's not their fault.

He does not however offer a suggestion as to where said frustrations can be taken out.

To this point I have not raised a temper. Upon ordering some cheese and crackers from the food cart this changes.

The exchange goes like this.

Steward: "That will be three dollars."

Me: "I'll pay for this with the voucher, thank you."

Steward: "You can't use the voucher for this."

Me: "I'm sorry?"

Steward: "This is valid in the terminal only."

Me: "Are you kidding?

Steward: "No - and it says that on the voucher. You would have had plenty of time to use it at the terminal." (Thought but not said: yes, about four hours).

I shake my head and double check classy, photocopied stub only available for use on day and not for the purchase of alcohol.

Me: "Can you tell me exactly where on the ticket it says it's only for use in the terminal?"

Steward: Looks at ticket, pauses and responds: "Well, you would have been told that when you were given it."

Me: "No, I wasn't. Are you making this up as you go along?"

Steward: "Well sir, I wasn't there so I don't know whether you were told or not."

Me: "This is (expletive). I have to wait five hours for a one hour flight and you are squabbling with me over three dollars for some cheese and crackers?"

She looks at me disdainfully and offers a punchline that could have come straight from the movie Clerks.

Steward: "Well what do you want me to do, it's my day off!"

Me: "I think I'll take it up with head office."

Steward: "You do that".

Touche - if only there was a number I could call.

NOTE: A spokeswoman for Jetstar said the flight was "unfortunately delayed due to a technical issue" and refreshment vouchers were only for use at the airport.

"We arranged for an alternative aircraft to operate this service, however, unfortunately there was a five hour delay," she said. "As per our normal policy, we provided all passengers with vouchers for refreshments for use at the airport."

She said Jetstar sincerely apologises to Mr Cullen (the writer) for any inconvenience this delay may have caused him.

"Passengers were also able to request a free move to another Jetstar service, or a full refund of their Jetstar fare, which we would have processed immediately upon his request," she said.

[Stephen B]

Well, come on then, how do we fix this? I know there are allot of airline employees on this board of all trades, what are your suggestions?

As has been pointed out before, taking our frustrations out on the staff we meet while travelling is pointless, because they usually don't know any more than us either. Certainly there are individual cases where they might be able to do a bit more, or even something sensible, but they're also not there to get in trouble and risk their jobs so we can have cheese & crackers.

Seems to me the only two options open to we irrelevant and annoying members of the travelling public is to firstly lobby politicians to regulate the pants off the airline industry, while continuing to bash the poop out of airlines in the media.

Alternatively we could start buying shares, until we have enough to sack the morons running the show now and take over the job of stuffing things up ourselves.

Anyone lend me a tenner?

[Raymond Rowe]

Raymond - please do not quote the above post in its entirety. It is not necessary -mod.

Simple solution.Do not fly them and let them go broke.One of the reasons i stay right away from LCC's

[Stephen B]

Unfortunately that's counter productive for us, as then why would Qantas want to offer a ticket even just to the other side of the airport for under $500?

We need the LCC's, with the standard of service they say they offer, we just need that standard enforced in some way.

[Grant Smith]

Originally Posted by Raymond Rowe

Simple solution.Do not fly them and let them go broke.One of the reasons i stay right away from LCC's

You don't want to hear the other reasons

[Ash W]

What are those reasons then Grant? I tend to agree with Raymond on this one. If we don't like them don't fly them and let them go broke. I sure the hell am not going to buy a ticket on an airline they won't even attempt to look after me if they have some issue. The major carriers will at least make some effort.

As for Stephen B's comments about being ripped off by Qantas and co without LCC's I don't think the market would allow that to happen. Indeed I recall even in the days of just Ansett and Qantas I could still get reasonably priced tickets on most routes, so I feel comments that without LCC's we would get ripped off to be unjustifed.

[Ash W]

Of course you are right, but it is the times that things go wrong that customer service and flexability matters. Indeed it seems that this the ONE major area where the really LCC's fall down big time.

[Robert S]

Originally Posted by Steve Jones

Stansted is very easy BUT very expensive to get to. Often the rail fare to STN is multiple times the price of the air ticket!

The Stansted Express costs £19 one way or £28.80 for a return valid for 30 days, making it just slightly more expensive than the Heathrow Express, which yes, is more expensive than the tube. It's also around the same level as the Gatwick Express. Of course the mainline express trains are a lot more comfortable than the tube and comparing using Stansted to Heathrow is a bit like comparing eating an ice-cream to trying to remove your right foot with a hacksaw... one's reasonably pleasant and the other is just painful and may be met with varying degrees of success.

Feel free to let me know where you're getting those < £10 airfares from though, I think we all wouldn't mind a piece of that.