Gold Coast couple slams Jetstar after four-day flight chaos

An eight-hour flight delay was just the start of a Gold Coast couple’s airport nightmare, with Jetstar later apologising for the major bungle. Read what happened

A Gold Coast couple has slammed a budget airline after they were told to wait four days for a replacement flight when their original one was cancelled.

Their original flight was delayed for eight hours before it was axed altogether.

Gold Coast Pet Resort owners Robert Green and Christine Arundel had booked a return Jetstar flight for Monday afternoon after visiting family in Canberra.

Mr Green said the eight-hour delay was just the start of their airport nightmare.

“The plane arrived and then it was cancelled because the pilots had been flying for too long and couldn’t continue,” he said.

“Jetstar would have known that in the afternoon. They should have cancelled the flight at 4.30pm and made other arrangements.”

Gold Coast couple Christine Arundel and Robert Green. Picture: supplied

The business owner said passengers were then told the next replacement flight was Friday – four days after their original booking.

“They have no customer service whatsoever – it’s totally unacceptable,” Mr Green said.

“My wife had a specialist appointment Tuesday morning for an operation in January and she missed the appointment.

“We run two business on the Gold Coast. It’s our busiest time of the year.”

After being contacted for comment, a Jetstar spokeswoman said an apology had been made to Mr Green and the company offered to reimburse his new flight.

A Jetstar aircraft. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

“We sincerely apologise to Mr Green for his recent disappointing experience,” the spokeswoman said.

“We never want to disrupt our customer’s travel plans, but unfortunately, due to crewing issues, the Canberra to Gold Coast flight had to be cancelled.

“Our teams explored all options to get customers on their way as soon as possible, including booking them on flights with other airlines, however as adverse weather impacted a number of flights on the east coast yesterday, options were limited.”

The couple said they arrived back home on Tuesday after paying for a Virgin business class flight.

Travellers have been warned to brace for major delays at airports due to a perfect storm of staff shortages, airport strikes and the peak holiday season.

Airports are advising people to arrive two hours ahead of domestic flights and three hours early for international flights.