Jetstar check-in Nazis

Jetstar - the 3 plane budget Qantas-owned carrier that has begun flying the big city routes - has just dicked around the wrong crowd. It's Day 4 of the media shit-storm that Jetstar has caused by their appalling customer service and refusal to accept blame. The people they fucked with are turning them on the spit. From Jetstar's own check-in rules. 30 minutes is what they say; but this instance of what they do in real life will damage their brand in this country to the tune of many, many thousands of dollars - maybe more.How it all began, as Mike tells it (I'm paraphrasing him). It's Saturday 20th June, Auckland Domestic terminal their flight departs at 3:40pm; anxious fans bound for the evening's international rugby test at the cake tin are amongst the passengers waiting to check-in - it's a normal day like any other. And so it begins...

3:05pm

Mike, Kris, Rhys and Min Young arrive at Jetstar queue and are at the front - giving them 5 minutes to check in.

Jetstar pulls middle-aged passenger from behind Mike and allows him to check in.

Mike, Kris, Rhys and Min Young go to the counter to check in.

Jetstar staff member 'Alfred' tells them they cannot check in and its too late. But they were there on time, and Jetstar chose to serve the person behind them - however, which was pointed out to the staff.

Other customers hear Mike and Kris arguing with the staff member, who is by then covering his name badge (along with other staff), customers start to cry, and complain to Jetstar staff.

Kris asks to speak to the manager, 'Alfred' says he is the manager and there's nothing he can do - "tough."

Mike says he will go to the media, 'Alfred' challenges him to do so.
3:15pm

Mike calls a mutual friend of ours.

Mike starts to take photos of customers arguing with staff (for the media to which 'Alfred' has challenged him to go wqith his complaint) and uploads one shot to twitter (the image above), while taking the rest on his iphone.

Jetstar Staff member (seen in black jacket, blonde hair, holding RT in image above) approaches Mike and asks him to delete image, threatens to have it confiscated, claiming photos in airport illegal (incorrect). Mike tells her to get stuffed and he will only delete pics if he legally has to.

Jetstar staff member calls security and police on Mike (this is a frequent Jetstar tactic used in Austraila in dealing with disgruntled staff due to Jetstar's business practices) in a vain attempt to stop photos getting to the media.

Jetstar staff member in orange jacked in image tries to block doorways so Mike cannot leave airport. Mike tells her that if she so much as touches him, he will press charges against her for assault.

Police turn up and tell Jetstar staff to get out of the way and talk to Mike about what happened.

Cop then leads two Jetstar staff away (black jacket & orange) and tells them that they are not allowed to-
a) confiscate Mike's phone, or
b) prevent him from leaving the building.
Cop confirms Mike has done nothing wrong.

Orange jacket then fakes crying to try and prevent immages from being leaked. Cop asks Mike to delete images as a courtesy, but notes he doesn't have to legally. Mike feels pressured by cop and Jetstar staff to delete photos and does so feeling under duress.

Other passengers call NZ Herald while Mike deals with ZB and RNZ.

They sure called 'Alfred's' bluff did they not!

More information before you read some of the spin put out in the NZ Herald below. Once again I'm paraphrasing Mike.

Jetstar first claimed that the group arrived 22 minutes late. This would have been at 3:32 PM. Mike made his first call to a media contact 9a mutual friend) at 3:15pm, some 17 minutes before Jetstar claim he arrived.

Jetstar have also claimed that a barrier was put up closing the counter, the photo clearly shows this not to be the case.

Jetstar claims that customers were told that check-in was closing and were "combed" from the queue, and that they believed those left were for the next flight to Wellington (which they neglected to tell the media was at 6am! approximately 15 hours later, I guess these passengers must have looked REAL early!)

Jetstar have since changed their story (to be printed in tomorrow's NZ Herald) to claim that 22 people arrived 8 minutes late instead. Of course this is still false, as its still 3 minutes after Mike called our mutual friend for media contacts.

It's pretty simple: Jetstar's PR team (based out of Aussie, so they didn't witness the incident) are lying their asses off, and with every day of lies, it continues the negative media for them. NZ Herald:

"It wasn't even a 'look, sorry guys, [these are] the rules'. They just didn't care.

"They took too long to check everyone in. Next thing you know they announced that the next passenger would be the last. It wasn't just poor service, there was no service."

And the blatant lying begins:

Jetstar corporate communications manager Simone Pregellio said the first contact anyone had with the stranded passengers was eight minutes before the plane was to take off.

She said a service announcement was made saying the flight was due to close and no passengers made themselves known.

The manager did a "queue comb", asking if anyone in line was waiting for the Wellington flight.

"They did not identify anyone else. When they determined there was no one else they closed the flight," she said.

"A small group of passengers arrived 22 minutes late ... eight minutes before the flight was due to depart. It was far too late to allow people to board."

Cole said the response was "a blatant lie. My wife heard the announcement but was already standing in the queue.

"There was only one Jetstar flight. At 3.13pm I stepped up and started asking questions. At 3.30pm they put out a call that they were waiting for a passenger. Why would they have gone walking through crowds when everyone who was trying to get on the flight was standing in the line already?"

I note this from TVNZ:
Jetstar's figures showed that in the first six days of operation, 20% of flights ran within 15 minutes of schedule. By the middle of last week, that had improved to 61.5%.

There seems little point in leaving exactly on time if you leave the passengers behind!

The more I think about it the more likely it seems that Jetstar may be running an over-booking policy and that they over-booked the flight in question without bothering to arrange compensation and/or alternative flights. This added with the pressure to get those shocking lateness stats down may explain (but certainly can never excuse) why the staff made a series of very poor decisions. The front line are under stress, but Jetstar management is ultimately to blame for this.