A holidaymaker from the United Kingdom who clambered into reorganising flights following a last-minute and abrupt cancellation made by Jetstar Airways stated that passengers are asked to return Duty-Free purchases. This has resulted in an additional insult to injury the stranded passengers have undergone.
One of the unlucky passengers whose name was Molly, who also refused to disclose her full surname, had already passed through the security section of Auckland International Airport. As she navigated her way, she was bombarded by the timetable signage declaring that her flight was cancelled, 40 minutes prior to scheduled take-off.
Due to a lack of information plus the condition of being confined at the inaccurate side of the airport’s security gates, she walked around, trying to look for her lost fellow passengers.
The moment Molly found the right gate where the flight was supposed to have originated, a couple of individuals from Jetstar, the other one a trainee, had dealt with 180 distressed passengers.
According to her, the Jetstar staff accompanied the passengers to security but it was quite evident that these airline workers weren’t sure of what they were doing. What really surprised them is when the staff announced that their duty-free purchases must be returned first before they are given permission to leave the airport’s premises.
The spokesperson of Jetstar said that any duty-free item must be returned as required by the government. Repurchasing can only be done on their rescheduled flight. It was also stated that emails and text messages were sent to passengers two hours before the cancellation of the flight thus, giving them the assurance of assistance that they could get in the process. The spokesperson also added that airline companies like theirs do not want to see disappointed customers, so they would always see to it that cancellations and delays are strictly avoided.
On the other side, Molly said that the messages were only received an hour after the flight was already cancelled and only a few received them. She also added that passengers wouldn’t have been permitted through if only security had been told. Molly was lucky to have her connecting flights via United Airlines from Sydney for free. However, she heard that others had spent thousands of dollars just to rebook.
Molly said that her one-month stay in New Zealand was smooth-sailing and was only disrupted by this incident. She also added that she was too willing to ride on another airline and pay an additional $150 just to save herself from the hassle.
