Rescheduling flights: when airlines take the piss

I have never had much love for Jetstar at the best of times, and I will usually happily pay more to avoid flying with them.

But when I was booking my flight from Sydney to Cairns a few months ago, the Jetstar flight worked out as the best deal. It wasn’t quite the cheapest, but it was at the civilised time of 15.20; rather important given that the previous night was due to be a big reunion bash with the potential to go on until the early hours.

I could have got a slightly cheaper one with Virgin Blue that left in the morning, but it seemed a better bet to pay a few dollars more for a lie in.

Rescheduled flight

And then Jetstar screwed me over. A couple of weeks before the flight, I got an e-mail advising of a schedule change. The flight from Sydney to Cairns would now be leaving at seven in the morning. I was asked to click a link to show I found this acceptable.

Acceptable? It’s a bloody disgrace. Altering by an hour or so is no big drama, but to change a schedule so that a flight departs over eight hours earlier? And to ensure that the passenger now has to get up at a time when only drunks and nocturnal creatures roam the streets? That’s outrageous.

It’s especially outrageous when the only options given are to accept the rescheduled flight, take one at the same ridiculous time the next morning or cancel altogether.

Alternative arrangements

There’s no way I would have booked that flight if the times were as they were post-revision. But by the time Jetstar sent out their oh-so-helpful e-mail, prices of other flights had gone up. It was a rock and a hard place scenario.

The times weren’t a major hassle for me – it was more the principle of the thing – but what about other people? What about those on connecting flights, or with unchangeable hotel bookings?

As far as I’m concerned, there should have been a fourth option – Jetstar would arrange for all passengers who requested it to fly with another carrier at the closest possible time to the original scheduled departure.

How hard would it be to put a few people on the roughly corresponding Qantas flight, for example? It’s a subsidiary of the same company for heaven’s sake.

Naturally, Johnny-on-the-phone at Jetstar would hear none of this. His attitude was: “Yes, we know it screws you over. Tough titties.”

How it should be done

Compare this to the attitude of Scandinavian Airlines. I was due to fly from Sydney to Manchester via Bangkok and Copenhagen late last year. Unfortunately, this coincided with the occupation and subsequent closure of Bangkok airport. I phoned up just before the airport became a no-go zone, and asked what could be done.

Without waiting for the official announcement that no flights could get into Bangkok, Scandinavian Airlines paid for me to fly via Tokyo on a Qantas flight, and even stumped up for one night’s accommodation at Narita.

It’s impossible to ask for more than that. They didn’t have to do any of it, and the problem was not their fault. The problem with Jetstar’s flight was entirely Jetstar’s fault, and they wouldn’t give an inch.

Legislation needed?

It’s plain wrong that airlines can make such mammoth changes to their schedules and make the passengers take the hit. Legislation should be in place to ensure that if any airline tries to pull such a fast one, they are the ones that end up paying for it, not the customer.

Tags: airlines, Australia, Jetstar, Scandinavian Airlines, Travel Industry