Bonza flight destination change leaves passenger $700 out of pocket, 150km from accommodation

A Gold Coast traveller has been left $700 out of pocket after Bonza changed its arrival airport to one more than 150km from his planned destination just days before the scheduled departure.

A frustrated traveller was forced to spend $700 to change their accommodation and car hire after budget airline Bonza changed their flight arrival location to an airport more than 150km from their accommodation just days before their flight.

The traveller, who asked to only be referred to as Mark, booked a return flight from Gold Coast to Mackay, booking their car hire and accommodation at the same time for their stay in Mackay. One week before the flight, Mark was notified the flight time was changed from 8.50am to 3.00pm.

Four days before the flight, Bonza notified Mark that the destination airport was changed to Whitsunday Coast Airport, more than a two-hour drive from their accommodation. Mark stated that a shuffle bus was offered as an alternative, but the traveller would have to give up a whole day of their trip by the time they arrived at Mackay.

“No indication on why they changed the flight,” he said.

“It has cost us an extra $700 in total, this is because instead of going to Mackay we are now staying in Airlie Beach, so we changed hotels, now more expensive. Our car hire was a pick-up and drop-off at Mackay airport.

“They changed our inbound flight to Proserpine and kept our return flight from Mackay, so the car hire is $250 more expensive as we are dropping off at a different location, also the cheaper car type we originally chose was not available.”

The frustrated traveller said he was forced to spend $700 after last-minute flight destination changes. Picture: File

“They (Bonza) offered a transfer from Whitsunday Coast Airport to Mackay Airport, this meant getting to Mackay around 5.00pm, losing most of the day,” he said.

“They also gave the offer of a credit if we wanted to cancel the flight. But in their terms and conditions, it stated that in our situation we could get a refund, but that option was not given to us on the text message and the form they sent us.

“I understand the move of our flight as it is a tourist hub, but it cost us more money and time moving things around.”

After sharing his experience on Reddit, commenters shared similar experiences.

“A few weeks ago we flew Rockhampton to Gold Coast, only to be dropped into Sunshine Coast and put on a bus for 2.5 hours. So instead of arriving at our destination at around 3pm with the night ahead of us, we didn’t get to the hotel until 9,” one commenter wrote.

“They cancelled the returning flights to Rockhampton the night before departure. Naturally the Brisbane to Goldy (sic) train line was down for repairs. Fully refunded the cost of the flight but no concerns for actually getting you home in a timely manner, or at all.

“So it was either pay an extortionate amount for a return flight from Brisbane, and try to book a bus seat back to Brisbane airport, or rent a car and lose yet another day to travel.”

Bonza is currently under a financial cloud after its parent company called in advisers to check the finances, despite having only been in Australian skies for just 15 months.

Hundreds of Courier-Mail readers, including passengers who have travelled on Bonza, shared their experience with the carrier and said they weren’t surprised that the airline’s future was in jeopardy.

Despite his frustration, Mark said he is hopeful for Bonza’s future.

“I really hope Bonza is here to stay, without them we probably would not have visited Mackay and Airlie Beach,” he said.

A Bonza spokeswoman provided background on recent flight changes in a statement:

“As a result of operational requirements we’ve regrettably had to cancel a small number of flights and, where possible, move customers onto alternative flights. We wanted to ensure that customers had options based on their travel plans so we opted to offer a connection service so that customers could still get to their destination,” the statement read.

“While there have been some disruptions, it’s important to be aware that there are thousands of satisfied Bonza customers getting to their destinations each week for a fraction of the price they would have paid prior to Bonza entering the market.

“The BITRE (Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics) report released today shows that Bonza is working hard on our mission to provide affordable and accessible air travel for all Australians and we firmly believe that low cost air travel doesn’t mean a trade off on reliability or a great quality on-board experience. This data demonstrates we are striving to deliver for Australia with Bonza being top of on-time arrivals for 7 of the last 8 months since August 2023.”