Wasting Time: Those Bastards!

If somehow you were unaware, Enya turned 50 recently! Amazing. Aside from getting stoked about Enya's half century mark, I have spent a bit of time lately getting the run around from Australia's horrible budget airline, JetStar.

A relative of mine used to have a website called Those Bastards dot com. On this website he used to provide reports of companies/businesses/people who provided him with some sort of upsetting service/product/information. It was a kind of an airing of the grievances, and although it is highly unlikely that any of the "Bastards" ever payed any attention to his writings, it really can't be proved that they didn't. Which means we have to assume they read and took into consideration every snide remark and comment made on the site. In addition, they likely changed their business practices in response to the negative review provided on the site.

In March I traveled from Australia to Thailand. As I was checking into my flight at the JetStar(an Australian budget airline) counter, I was informed that I needed proof that I was going to be leaving Thailand within 30 days after my arrival. I, of course, had plans to travel outside of Thailand but didn't have anything booked. The lady with the fake smile at the counter told me that my only option to get into the country with the ticket I had already purchased was to purchase a separate ticket from Thailand to anywhere outside of Thailand. It would be a fully refundable ticket except for a $50 dollar service charge. All I had to do was call and cancel the ticket anytime before the flight and I would be refunded my money. Having no other option, I bought the refundable ticket. Of course, nobody in Thailand ever asked for any kind of proof that I was leaving the country within the 30 day limit. It seems that JetStar has come up with a very successful scam.

I called and cancelled my refundable ticket a few weeks after arriving in Thailand. I was told that my refund would be given to me in about 5-6 weeks. My first call to cancel this ticket was made sometime in the middle of March. It is now nearly June 1st and I have yet to receive my refund.

Many people ask me what I've been up to since I returned from my travels. One answer is that I have been calling JetStar on a regular basis to try and get my refund. I call about once a week and speak to somebody about my ticket. I have received many answers to my money inquiries. Once I was even told that I had already received the refund, which was completely false. My normal call includes me telling the customer service person about my situation, they look it up, they tell me that my refund has been put in the system and it should be credited to my account within 5 - 7 days. Next, I tell them that I was told the exact same thing the previous week and the week before that, and the week before that, and so on. This is when my favorite part of the call happens. They apologize and tell me that they will "fast track" my refund and I will have it within a week. This never happens. Or, maybe it does and the term "fast track" means something completely different than what I expect it to mean. It appears that the term actually means do absolutely nothing and hope that the customer forgets about their refund. It certainly doesn't mean process the request quickly to settle the matter, as one may rationally assume.

Although, every time I call the customer service agents, they are friendly and all posses an exceptional talent at coming up with different excuses to explain why I haven't received my refund yet, they really don't seem to ever follow through with their promise to resolve the issue.
So, in honor of my issues with the airline I'm making a motion to fast track JetStar to the status of Bastard. I hate you JetStar.

In other news, here are just a few pics from the past few months: (click on any to enlarge)