JETSTAR: Big mistake. Tells journalist their flight credit is not valid, when it is

Jetstar needs to build a few ‘influential journalist’ alerts into its communication algorithm when communicating with passengers.

The AFR is reporting today that one of its senior Journalists, Jennifer Hewitt was emailed late in August advising that flight vouchers aquired during the pandemic would expire on 6 September. Trying to use the vouchers before that date brought no joy either, with the website telling her that they had already expired.

The journalist was then advised by a Jetstar call centre that she needed to provide the evidence that her booking was made during COVID by dredging up the original confirmation of her booking from three years ago.

I’m not sure what most shocked me: That Ms Hewitt travels on ‘Shitstar’ as its critics know it, or that their call centre provided a customer with incorrect information.

Anyway, back to the tale. Ms Hewitt experienced what countless other ‘Deathstar’ customers have experienced. Seemingly when she got assertive and asked to escalate the enquiry, the call dropped out. In a follow up engagement with the call centre further misinformation was given:

‘[she] spoke to another Jetstar representative who refused to escalate the query and told her the vouchers had expired and could not be used unless the original booking details could be retrieved.’

AFR

Jetstar vouchers have been extended indefinitely

Finally, Jetstar confirmed that as announced, their vouchers had not expired, but as announced earlier in September, Jetstar COVID vouchers have been extended indefinitely. Well sort of. You still have to phone the airline to request an extension if you have an ‘expired’ voucher. Their emails and other communications are sort of confusing if not downright misleading. The AFR quotes one such email from Jetstar:

“If your voucher is due to expire any time up to December 2023, and it expires before you can use it, please contact us for assistance. For vouchers which have been partially used, we can only assist after the voucher’s expiry date has passed in 2023.”

AFR

How to claim your voucher from Jetstar

Here is some advice from the 9NEWS website from 1 September:

Jetstar won’t provide a cash refund, but the vouchers can be used to book flights “indefinitely”.

The airline says its credits “can be redeemed on all Jetstar fares, including sale and Club Jetstar fares, and on domestic or international trips”.

To claim your voucher, Jetstar says you need to contact it via its online live chat.

It also says customers need to contact them in order for their vouchers to be extended past their previous expiry dates.

9NEWS

And here is the view from the Jetstar website itself for Jetstar Airways COVID Vouchers^•:

‘We are extending the time you have to book with your Jetstar Airways COVID voucher*, which means you can book flights indefinitely.

You can book using your current voucher until 31 December 2023. If you don’t use the voucher by 31 December 2023, you can contact us at any time after your voucher expires and we will issue you a new voucher.

You don’t need to take any action until after 31 December 2023 if your voucher expires. Please note, we will not be able to renew your voucher before 31 December 2023. If you haven’t used your current voucher by 31 December 2023, you can contact us for a new voucher from 1 Jan 2024.

* ‘COVID Voucher’ refers to all Jetstar Airways vouchers that have an expiry date of 31 December 2023 (which will be extended on request).’

Jetstar

Clear then?

2PAXfly Takeout

Sometimes, the behaviour of Jetstar, part of the Qantas Group just beggers belief. Surely the simplest thing to do is to send an email to all customers saying that their flight credit is valid whatever date it says it will expire. Then to offer the voucher as a payment option when customers identify themselves during the booking process.

OK, of course there will be all sorts of exceptions to this, but an email will at least warn punters that their credit/voucher is still valid.

Sheesh! It seems that it only gets really complicated when you don’t really want to have customers use their vouchers successfully