Traveller booted off Jetstar flight over 'miscommunication' with her suitcase: 'I will NOT be flying with them again'
- Replies 40
An airline passenger describes the mortifying moment she was 'kicked off' a Jetstar flight after being informed that she had a 'dangerous' item in her checked luggage.
Clare Vertannes was sitting in her seat, ready to take off from Sydney to Perth on April 10, around noon, when a flight attendant came up to her out of the blue and told her that she would have to leave the plane immediately.
A traveller said she was 'kicked off' a Jetstar flight after being told she had a 'dangerous' item in her suitcase. Credit: TikTok/littleclaree.
Clare remembered beginning to panic and feel scared because she didn't know what was going on, and she was being told to leave the plane without being told why.
'I kept asking the flight attendant what was going on, and I essentially started to freak out. Many thoughts started to rush through my head at this point,' said the 26-year-old.
'I felt beyond confused and in disbelief because I had no idea what was going on.'
At some point, she was alerted that her checked luggage had a battery pack that was classified as 'dangerous.' This was impossible, however, because Clare's battery pack was stuffed into her carry-on bag.
'I knew my battery pack was not in my suitcase because it was in my handbag, which I proceeded to take out and show her,' she said.
'After I showed her my battery pack and tried to tell her that there had been a mistake, she proceeded not to acknowledge what I was saying and kept repeating that I needed to collect my suitcase from baggage claim.'
Clare was in Sydney for work as an event planner. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
Clare's day job is as an event coordinator, and the reason she was in Sydney at the time was solely for work-related reasons.
Since the staff were still holding her up and she was going to miss her flight, she asked if they were going to put her on the next flight to Perth, considering all the trouble they were giving her.
'The flight attendant said to me that Jetstar will not be paying for another seat for me,' said Clare. 'She said it was my fault that I had held up all these people on the plane and that I, in fact, had to compensate them because I had held up the scheduled flight.
'Again, I was in disbelief, and this is when I started to feel angry and annoyed because she was blaming me and not giving me the benefit of the doubt.'
Since there was only one option left for her: miss the flight and cooperate, Clare was brought to tears as she made her way to the baggage claim area.
As soon as she arrived, however, another member of staff informed her that her checked bag had no 'hazardous' items whatsoever.
'I'm very sorry; there was a miscommunication… there is nothing wrong with your bags. I left the desk to go to the restroom and returned to this mess. I'm so, so sorry,' said the staff member.
When she realised that she had missed her important flight for no apparent reason, she was left completely speechless and in disbelief.
At one point, she even made a joke about hoping that there really was something dangerous in her suitcase so that all of this trouble wouldn't have been for nothing.
The Jetstar employee said that there had been a 'miscommunication' and that there were no 'dangerous' items in her luggage. Credit: Stock. (Stock photo)
Clare admitted that in her frustration over the mishap, she began to 'raise her voice' and became 'upset and angry' at the airline staff. But after she took a moment to breathe and calm down, she said: 'Ok, well, it is what it is. What's the plan now? Can I get on the next flight?'
When the flight attendant told her that there were no more seats available for today's flights to Perth since they were all sold out, her disappointment only grew.
'I then told her that I needed to be on a flight back to Perth today and that I'd sit and wait for a flight - and that's what I did,' said Clare.
Luckily, Clare was given the option of a free flight on Qantas to Perth on the same day after waiting for one hour; however, she was required to wait another seven hours.
'Qantas had a spare seat, and they had secured it for me. No upgrades or compensation - just the seat,' she said.
While she was waiting, she thought about going back to the city for a while, but she was surprised when the airline told her it would cost her an extra $50 to store her luggage.
'When they were asking me to pay to put my luggage somewhere after the whole ordeal, I was over it,' she said. 'I decided to lug my suitcase back to the city. I ended up catching a cab because the trains weren't working.'
Jetstar gave her a refund and a voucher but charged her $10 for a pie delivered to her seat, even though she had been kicked off the flight. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
As if mistakenly removing Clare off her flight wasn't enough, Jetstar added salt to her wounds by sending her an email charging her $10 for a food order.
Even though Clare had been removed from the flight, it appears that someone placed an order for a pie using her seat number, and the airline charged her for it.
'I remember sitting in my (Qantas) seat, thinking what else could possibly happen? And then I get an email from Jetstar,' Clare recalled.
The email read: 'Thank you so much for your pie purchase on your recent Jetstar flight.'
'I was shocked... Someone on my flight had charged a pie to my seat, and I got that invoice,' said Clare, who admitted that she was 'done' at that point.
Following the incident, Jetstar provided her with a cash refund of $116.22 as well as a voucher for $350.78.
However, Clare is demanding that she be given a full cash refund of $467, in addition to being reimbursed for the cab ticket into the city, which amounted to $50.
'They didn't give me the compensation I asked for, but they sent me a voucher to “compensate” for the flight I was kicked off,' she said. 'I don't know why they bothered giving me a voucher - it's not like I will be flying with them again.'
Clare insisted that she be refunded in full via cash, however Jetstar did not comply with her request. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
Clare received an explanation from a member of the Jetstar team, in the form of a letter, detailing the reasons the airline could not provide her with a 'monetary refund'.
'I hope you'd appreciate that we can only return something to you in its original form,' the letter read. 'Since you have paid for this booking using a voucher and a credit card payment, we can only process a voucher equivalent to the amount paid via voucher and a cash refund equivalent to the amount paid via credit card.
'We are unable to process a cash refund for a booking which wasn't paid in cash in the first place.'
The letter added: 'We have assessed your claim in line with all relevant laws and conventions, and I appreciate how unhappy you are with this outcome.'
'However, we're comfortable that we've met our obligations under applicable law by providing this outcome to you. We will respect your opinion and decision on this matter however our position remains the same.'
A spokesperson for the airline has already made a statement about the incident, saying that they have already apologised to everyone involved and are looking into what really happened.
Four months after the whole airline fiasco occurred, Clare decided to open out about the traumatic experience that she went through on the trip on her TikTok channel.
'Now that I've overcome my PTSD, I can finally share with you all the trauma that Jetstar gave me,' she said in a video that has now been watched more than 815,000 times.
She added: 'I'm glad I shared my experience because everyone is starting to share their horror stories too, and hopefully, something will change on how budget airlines treat their customers.'
What an insane story! We couldn't even imagine how hard and inconvenient it was for her because of a simple misunderstanding.
What about you, members? What would you do if you were in her place? And have you had any similar experiences with Jetstar or any other airline? Tell us more about it in the comments section below!
Clare Vertannes was sitting in her seat, ready to take off from Sydney to Perth on April 10, around noon, when a flight attendant came up to her out of the blue and told her that she would have to leave the plane immediately.
A traveller said she was 'kicked off' a Jetstar flight after being told she had a 'dangerous' item in her suitcase. Credit: TikTok/littleclaree.
Clare remembered beginning to panic and feel scared because she didn't know what was going on, and she was being told to leave the plane without being told why.
'I kept asking the flight attendant what was going on, and I essentially started to freak out. Many thoughts started to rush through my head at this point,' said the 26-year-old.
'I felt beyond confused and in disbelief because I had no idea what was going on.'
At some point, she was alerted that her checked luggage had a battery pack that was classified as 'dangerous.' This was impossible, however, because Clare's battery pack was stuffed into her carry-on bag.
'I knew my battery pack was not in my suitcase because it was in my handbag, which I proceeded to take out and show her,' she said.
'After I showed her my battery pack and tried to tell her that there had been a mistake, she proceeded not to acknowledge what I was saying and kept repeating that I needed to collect my suitcase from baggage claim.'
Clare was in Sydney for work as an event planner. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
Clare's day job is as an event coordinator, and the reason she was in Sydney at the time was solely for work-related reasons.
Since the staff were still holding her up and she was going to miss her flight, she asked if they were going to put her on the next flight to Perth, considering all the trouble they were giving her.
'The flight attendant said to me that Jetstar will not be paying for another seat for me,' said Clare. 'She said it was my fault that I had held up all these people on the plane and that I, in fact, had to compensate them because I had held up the scheduled flight.
'Again, I was in disbelief, and this is when I started to feel angry and annoyed because she was blaming me and not giving me the benefit of the doubt.'
Since there was only one option left for her: miss the flight and cooperate, Clare was brought to tears as she made her way to the baggage claim area.
As soon as she arrived, however, another member of staff informed her that her checked bag had no 'hazardous' items whatsoever.
'I'm very sorry; there was a miscommunication… there is nothing wrong with your bags. I left the desk to go to the restroom and returned to this mess. I'm so, so sorry,' said the staff member.
When she realised that she had missed her important flight for no apparent reason, she was left completely speechless and in disbelief.
At one point, she even made a joke about hoping that there really was something dangerous in her suitcase so that all of this trouble wouldn't have been for nothing.
The Jetstar employee said that there had been a 'miscommunication' and that there were no 'dangerous' items in her luggage. Credit: Stock. (Stock photo)
Clare admitted that in her frustration over the mishap, she began to 'raise her voice' and became 'upset and angry' at the airline staff. But after she took a moment to breathe and calm down, she said: 'Ok, well, it is what it is. What's the plan now? Can I get on the next flight?'
When the flight attendant told her that there were no more seats available for today's flights to Perth since they were all sold out, her disappointment only grew.
'I then told her that I needed to be on a flight back to Perth today and that I'd sit and wait for a flight - and that's what I did,' said Clare.
Luckily, Clare was given the option of a free flight on Qantas to Perth on the same day after waiting for one hour; however, she was required to wait another seven hours.
'Qantas had a spare seat, and they had secured it for me. No upgrades or compensation - just the seat,' she said.
While she was waiting, she thought about going back to the city for a while, but she was surprised when the airline told her it would cost her an extra $50 to store her luggage.
'When they were asking me to pay to put my luggage somewhere after the whole ordeal, I was over it,' she said. 'I decided to lug my suitcase back to the city. I ended up catching a cab because the trains weren't working.'
Jetstar gave her a refund and a voucher but charged her $10 for a pie delivered to her seat, even though she had been kicked off the flight. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
As if mistakenly removing Clare off her flight wasn't enough, Jetstar added salt to her wounds by sending her an email charging her $10 for a food order.
Even though Clare had been removed from the flight, it appears that someone placed an order for a pie using her seat number, and the airline charged her for it.
'I remember sitting in my (Qantas) seat, thinking what else could possibly happen? And then I get an email from Jetstar,' Clare recalled.
The email read: 'Thank you so much for your pie purchase on your recent Jetstar flight.'
'I was shocked... Someone on my flight had charged a pie to my seat, and I got that invoice,' said Clare, who admitted that she was 'done' at that point.
Following the incident, Jetstar provided her with a cash refund of $116.22 as well as a voucher for $350.78.
However, Clare is demanding that she be given a full cash refund of $467, in addition to being reimbursed for the cab ticket into the city, which amounted to $50.
'They didn't give me the compensation I asked for, but they sent me a voucher to “compensate” for the flight I was kicked off,' she said. 'I don't know why they bothered giving me a voucher - it's not like I will be flying with them again.'
Clare insisted that she be refunded in full via cash, however Jetstar did not comply with her request. Credit: 7News/Clare Vertannes.
Clare received an explanation from a member of the Jetstar team, in the form of a letter, detailing the reasons the airline could not provide her with a 'monetary refund'.
'I hope you'd appreciate that we can only return something to you in its original form,' the letter read. 'Since you have paid for this booking using a voucher and a credit card payment, we can only process a voucher equivalent to the amount paid via voucher and a cash refund equivalent to the amount paid via credit card.
'We are unable to process a cash refund for a booking which wasn't paid in cash in the first place.'
The letter added: 'We have assessed your claim in line with all relevant laws and conventions, and I appreciate how unhappy you are with this outcome.'
'However, we're comfortable that we've met our obligations under applicable law by providing this outcome to you. We will respect your opinion and decision on this matter however our position remains the same.'
A spokesperson for the airline has already made a statement about the incident, saying that they have already apologised to everyone involved and are looking into what really happened.
Four months after the whole airline fiasco occurred, Clare decided to open out about the traumatic experience that she went through on the trip on her TikTok channel.
'Now that I've overcome my PTSD, I can finally share with you all the trauma that Jetstar gave me,' she said in a video that has now been watched more than 815,000 times.
She added: 'I'm glad I shared my experience because everyone is starting to share their horror stories too, and hopefully, something will change on how budget airlines treat their customers.'
What an insane story! We couldn't even imagine how hard and inconvenient it was for her because of a simple misunderstanding.
What about you, members? What would you do if you were in her place? And have you had any similar experiences with Jetstar or any other airline? Tell us more about it in the comments section below!
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