JetStar is a budget airline flying in New Zealand. This post is feedback I’ve tried unsuccessfully to send directly to JetStar for some time.

My most recent attempt was prompted by an email invitation to take part in a customer survey. After the survey failed to complete and I’d tried every other avenue, the only channel remaining was to send a letter by post: much too twentieth century for a company that seems to try very hard to keep pace with technology.

Morena,

I’ve now travelled around New Zealand with JetStar six or seven times and have six or seven things I’d like to tell you. I think it’s likely you have other customers who’d like to tell you some of these things too.

1. Booking on your website is confusing. The large integrated advertisements for accommodation or rental cars make the booking process difficult to navigate, especially on a netbook computer.
2. I’m unable to print a boarding pass online despite paying extra to select seats during booking. I’ll remember not to bother with that option in future.
3. For every flight I’ve taken with you, you have emailed me my boarding pass after I’m already on the road and have no easy access to a printer. Wasted effort for you, frustrating for me.
4. I’m not permitted to take coffee onto the plane as I can with other airlines. A cynic would suggest this is so you can sell me another one – I don’t accept that your planes are so much more cramped than your competitors that spillage is inevitable.
5. The window for use of electronic devices during flight is significantly shorter than it is on other airlines; they allow me to keep working until we begin our final approach to terra firma.
6. Your website and inflight magazine reinforce a general perception of JetStar as an Australian company with little more than a toehold in the New Zealand market. Even in attempting to send these comments from a link in a JetStar email, I’ve had to contend with an online form which won’t accept New Zealand phone numbers.
7. You appear to be impossible to have a conversation with. Your customer survey invitation tells me how keen you are to get my feedback, but every avenue I’ve tried has failed. Key options on your New Zealand contact us web page appear to be unreachable. Your online survey was irretrievably broken at 45% completed. Your automated contact centre response offers no option for submitting my feedback.

Perhaps someone will draw your attention to this letter – I hope they do. And I hope to see some improvement if I fly with you again in the future.

Regards,

::Leigh