Hello,
I was booked on a Jetstar Brisbane to Sydney flight this morning that was delayed so long it wasn’t worth me going (I would have missed my appointment anyway). I am also booked to return on Rex Sydney to Brisbane this afternoon.
Jetstar are refunding the Jetstar ticket cost but won’t reimburse the Rex ticket & Rex won’t refund or offer a travel voucher because it’s a cheap ticket. I booked them through Webjet but they just say to contact the airlines.
In my mind Jetstar should pay for it but…
It’s not much money, more the principle. Any ideas?
The reality of airline travel is that each ticket is an atomic ticket to the cities shown. The one on Jetstar and the one on Rex have no relationship to each other in practice or law.
When one purchases a round-trip or multi-city ticket it will have a single passenger record number and the originating (or ticketing) airline ‘owns’ problems with the end-to-end transportation.
Since you did not buy a round trip ticket from Jetstar, and as a separate ticket Rex sees you as a ‘no show’ that is the crux of your issue. Since Jetstar has no obligation for your return and apparently has declined a goodwill gesture, you probably have no recourse to recoup the Rex ticket cost unless you have travel insurance that covers the specific issue.
To assure you consider all possible options, check the Rex fare conditions as even non-refundable fares sometimes can be credited to a future flight if timely cancelled, eg before the flight scheduled departure; once a pax is a no-show on a flight the fare is usually lost.
Booking the round trip with the same airline has a different problem. I was recently suddenly ill in transit between Armidale and Melbourne with Qantas so missed the Sydney-Melbourne leg. I couldn’t rebook the flight but had to buy another ticket. The explanation was that since the flights to and from Melbourne were all on the same booking I couldn’t get a credit until I had completely the round trip. Certainly I got a credit then, but I would have preferred to simply rebook the flight.
