Frustrated customers slams Jetstar over ‘woefully bad’ communication system

A family’s ‘brilliant holiday’ quickly became ‘woefully bad’ after they became trapped overseas with less than six hours notice.

A frustrated Jetstar customer has labelled the airline‘s communication system as “woefully bad” after he and his family were left stuck in Hawaii.

Jerome Murnane and his family were due to fly home to Melbourne from Honolulu on Sunday, but their flight was cancelled early in the morning with less than six hours notice.

What had been a “brilliant holiday” for Mr Murnane quickly turned into a nightmare after he was forced to worry about how they were going to get back to Australia and where they could stay.

It comes just hours after the airline promised improvements ahead of the Christmas period after months of issues.

Jerome Murnane and his family’s flight back to Australia was cancelled with less than six hours notice. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“We just received a message at about three in the morning saying our flight had been changed, nothing else,” he told The Today Show on Tuesday.

“Basically told we were moved from Sunday to Wednesday. So we‘re stuck in Honolulu saying ‘how do we survive for three more days in Honolulu’? It’s very expensive here.”

He said they were looking at what it costs to stay at their current hotel before discovering other passengers on the same flight were being offered accommodation by Jetstar.

“I panicked a bit, went downstairs, figured out with our hotel it was going to cost me something like $2700,” Mr Murnane said.

“I was on Facebook, jumped on there and there were people actually on our flight who were making complaints about what was going on. They were out at the airport, speaking to Jetstar staff and Jetstar staff were arranging for them to get alternate accommodation which was great.

“None of that was communicated to us at all during the entire process.”

The experience has put a dampener on the family’s ‘brilliant holiday’ in Hawaii.

They were later given that same alternative accommodation before being transferred to a Qantas flight that was leaving on Tuesday morning Australian time.

Mr Murnane said he had been unofficially told by Jetstar staff that the reason why their flight had been cancelled was because the plane's windscreen in it.

He had no issues with their flight being cancelled, but was left frustrated and disappointed by the airline’s lack of communication and information.

“If you try and ring their call centre or their available call number you basically get a call centre in Manila or somewhere,” Mr Murnane said.

“The lady I spoke to last night didn’t really understand what we were going through even though we gave her the reference number for the flight, didn’t understand that we had actually been put up in a hotel by Jetstar.

“Locally in Honolulu they have been fantastic. Jetstar as a whole though when it comes to communication has been woefully bad … they just don’t talk to us.

“It‘s just no communication. People freak out when you are trying to get from one side of the planet to the other and the airlines aren’t talking to you.”

Karl Stefanovic recently had his planned getaway to the Sunshine Coast cancelled. Picture: Instagram

Today Show co-host Karl Stefanovic said Jetstar still had work to do after his flight to the Sunshine Coast was cancelled six hours before it was due to leave last week.

“I think when you go to the airports and all around Australia there are huge lines. Everyone accepts now that things are a bit more difficult and challenging,” he said.

“But for Jetstar, they need to improve communications and also their staff on the ground who are facing enormous pressure.

“Unfortunately they haven‘t cleaned up their room yet and there are still passengers like you out there.”

Jetstar chief operating officer Matthew Franzi has apologised for the issues some customers have experienced. Picture: 9 News

It comes after Jetstar rolled out a public apology earlier in the week after passengers were left stranded in Japan and Bali when two Boeing 787s were sidelined last month.

“We know we haven‘t delivered to the customer expectation,” Jetstar chief operating officer Matthew Franzi told 9 News.

“We honestly do understand it has been hard, and frustrating and disappointing,” cabin manager Catherine Barker added.

A Jetstar spokesperson said all of the airline’s Boeing 787 aircraft were back in service.

“Our teams have been working incredibly hard to get these aircraft back in the air, with the 787s impacted by the lightning strike and damage from debris on the runway requiring complex repairs,” they said.

Jetstar are working to fix the problems passengers have been encountering. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

“To help manage the disruptions during the repair process we added special services and put customers on other airlines to get people home, sent engineering and customer teams around our network to support people on the ground and developed creative and resourceful processes in sourcing spare parts as a result of global supply chain issues.

“To further support our operations, we’ve also hired more people across all areas of our business, created a buffer between services by revising our boarding process and added more crew on standby and team members in our operations centre to help manage illness.

“We never want to cancel or delay a flight, but we will always prioritise safety. We appreciate it’s been a really frustrating time for customers recently and sincerely apologise to those who have had their travel plans disrupted, especially during the school holidays.”

Originally published as Frustrated customers slams Jetstar over ‘woefully bad’ communication system