Jetstar under fire for charging family hundreds after young daughter is hospitalised

A DAD has lashed out at the airline for charging the family hundreds of dollars after their young daughter was hospitalised and missed her flight.

Jetstar fail as young flyer falls ill

BUDGET airline Jetstar is under scrutiny yet again with a father slamming the carrier for charging the family hundreds of dollars when their young daughter became hospitalised and could no longer catch her flight home after a holiday accident.

To add insult to injury, Jetstar is being accused of not informing the family that simply buying new tickets would have been cheaper than rescheduling their booked flights.

It’s not the first time the Qantas offshoot has been under the spotlight for its customer service skills.

Chris Mawn and his family were due to fly back to Sydney from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on January 19, when his daughter Gracie was admitted to hospital after she stepped on the venomous fish.

Mr Mawn said he flew back home with his son while his wife stayed with their seven-year-old daughter in hospital in Queensland, APP reported. The family rescheduled their flights to the next day after a Jetstar employee reportedly told him that the $550 cost of rescheduling the two flights would be refunded on “compassionate grounds”.

Gracie Mawn, 7, in hospital after she was stung by a stone fish at Golden Beach on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Her father Chris Mawn has slammed Australian airline Jetstar for refusing to refund him the full $600 he paid to reschedule her and her mother's flights home. Picture: AAP/Supplied.

DEEPLY UNCOMPASSIONATE

But a few weeks later Mr Mawn received an email saying he would only be refunded $160 and the airline has since refused to refund the entire amount.

The family originally spent about $900 on the four return flights.

“It just seems deeply uncompassionate and almost looking to monetise the situation,” Mr Mawn said.

He didn’t understand why the airline had not explained that booking two new fares would have cost substantially less, about $80 each.

Jetstar later defended its handling of the case. “We understand some passengers may need to change their flights and have a compassionate policy which applies to a range of scenarios,” a spokeswoman said.

“In this case, on their initial call our team advised the customers they would be provided with a refund of the change fee applied to their new booking if they provided a doctor’s certificate.”

Stonefish aren’t pretty and they can be deadly.

‘VERY MUCH NOT PREGNANT’

Last October, a woman weighing just 67kg was mortified to be asked by a Jetstar attendant how many weeks pregnant she was.

University of Deakin microbiologist Dr Melanie Thomson — who is “very much not pregnant” — said the suggestion she was some way along in a pregnancy was particularly hurtful as she had dropped nearly half her body weight since having bariatric (weight loss) surgery in 2002, reported the Geelong Advertiser.

The mum of two and prominent said she was forced to respond to the pregnancy question from the Jetstar crew member with: “Ahhh ... I’m not pregnant. I guess I’m just fat.”

“Maybe I had a bit of a pot belly because I had just scoffed two sushi rolls as I ran through the airport, so I had a little food baby. They have mistaken my food baby for a real one,” said Dr Thomson.

In the same month, a Jetstar employee in New Zealand also asked a 24-year-old woman before boarding a flight from Wellington to Auckland if she was pregnant.

But the airline doesn’t always get it wrong. In January they were praised in a Facebook post by mum Shelley Baudoux following the lengths the airline’s staff went to coax her autistic son onto a flight from Melbourne to Launceston in Tasmania.

A Jetstar staff member asked Melanie Thomson if she was pregnant before she boarded a flight. Picture: Mitch Bear

UNDERSTANDING

Ms Baudoux was travelling with her 10-year-old son Corey, who was reluctant to get on the flight. Flight attendants and a member of ground crew tried their best, even going so far as to give him an airline jacket to wear.

“We got him on the lift and up to the cabin door but still no luck,” Ms Baudoux said.

“He was very distressed and upset. Then the pilot took the time to come out, chat to my son and offer for him to take a seat in the cockpit once we arrived in Launceston.

“I was totally blown away with their understanding, help and encouragement,” she said.