Good news and bad news about Jetstar

After a long campaign that many of you supported, we received some welcome news today - Jetstar is ditching it’s pre-ticked extras. The pricey pre-ticked extras were easily missed thanks to some tricky web design, and not only that but they also offered poor value compared to the market.

The bad news is they’re going to take seven months before the changes are implemented, unlike other airlines that have dropped the practice straight away. So, CHOICE is calling on Jetstar Australia to immediately end its policy of forcing consumers to opt out of pricey pre-ticked extras when they’re purchasing a flight online.

Thanks for your help getting us this far, now time to finish the job! You can read the ACCC’s response here.

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Just purchased some discounted flights from Jetstar for a long overdue family holiday. There were quite a few options along the way that made it easier to add things rather than to choose not to have the extra costs added. Happy to report I avoided everything that wasn’t necessary.

My main gripe is that even though I’ve booked flights for getting 6 bums onto the planes, I then have to pay an extra $5 per seat to have those bums allocated to a specific seat, even if I just leave the default seat selection as it is, which is what I did. No where does it mention this added cost when you choose your flights, or at least no where that’s easy to see if it’s hidden in the fine print somewhere.

Once you choose your flights you then get a countdown timer saying that your chosen seats will not be yours unless you pay for them within the next few minutes or so, which means you don’t really have any time to read any terms and conditions that are then shown via a small link on the page. The only times you really have time to look at the conditions is before you choose a flight, which most people don’t think to do as they’re busy trying to find flights that don’t cost too much, and after you’ve paid for the tickets and “optional” extras, at which time it’s too late to back out without receiving some kind of monetary penalty as a slap on the wrist.

If I purchase a ticket for seats on the XPT train from Brisbane to Sydney, or from Sydney to Melbourne then the ticketed price includes the price of the actual seat number. You don’t buy a ticket for one price only to be told that you now have to pay an additional cost to have the seats allocated for you.

I’m just waiting for the day when the airlines start adding a hidden cost in case you need to use the toilet while you’re on board and they make you book a set time for when you can use the thing with a set penalty if you use it out of your allocated time slots that costs more than the return tickets combined.

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:tada: :tada: :tada: :tada:

We’re so excited for this win following this really long running campaign - even better to see that all the airlines will be complying.

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Smiled at the toilet idea. For other suggestions you might like https://youtu.be/ZAg0lUYHHFc a song about Ryan Air who make JetStar look positively generous.

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I recently booked a last minute flight to Sydney on Jetstar to attend a friend’s funeral. The plane was at T4 terminal at Tullamarine. Being from the country and rarely attending Tullamarine I didnt know T4 was a completely new terminal and separate from the other terminals. I left home with what I thought would give me a 3/4 hour window of extra time before the check in. When you come into Tulla from the North (Sunbury side) the sign posting for the new Terminal is so minimal as to be invisible.

I lost time going to the wrong terminal carpark and arrived to check in one minute late. I was told check in for my flight was now closed. The plane was still sitting at the terminal and would do so for another half hour but they refused to budge and were quite rude. My only recourse was to pay an extra $50.00 and be put on the next flight. I did this but then was forced to wait an extra two hours because the next flight was delayed, as the captain said, because of administrative errors with the passenger list.

The money I saved would have was dissipated with the extra charge and I would have been able to fly Qantas for the same amount. I will never fly Jetstar again.

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Terrible sounding experience.
You should have been refunded the fifty dollars for being ONE minute late.
Have you contacted JetStar about it?