Jetstar.com.au – Australian aviation’s scammiest booking system

In all the coverage of scammy refund practices engaged in by Tiger Airways, little media attention seems to have been paid to questionable business practices by other local airlines.

I also have to admit, even as a co-founder of this site, to having been a little naïve as a consumer. It simply never occurred to me that I’d encounter overtly scammy business practices on a Qantas-related site.

So I was shocked at an experience I’ve encountered in recent days, one I can summarise simply this way:

Qantas’ low-budget offshoot Jetstar has, by far, the most transparently scammy booking site I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.

It can be beaten, but it takes time and patience, and the roadblocks Jetstar places in the path of customers seeking to avoid being screwed are as shamelessly transparent as they are disgraceful.

Let’s start with the ‘booking fee’.

Like many other local airlines booking sites, Jetstar’s imposes such a fee for paying by credit card.

The difference between Jetstar and other local airlines is the price: $30, on return domestic tickets that average, say, $200 (and often much less). In other words, a whopping average 15% add-on to the ticket purchase price (Virgin Australia’s booking fee is close, at $25).

The price itself is outrageous.

To compare: Qantas’ credit card booking fee, for domestic flights, is $7.70. Its card fee for international tickets is $30. Unlike Jetstar, though, the ticket Qantas is providing for a price including that card fee includes baggage, meals and the availability of frequent flyer points and status credits (points and status credits being something that, as we’ll see, you need to pay extra to accrue on Jetstar).

And, of course, Qantas’ $7.70 charge on a domestic ticket (costing, let’s say, on average $300 return) is an add-on of about 2.5%; on an international Qantas ticket (costing, let’s say, on average $2000) is even less: about 1.5%.

So how does Jetstar’s ‘booking and credit card fee’ end up costing you $30? Could the cost of administering a booking paid by credit card possibly equal $30? (Keeping in mind there’s no charge for certain bookings not made by credit card, meaning it must, logically, be the credit card administration which somehow sends the booking fee up to $30).

We don’t know the answer to those questions, because Jetstar doesn’t say how the $30 fee is arrived at.

Indeed, unless you go out of your way to look for Jetstar’s information page on fees and charges, you only find out right at the end of your rather lengthy booking process that such a charge even exists (and who, when booking a seat on an airline website, first trawls the site for a separate page on hidden charges?)

Surely, there’s a case for Jetstar, as a condition of its license to operate in Australia, being required on its website to be clearer about why such enormous booking charges are levied and how they’re arrived at?

And yet that outrageous booking fee is the least of the problems on Jetstar’s site.

Now let’s try and avoid paying it…

Like the Qantas and Virgin Australia sites, on Jetstar the option is given to pay for your ticket by internet banking, to avoid the ‘credit card / booking fee’.

On Qantas’ site, the option is straightforward: you pay by BPAY.

On Jetstar, on the other hand, two direct payment options are presented: a system of internet banking known as ‘POLI’, or, alternatively, direct deposit. (What the practical difference between those two options is, and why both are offered, is, again, not explained on Jetstar’s site).

But here’s the kicker – it turns out it’s almost impossible to pay using POLI if you’re using a MAC computer product.

What? The POLI system isn’t compatible with the operating system of the world’s single largest seller of personal computers?

Well, not quite, it turns out. For some reason, POLI software is designed to be compatible only with Microsoft software. It’s possible to download to your MAC, a software patch that makes it possible to use POLI on a MAC.

But does the Jetstar site tell you that? Of course it doesn’t.

(In contrast, it turns out, the Virgin Australia site does disclose quite clearly that it’s possible to make the POLI internet banking system functional on a MAC).

Why, though, would a major airline like Jetstar offer as the principal means of internet banking payment (which incurs no booking fees, remember), a system like POLI that isn’t compatible with MAC users’ computers? And then not even disclose the possibility of making your MAC compatible with POLI?

Could it be a naked attempt to force consumers to give up, pay by credit card, and fork out the other $30 in mysterious, undisclosed fees and charges? I’m guessing the answer is a pretty clear yes.

Hang on, though. Doesn’t Jetstar’s site offer that back-up internet banking payment option of ‘direct deposit’ that, once again, enables you to avoid paying the $30 credit card fee?

Not so fast.

Because in another delightful screwjob by Jetstar, once you try to pay using POLI on a MAC, and are told by the system that you can’t, the direct deposit payment option also disappears.

Why? Again, no explanation is given. The reason, though, seems clear – to make it all but inevitable that you’ll fork out that $30 booking fee.

But you’re not beaten yet, right? There’s always the option of trying to pay for your ticket on a PC.

My wife happened to have one at home.

Of course, doing that means losing your initial booking, and running the risk of not being able to find a flight. But it’s gotta be worth it to avoid getting screwed, I reasoned.

So, now we’re using a PC. The seat on the flight is available. Time to pay, by POLI, so as to avoid that $30 booking fee.

But wait, now a new catch – Jetstar also doesn’t let you pay by internet banking using the POLI system if you’ve come to the site via use of the Safari web browser?

Why? No explanation. Were you forewarned? Of course you weren’t. Another even more shamelessly naked attempt to make you give up, pay by card and fork over another $30? Absolutely.

Once you crap out in trying to pay via POLI on a PC, Jetstar’s site does, finally, disclose which web browsers you can use to book and pay via POLI on a PC – and they include the now hugely popular Google Chrome (web browser of, let’s remember, the most popular search site in the world).

But is it possible there could be one more catch?

Is it possible, for instance, that just using regular old Google Chrome isn’t enough to successfully book and pay on Jetstar via the POLI system?

Turns out, the answer is yes – apparently, I was delighted to learn, you need a ‘Google Chrome extension’ software download, to be able to book on Jetstar and pay via POLI, using Google Chrome on a PC.

But does the Jetstar site disclose the need for that ‘extension’ software before you try to book and pay? By now, I think, you know the answer.

Finally, using that software extension, for use with the second web browser I had tried that night, on the second computer I had tried using that night (having switched from MAC to PC, remember), I was at last able to book and pay for tickets on Jetstar, without having to pay a wholly unjustified $30 ‘credit card booking fee’.

It had taken me over two hours. And, to be honest, had it not been for my desire to be a guinea pig for this site and its users, I would have given up, and probably paid my $30 mystery credit card booking fee like everyone else.

I think that was the point of Jetstar’s system.

Jetstar’s local site is, I think, on the evidence I’ve reported, a shameless, shocking scam-a-thon – a naked effort so to enrage and frustrate consumers that they feel no choice but to cave and pay unexplained, and outrageously high extra fees.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), NSW Department of Fair Trading, and our colleagues at CHOICE should be looking into whetherJetstar’s site is fair, to say nothing of whether it’s legal.

Customer Underground will be doing its part to ensure that happens.

There are plenty of other annoyances on Jetstar’s site. It’s another $17 above the base fare price to qualify to claim frequent flyer points and status credits for your flight. And if you’re booking for more than one person, everyone on the booking must pay the $17 extra charge, and qualify for points and status credits, otherwise no-one on the booking qualifies – (I’m pretty sure that’s grossly illegal under the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) but nevermind).

Long story short, if you have to book with Jetstar, remember these simple rules:

1. Do it on a PC.
2. Do it using a web browser other than Safari.
3. If you’re using Google Chrome, get set to have to start over after having first downloaded the ‘extension’ software patch (unless you’re clever enough to find it online before you hit the Jetstar site.
4. Set aside at least 30 mins.

Or, you could always take the easiest option of all, and bypass Jetstar altogether.

Have you encountered similar screwjobs with other local airline booking sites?

Have you encountered other problems using the Jetstar site?

Let us know by commenting on this story, or supplying your own review or story.

We look forward to hearing from you, and, together, trying to put a stop to this.