T he concept of a low-cost carrier conjures thoughts of bare-bones service, ancillary fees for virtually everything, and a cattle-car style of experience…
How Dare This Airline Treat This Couple So Well?
…but one airline dared to break the mold in one particular incident, which compelled Jay Mancuso of South Australia to pen the following complaint and display it at his official Facebook Internet web site for all the world to see — and here it is in his own words in its entirety:
Dear Mr & Mrs Jetstar.
Hello, my name is Jay, and you guys gave me and my beautiful new wife a lift to Bali the other week to get married. Twas a lovely occasion and I believe you also gave about 60ish of our guests a lift also. Apart from the cramped seats, all went very well.
Now, I have read with interest several attacks on budget airlines, such as yourself, in recent years. Today I’d like to become one of these people (insert eye roll here).
On Friday evening at Denpasar international airport, my wife (still getting used to that) and I checked in at your Jetstar desk. Tired and grumpy (no one likes leaving holidays) we walked through the immigration stuff and wasn’t till we were “on the other side” we noticed that we were incorrectly allocated our seats. Prior to travel, I booked and paid for extra legroom, being a big fella, in seats 1a and 1b. Alas, we were allocated 15c and 15b. What?! That’s outrageous, I thought. I continued to the gate and talked to a lovely lady there who said the seats were double booked. But they changed our seats to 2a & 2b. Oh well, not much I can do from here.
Disgruntled as we were, we walked onto the plane and a wonderful lady, Abbey ? Flight manager, asked us why we had our tickets changed. I explained. Abbey then moved us to front row opposite and apologised profusely.
BUT! It didn’t stop there. Abbey had the nerve to tell us that she was incredibly embarrassed about our mix up, gave us both a Jetstar comfort pack (love the toothbrush) and a warm little blanket for the journey. Wow, of all the insolence. Then, THEN just after take off, would you believe she continued her torrent of niceness, and told us to select a beverage and some food FREE of charge!!!!!
Landing in Adelaide at 6:00am she then still gave us a huge friendly smile and apologised once again.
This is not the behaviour one expects when travelling with a low cost carrier and it must stop! I expect far less of your staff and I think Abbey needs a good talking to.
So, in finishing. To dear Abbey, flight manager on board flight JQ128 ex DPS -ADL on Friday night the 25th November 2016, I salute you. Your customer Service and attention to detail was exemplary. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, you turned our frowns upside down. Jetstar, give this girl a sticker of excellence. It’s conduct like this that ensure we will be flying Jetstar again. (But can we please have a Dreamliner plane for the Adelaide to DPS run?)
Yours in good fun.
Jay Mancuso
The response from Jetstar was as humorous — with an unexpected surprise — according to this article from News Limited in Australia:
Hi Jay,
Thank you for your post and congratulations to you and your new Mrs!
I’m sorry to hear of the issues with your seating, but so glad Abbey could turn it around for you and make sure you had an awesome flight. We go to great lengths to try and provide passengers with excellent customer service so it’s always helpful when a customer takes the time to tell us exactly what we’re getting right.
It’s also really rewarding for our team to have their work recognised in such a thoughtful way. I’ve passed your comments on to Abbey and her managers and I know they’ll really appreciate your thanks.
I’m sorry if I’m just pushing it too far, but I’ve also requested for a refund to be processed back to your credit card for the cost of the extra leg room seating, just as a further gesture of goodwill (how annoying can we be?). We’ll process this within 15 business days.
Thanks again for your great post and all the best to you and your new wife. We hope to see you both on board again soon 🙂
Cheers — Mrs Jetstar (Emma)
About Jetstar
Jetstar Airways Proprietary Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas Airways which was established in 2003 and operates flights to 37 destinations in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia and Hawaii out of its main hub at Melbourne Airport in Australia.
Its fleet comprises of eleven Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” airplanes; 99 Airbus A320 airplanes; eight Airbus A321 airplanes; and five Bombardier Q300 airplanes.
Jetstar was ranked one of the best low-cost carriers in the world in 2014 — as well as one of the safest low-cost carriers in the world in 2015.
Summary
Reporting on a positive story pertaining to an airline — regardless of whether it is a legacy or ultra-low-cost carrier — is refreshing.
I have never flown as a passenger on an airplane operated by Jetstar; but although my first experience and my second experience as a passenger of Ryanair were not what I would call exemplary, they were uneventful and satisfactory. My experiences as a passenger aboard airplanes operated by AirAsia and Tigerair were slightly better than those of Ryanair. In all cases, I had no complaints — “positive” or negative…
…but would it not be nice if more experiences — as well as customer “complaints” and customer service — were like what you just read? If you have a similar experience to impart, please consider doing so in the Comments section below.
Finally, congratulations to newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Jay Mancuso — and may their experiences together emulate that of the one offered by Jetstar for the rest of their lives.
Source: Jetstar Airways.
