Becareful of cheap airfares

[Dutchy]

We got cheap flights to Brissie a few months back flying mid August with Jetstar, wife gets a call this week to say flight has now been cancelled! WTF?

Offered a full refund or an alternative flight later in the day, problem being it goes via Sydney and has over 2 hour wait there, not going to happen with 2 young kids...ended up we transferred to the direct flight the next day, luckily we hadnt booked accomodation yet for the first part of the trip...but we have now got one less day on the Sunshine/Gold Coast...

Basically if the flights are only half full they are cancelling them to save fuel...so be careful booking stuff etc until you have confirmed you will hit the air at the time they promised...

[mighty_tiger_79]

i came back virgin from the gold coast

initially a 1pm flight that got changed to 11-20isham, it didnt really matter to us as we were coming home and didnt plan anything for the last day, but that got changed because there werent enough people on board!

dodgy stuff really

[Ian]

We got cheap flights to Brissie a few months back flying mid August with Jetstar, wife gets a call this week to say flight has now been cancelled! WTF?

Offered a full refund or an alternative flight later in the day, problem being it goes via Sydney and has over 2 hour wait there, not going to happen with 2 young kids...ended up we transferred to the direct flight the next day, luckily we hadnt booked accomodation yet for the first part of the trip...but we have now got one less day on the Sunshine/Gold Coast...

Basically if the flights are only half full they are cancelling them to save fuel...so be careful booking stuff etc until you have confirmed you will hit the air at the time they promised...

A lady I work with had exactly the same problem (except direct to and from the Sunshine Coast), but she had booked accomadation and a hire car for her and her husband.
After being on the waiting list for three weeks with no answer she rang them again on Friday, was offered a refund, told them that was not an option, 1/2 hr later on hold was offered the trip via Sydney both ways, leaving Adelaide at 6.20am instead of 8.20 , and three hours earlier than originally booked coming home.
When she got the intinerary she was actually leaving Adelaide at 8.20, but they had her on a return flight leaving from Brisbane. After ringing the hire car company and finding out the special she had was only valid if the car was returned to point of hire so returning it to Brisbane would cost an extra $248, and she would lose the free upgrade to a bigger car, she rang bus companys to find out about shuttle buses to Brisbane, that was going to cost between $100 & $190 for both so she rang Jetstar back, after a dummy spit she was on a Qantas return flight to Sydney from the Sunshine coast at no charge.
It is her first experience with Jetstar, has been very happy with Virgin and Tiger in the past, her only previous bad experience........Jetstar's parent company, Qantas.

[johntheclaret]

Happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Internal cheap flight from Shanghai to Ningbo. Got there and went back to the airport for the flight back on the same day, only to find the plane wasn't coming. No explanation (well at least none I could understand), only that it wasn't coming.

Stranded in a strange city in a strange country where hardly anyone speaks English, we had to find are way back to the City Centre and find a hotel. Extra cost of $200 for the night and we went back to the airport the next day.

They did give us a free upgrade to 1st class though........on a 25 minute flight

[Wedgie]

I got disadvantaged because I booked air fares 9 months out once, when they moved the flight home from the Gold Coast I was quite willing to cancel the original booking and book my own as cheaper flights and a more convenient flight were on by the but they said they wouldn't refund me a cent unless its moved a certain amount of time, that was Jetstar too I think. Will never fly them again.
Mate recently had an issue where he booked cheap flights to Alice Springs via Melbourne on Tiger, with Tiger you have to be booked in 45 mins before the flight leaves or you miss out, he had it times do when he got into Melbourne he had half an hour to book in before the 45 min deadline for the flight to Alice, they moved the flight backwards to Melbourne by 45 mins and have told him bad luck!
Personally I only fly Qantas these days, might cost a lot more but Im willing to pay for better service, reliability, etc.

[Sojourner]

Personally I only fly Qantas these days, might cost a lot more but Im willing to pay for better service, reliability, etc.

Same here for much the same reasons!

What really concerns me about Tiger Airways is that they are legally allowed to discriminate against people in wheelchairs and refuse to take them on their flights if they require assistance to board. I understand that it is all about money and profit, yet that type of attitude should not even be remotley brought into Australia which traditionally has been a country where every one gets a fair go. What right do these pricks have to tell someone like Peter Motley that he cannot travel on their aircraft because he is in a wheel chair?

[Pseudo]

Personally I only fly Qantas these days, might cost a lot more but Im willing to pay for better service, reliability, etc.

Ha. I don't rate Qantas especially highly for service.

Case in point 1: On a trip to Melbourne for an Aikido camp. I checked in my weapons bag in one piece in Adelaide. In Melbourne, the weapons came out on the baggage carousel seperately - the bag had been ripped to shreds, and the jo (staff) came out in two bits. Not happy. I did get reimbursement from Qantas, but I still wasted my first few hours in Melbourne running around to martial arts shops to replace my broken weapon.

Case in point 2: On a trip to Edinburgh last year, my plane ex-Sydney was delayed by 4 hours because Qantas needed to get a spare engine to Singapore and decided to bolt it to the wing of the aircraft I was on. Of course I missed my connecting flight in Singapore. Qantas managed to reroute me through Frankfurt and onto a Lufthansa flight for the final leg. However the flight to Frankfurt was on the same plane I had just left - and this was delayed by a number of hours while the spare engine was unbolted! The customer service in Frankfurt was weak as piss; I had to run halfway around the airport to get my ticket for the final leg sorted. I ended up getting into Edinburgh at nighttime when I should have been there in the morning, i.e. I basically lost a full day. Insult was added to injury when I got home and found that I was not credited frequent flyer points for the Frankfurt-Edinburgh leg.

However I still fly Qantas. My employer always books flights on Qantas, and on top of that I've grown used to getting to the airport early to get free nibblies and grog in the Qantas club

[Brad]

I've heard so many dodgy stories about cheap air fares I avoid them!

[Wedgie]

Personally I only fly Qantas these days, might cost a lot more but Im willing to pay for better service, reliability, etc.

Ha. I don't rate Qantas especially highly for service.

I did say better service, reilability, etc, not the best, compared to Jetstar, Tiger, etc they're much better!

[Dutchy]

Sounds like the same flight Ian as thats what was offered to us, luckily we have booked our Gold Coast Accomodation which is the end of our trip but hadnt booked our Sunshine coast accom which is start of trip, so going a day later isnt a huge issue apart from having a day less up there

the last 2 times we have flown to QLD we have flown direct to Brisbane and pick up the hire car there and drive to the Gold/Sunshine Coast, then drive back to brissy to fly out...we find the flights are cheaper going to brissy and the hire cars are as well, probably casue it aint in a tourist spot!

[Lunchcutter]

I love Jetstar, have flown three times direct to gold coast without any delays or cancellations and I have always had friendly, cheerful staff and much larger seats that on the Virgin/Tiger flights. Qantas of course is the best but who really wants to fork out all those $'s.

[JAS]

Touch wood...I've never had any major problems with airlines...flown both the cheapies and the biggies. Lets face it the cheap ones are just that...you get what you pay for. Of the biggies BA was the worst...by far and away the best was Royal Jordanian...oustanding service even in economy...near empty plane going out and packed coming back but made no difference to quality of service.

I wouldn't be surprised if ALL airlines start the flight cancelations soon, especially if fuel prices keep rising. At the end of the day they are only interested in making a profit so they won't be willing to tolerate loss making flights for long.

Also fairly sure that if you look at the 'terms and conditions' part of the ticket they have themselves well covered when it comes to cancelations...most will usually say something along the lines of 'we reserve the right to change or cancel the flight etc etc etc' (applies to rail tickets too and no doubt coaches).

My advice...expect cancelations and delays etc every time you travel...make sure you have phone numbers for your hotel/car hire/people etc so you can make other arrangements with the least hassle. If you can make your carry-on bag a mini survival kit...ie small wash kit or at least a toothbrush etc and a change of underwear and maybe a rolled-up tee shirt. No need to be grubby and angry when you can just be angry

Regards
JAS

[mighty_tiger_79]

ive never bothered, but i do remember hearing someone on the radio saying that if everyone read the fine print on their flight tickets, not many would be flying with all the clauses etc they have in place.

[JAS]

'non-refundable' and 'non-transferable' are also favourite words they use...equals...you're stuffed if we change anything.

Conspiracy theorists would probably say they're in league with the insurance companies...the airlines make it almost impossible to get refunded etc so you feel forced to take travel insurance

Regards
JAS

[Booney]

We all go to Cairns in the morning on Jetstar.....

[Strawb]

I still take the train or drive

[Squawk]

Qantas is generally more reliable but beware their flights atm - snap strikes by engineers are throwing timetables in to chaos. Also, their aircraft are flying with "allowable safety faults" - faults that are not considered serious enough to ground the plane providing they are fixed within a certain number of flying hours (maybe 150?). The engineers are working to rule so many planes are reaching their limits and this will inevitably lead to cancellations in the coming weeks, I suspect.

I hate Tiger - they dumped us from a flight because you can only book single sectors with them unless there is a 2 hr gap - ie you cant continue your flight on the same plane with a 30 min turnaround because you have to disembark and re-check your luggage all over again. This was never explained to us when booking on line and it wasn't until we checked in for LCN-MLB that we found out we would be dumped from MLB-ADL and so we had to fork out $600 on Qantas to get home that Sunday night, plus forfeit the two Tiger fares.

[johntheclaret]

I think I read somewhere that not only are qnatas the oldest airline in the world still operation, but they have never had an aircrash in their entire history. Haven't checked out if it's true.

[johntheclaret]

I think I read somewhere that not only are qnatas the oldest airline in the world still operation, but they have never had an aircrash in their entire history. Haven't checked out if it's true.

[JAS]

Have you been watching Rain Man JTC ???

I think they've had accidents just not the falling out of the sky kind...more like the 'who shortened the runway' kind

Regards
JAS