Jetstar commented on the link and said:
Hi Madeleine! Thanks for posting a link to your blog. We’ve looked at your booking and read the points you’ve raised, and would like to this opportunity to publically respond to them.
-Customers who have specific needs can make online bookings. We have a whole section entitled “Special Assistance” (on the Payments page) which asks the customer to advise us if any passenger travelling on the booking will be travelling with a wheelchair, requires an upper torso restraint or is vision/hearing impaired. We then ask detailed questions regarding any assistance our customers may require. Customers can then advise us whether they will be travelling with a wheelchair and what level of assistance they require with their wheelchair (if any).
-Booking and service fees are common across websites selling flights. We charge a booking and service fee that is comparable to our competitors, and lower than some. We reward our customers who have Jetstar MasterCard and Jetstar Platinum MasterCard and Jetstar vouchers by waiving this booking and service fee, while at the same time providing a free service to those bookings completed using PoLi and online banking. If you pay by any other method, there will be a fee.
-Additionally, customers who choose to book via our Telephone Reservations team rather than booking online will pay a higher fare than those who choose to book online. However, if a customer is unable to book online due to their specific needs, they can advise us of this and we will provide them the online fare.
We’d like to let you know that we have received your online submission, and will soon respond privately with further information about your individual booking. Thanks for getting contact with us, and we’ll be in touch soon.
Thanks – Jetstar
After reading this I thought, 'Okay, well I should give them the benefit of the doubt and I'll try making a fake booking online and see how far I get.' So off I go to Jetstar.com to try it out, only to find that their website is too busy that I can't even search for a fake flight anyway.
After a few hours of continually trying, I finally got on and went through the process to where I could tell them I was travelling with a wheelchair. The question said something like: Are you travelling with a: wheelchair, service animal or other type of mobility equipment? They then gave you the option to tick whichever box you needed. I ticked wheelchair and then was given 3 different options to tick depending on how much assistance I needed to board the plane etc.
HOWEVER: There was no options where I could write about my wheelchair. When I make bookings over the phone they usually want to know how much the wheelchair weighs, what kind of battery it has for safety purposes etc, and they are also supposed to give me a security authorisation number so that the check in staff know that my wheelchair has been approved to be checked in as luggage.
Underneath all of the previous parts of the online form I just spoke about above was this:
Limited Special Assistance
We do provide limited special assistance services to accommodate customers who need to travel with a service dog and customers who require a wheelchair and customers who require two seats for themselves. If you need to use these special services you must contact Jetstar Reservations. Those who have made special arrangements through Jetstar Reservations will be boarded first. Other animals will not be carried unless required by law.
CONCLUSION: I cannot successfully book a flight online! I was speaking with my Mum on the phone about it and she was asking me what would happen if I did book online and just didn't give them the information they usually want about my wheelchair. I said though, that when I get to check in, they'd make it my problem for not ringing up the call centre.
There you have it! Jetstar (or as I like to call it Jetfail), really don't have a clear policy of how they deal with customers who require extra assistance or need to travel with mobility aids.
I'll wait to 'officially' hear from them again and see what happens from there, but rest assured, I'll be telling them that I tried to book online and couldn't and I will quote that paragraph above about calling Jetstar Reservations.
-Customers who have specific needs can make online bookings. We have a whole section entitled “Special Assistance” (on the Payments page) which asks the customer to advise us if any passenger travelling on the booking will be travelling with a wheelchair, requires an upper torso restraint or is vision/hearing impaired. We then ask detailed questions regarding any assistance our customers may require. Customers can then advise us whether they will be travelling with a wheelchair and what level of assistance they require with their wheelchair (if any).
-Booking and service fees are common across websites selling flights. We charge a booking and service fee that is comparable to our competitors, and lower than some. We reward our customers who have Jetstar MasterCard and Jetstar Platinum MasterCard and Jetstar vouchers by waiving this booking and service fee, while at the same time providing a free service to those bookings completed using PoLi and online banking. If you pay by any other method, there will be a fee.
-Additionally, customers who choose to book via our Telephone Reservations team rather than booking online will pay a higher fare than those who choose to book online. However, if a customer is unable to book online due to their specific needs, they can advise us of this and we will provide them the online fare.
We’d like to let you know that we have received your online submission, and will soon respond privately with further information about your individual booking. Thanks for getting contact with us, and we’ll be in touch soon.
Thanks – Jetstar
After reading this I thought, 'Okay, well I should give them the benefit of the doubt and I'll try making a fake booking online and see how far I get.' So off I go to Jetstar.com to try it out, only to find that their website is too busy that I can't even search for a fake flight anyway.
After a few hours of continually trying, I finally got on and went through the process to where I could tell them I was travelling with a wheelchair. The question said something like: Are you travelling with a: wheelchair, service animal or other type of mobility equipment? They then gave you the option to tick whichever box you needed. I ticked wheelchair and then was given 3 different options to tick depending on how much assistance I needed to board the plane etc.
HOWEVER: There was no options where I could write about my wheelchair. When I make bookings over the phone they usually want to know how much the wheelchair weighs, what kind of battery it has for safety purposes etc, and they are also supposed to give me a security authorisation number so that the check in staff know that my wheelchair has been approved to be checked in as luggage.
Underneath all of the previous parts of the online form I just spoke about above was this:
Limited Special Assistance
We do provide limited special assistance services to accommodate customers who need to travel with a service dog and customers who require a wheelchair and customers who require two seats for themselves. If you need to use these special services you must contact Jetstar Reservations. Those who have made special arrangements through Jetstar Reservations will be boarded first. Other animals will not be carried unless required by law.
CONCLUSION: I cannot successfully book a flight online! I was speaking with my Mum on the phone about it and she was asking me what would happen if I did book online and just didn't give them the information they usually want about my wheelchair. I said though, that when I get to check in, they'd make it my problem for not ringing up the call centre.
There you have it! Jetstar (or as I like to call it Jetfail), really don't have a clear policy of how they deal with customers who require extra assistance or need to travel with mobility aids.
I'll wait to 'officially' hear from them again and see what happens from there, but rest assured, I'll be telling them that I tried to book online and couldn't and I will quote that paragraph above about calling Jetstar Reservations.
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