Travelling was always likely to cost extra post-pandemic, but being charged thousands of dollars to travel between two New Zealand cities feels a little steep.
That nightmare actually happened to someone last month when Jetstar fumbled bag check. As reported by Stuff, Jannine Meyers was flying from Auckland to Christchurch on September 15th when she attempted to check in an extra bag.
Instead of it costing the normal $45 fee, however, the airline staff member accidentally processed her payment as $4,500.
Meyers was luckily made aware of the error before boarding the flight from Auckland Airport, but receiving the money back was another matter entirely.
After being told it would take just 10 to 15 business days, the money didn’t return to her bank account for almost one month.
According to Meyers, she had to trust Jetstar that the money would safely be refunded, despite there being no proof of a fund request, as she and her father had to board their flight at the time. That’s why she described the whole ordeal as “a comedy of errors.”
“By this time my father and I needed to go to the boarding gate and all we could do was simply have faith that they had successfully processed the refund; however, my gut instinct told me otherwise,” she told Stuff.
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Her gut instinct, it turns out, was right. Meyers allegedly called the airline several times to no avail, once supposedly being told by customer service that she now needed to provide a screenshot of her credit card statement.
She told the publication that she felt a refund wouldn’t have been provided at all had she not been persistent. “It was an extremely frustrating experience. A $4455 discrepancy is no small error… I want to avoid travelling with Jetstar,” she added somewhat reasonably.
For more on this topic, follow the Travel Observer.