So angry

We booked tix Syd-ADL through QF website. the return leg is a QF flight number but the outward leg was JQ, simply a better time for us (I thought)

there was a breakdown on the way and bad traffic anyway with the rain so we were late. my husband was already at the airport but they wouldn't let him check us in despite me being on the phone and not far away, with only hand baggage.

Because he was trying to organise us getting a later flight with Virgin (and paying again) they threw him off the flight too. we are not paying nearly $1000 for both of us for 1 way to ADL on Virgin.

No seats avail tonight on JQ/QF, they won't let us use the fare paid anyway towards a new flight, and the fares tomorrow are not cheap when paying for 3 (somehow only for 2 on Virgin?) after we already lost $$$$.

The classic points award rate is ok, I was prepared to pay this for all 3 of us, there are seats avail tomorrow morning but they wont let you book award less than 24 hours so we'd have to go tomorrow night. as the return leg is on monday its just not worth it. Crazy that they'd rather fly with empty seats than let us use up points.

I was able to get points via any seat rewards by looking at paid flight then switching to points, but again at over 70,000 pts it seemed pretty hefty and husband didn't think it worth it

Most annoying all round has been Jetstar's complete rudeness and unhelpfulness. And just as bad, despite a slightly more pleasant attitude, has been Qantas's complete lack of interest in helping as 'it was a JQ ticket'. This despite the fact they own JQ, and they are closely enough linked that when i booked via the QF website the flights were completely interchangeable only varying by times.

Definitely time to look for an alternative. How are Virgin doing these days??

Another rant. So you were late for check-in, at no fault of the airline? You weren't physically present to check in? Then you claim they "threw you off the flight."

I didn't think I would ever see the likes of those who belong on the 'Airline' TV program. Do you really need someone to say to you that you missed your check-in and all of this YOUR fault.

thanks for your understanding after an extremely stressful night, mohammed. will have to review my first impression of you as a nice guy from the other forum i have seen you in.

it was my husband they threw off not me - he had checked in and had his boarding pass, was trying to sort out what options were available for me and daughter to travel on separate flight but they said that as his family hadn't checked in they threw him off. it was hardly a scene from airport (not that i watch it but i have seen trailers)

i left plenty of time. there was a breakdown on a major road ahead which held us up significantly, then even after this really bad traffic all the way so it took early 3 times as long as normal. i could hardly have foreseen this.

I phoned QF en-route to see if I could do anything, they could do nothing but suggested online check-in, i tried but not available for JQ even if a QF booking

this is the first time i have ever missed check-in time. of course i'm sure it could never possibly ever happen to you.

No online check-in for JQ?

I appreciate the ordeal you must have been through. I guess always check in online and take out travel insurance may be the best advice that I can provide. I have been in situations where I have chosen to leave my partner behind as he couldn't locate his passport, and I had work commitments that meant I couldn't miss the flight. There is no reason they should have taken him off the flight, unless it was indicated that you would only travel together.

thats what it said. went through qf ff website, went to manage booking and it said no online check in for JQ

You need to check in on the Jetstar website using the Jetstar PNR and your surname.

ok i just looked at Jetstar website and see it offers online check in

but even if i knew this had to be done separately (the QF site came up with all details of my booking and just said 'no online checkin for JQ' - It could have more usefully said 'go to JQ website for online check in for this flight') i only had the QF booking number for the complete return booking, i had never received a JQ PNR

A quick call to JQ after booking with your details and ask for your JQ PNR is quite effective.

QF and JQ could do themselves a mutual favour by looking at their operations from the customer's point of view. As has been said to death here, QF and JQ might be parts of the same overall organisation - and the travelling public has this perception, but that friendly bedfellow nature goes out the window when you get down to some elements of the hard core business - something that the overall organisation is not so keen to promote.

Just how effective?

I've known JQ phone staff to be pretty inept before. I believe one of them I was talking to before didn't know what a PNR was. I'm pretty sure the rest of the JQ staff aren't much more switched on in that regard. Hence the result with the OP.


In any case, sorry to hear the case of the OP, but OLCI would have saved your hide (provided that you arrived at the airport with enough time to run to the gate and board your aircraft).

This is no one's fault (except perhaps that of the people who caused the accursed accident which delayed you in the first place) - not the OP's nor JQ's. I don't know if there is a single travel insurance policy that would cover a situation like this.

Now I know that it would be useful but before I had no idea that a) I would need it, or b) that is what I should do (and of course c) that there would be a breakdown etc etc)

This is exactly what I am so angry about. I booked through QF, Paid to QF, got the booking ref from QF. Only when a problem happened was it suddenly 'oh no we cant do anything its all JQ'. And of course the crucial and extremely unhelpful lack of pointer to go to the JQ website for online check-in rather than no mention whatsoever that this might be possible

Oh yes inept indeed. I was already unimpressed with JQ from a recent booking to DPS where I had repeatedly tried to book online only for the site to crash at payment - so had to do it over the phone. Despite very painfully spelling everything out 100 times for the hard of hearing service guy, the booking came through with errors in every line and every name except my husband. only the email address and his name are correct. this was a month ago, we travel in 3 weeks and I am still waiting for a reply to my email and web feedback about it, no changes have yet been made.

And yes i will definitely look at OLCI next time. Wish I had known 25 hours ago!!

Here's another reason why you should NEVER book a QF operated-by-JQ:

If there's a schedule change/cancellation by JQ, QF will go out of their way to DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to fix it - QF will NOT re-accommodate you on QF metal, nor even change a connecting QF-segment if JQ's change has screwed the connection.

For the price, JQ is a reasonable airline if you book direct with them, and will generally assist if there's a problem (with occasional glitches in far-flung destinations of course).

But booking JQ through QF, that's terrible, when things go wrong neither will help - all they do is point the finger at each other and do nothing.