04 August 2009

Another day: Another Jetstar delay

MELBOURNE - While waiting for a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Perth yesterday that was delayed for almost four hours, passengers had plenty of time to read the Melbourne Age from cover to cover.

No one could miss the full-page Jetstar advertisement, patting itself on the back and telling us about Ã¢â¬Åâœover 7,000 people doing their very best every day, to ensure every Jetstar experience you have is as enjoyable as possibleÃ¢â¬~.

Try telling that to that frustrated passengers waiting for JQ 968 to Perth. It took Jetstar three hours to offer an apology, but no explanation, for the delay.

Enquiries to Qantas City Flyer desk about the cause of the delay met a predictable response. Ã¢â¬ÅâœSorry, weÃ¢â¬â¢re Qantas, youÃ¢â¬â¢ll have to ask Jetstar.Ã¢â¬~

And where is Jetstar? we enquired.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWell, if theyÃ¢â¬â¢re not here youÃ¢â¬â¢ll just have to go back outside to the check-in area,Ã¢â¬~ the QF employee sniffed.

Odd also, that Jetstar cabin crew (who were excellent, I should say) welcomed passengers by announcing a Ã¢â¬Åâœspecial welcomeÃ¢â¬~ for Qantas code-share passengers and frequent flyers.

There was also an announcement from the flight deck that the long delay was due to an aircraft becoming unserviceable and Ã¢â¬Åâœthings just snowballed across the network after that, as they doÃ¢â¬~.

While we waited for the flight there was plenty of time to check emails, where I found this story from blogger Tim Hughes on his Business of Online Travel newswire (The BOOT).

Under the heading, Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics, he accused Jetstar of Ã¢â¬Åâœmaking themselves sound more successful than they deserve to soundÃ¢â¬~.

The blogger was questioning Jetstar claims, reported in a trade publication, that it was now ahead of Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand in Australia in terms of international market share.

Hughes said Jetstar did not have to earn its share by marketing or beating a rival to acquire it.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœJetstar owes more of their domestic passenger growth to the huge amounts of "free" traffic/passengers they were given from Qantas routes being handed over to Jetstar than to any creative marketing or pricing on Jetstar's part,Ã¢â¬~ Hughes wrote.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœIn fact I would argue that a number of their marketing campaigns would do more to turn customers off the airline rather than on.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWhereas Ryanair had to steal/lure away each customer from BA, easyJet, Aer Lingus, Jetstar simply had to wait for the customers to turn up looking for a red rat tail and then resign themselves to being served by people dressed in grey and orange.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœBut to celebrate this growth as if they had started from a zero base (like Ryanair and Virgin Blue) is disingenuous to say the least,Ã¢â¬~ Hughes said.

The above was compiled using an extract from the industry blog The Business of OnlineTravel copyright Tim Hughes"

By Ian Jarrett

For more on No Frills Flying, read Yeoh Siew Hoon in todayÃ¢â¬â¢s Espresso Corner