A traveler has detailed the shocking moment she was “kicked off” a Jetstar flight after being mistakenly told she had a “dangerous” item in her checked suitcase.
Clare Vertannes was in her seat ready for takeoff from Sydney to Perth shortly after 12pm on April 10 when a flight attendant told her she could no longer fly with the budget airline.
WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: Clare shares her Jetstar debacle story
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The 26-year-old event coordinator claims she started to “panic” when she was ordered off the flight without any explanation.
“I kept asking the flight attendant what was going on and I essentially started to freak out. Many thoughts started to rush through my head at this point,” Clare tells 7Life.
“I felt beyond confused and in disbelief because I had no idea what was going on.”
Eventually, she was told there was a “dangerous” battery pack in her checked luggage – but Clare insisted hers was in her carry-on handbag.
“I knew my battery pack was not in my suitcase because it was in my handbag, which I proceeded to take out and show her,” Clare claims.
“After I showed her my battery pack and tried to tell her that there had been a mistake, she proceeded not to acknowledge what I was saying and kept repeating that I needed to collect my suitcase from baggage claim.”
Realizing she would miss her existing flight, Clare – who was visiting Sydney on a work trip – asked whether she was going to be put on the next plane to Perth.
‘angry and annoyed’
“The flight attendant said to me… that Jetstar will not be paying for another seat for me,” she claims.
“She said it was my fault that I had held up all these people on the plane and that I, in fact, had to compensate them because I had held up the scheduled flight.
“Again, I was in disbelief and this is when I started to feel angry and annoyed because she was blaming me and not giving me the benefit of the doubt.”
Clare says she was left in tears by the time she arrived at baggage claim.
As she made her way to the counter, she was allegedly told her checked suitcase did not contain any “dangerous” item.
“The staff member said, ‘I’m so sorry, there’s been a miscommunication… there is nothing wrong with your bags – I left the desk to go to the bathroom and came back to this mess, I’m so, so sorry’,” Clare recalls.
“Honestly, I was hoping there was something in my suitcase so this drama wasn’t for nothing.”
‘Absolute s*** show’
Furious, Clare says she started to “raise her voice” because she was “upset and emotional” over the debacle.
“I got very angry and started to vent to her about how ridiculous this is and how it was an absolute s*** show,” she says.
“But then I started apologizing to the staff member because I knew it wasn’t her fault.
“After all that, I took a moment to breathe and said, ‘Ok, well, it is what it is, what’s the plan now? Can I get on the next flight?’ She said, ‘There’s no more flights to Perth until tomorrow’.
“I then told her that I needed to be on a flight back to Perth today and that I’d sit and wait for a flight – and that’s what I did.”
After waiting for an hour, Clare was offered a free Qantas flight to Perth on the same day – but she needed to wait seven hours.
“Qantas had a spare seat and they had secured it for me. No upgrades or compensation – just the seat,” she says.
During the wait, she tried to leave her suitcase at the airport so she could return to the city – but was told she needed to pay an extra $50 for storage.
“When they were asking me to pay to put my luggage somewhere after the whole order, I was over it,” she says.
“I decided to lug my suitcase back to the city. I ended up catching a cab because the trains weren’t working.”
‘I was shook’
In a shock turn of events, Clare received an email from Jetstar saying she was charged $10 for a pie under her seat number – despite her having been kicked off the flight.
“I remember sitting in my (Qantas) seat, thinking what else could possibly happen? And then I get an email from Jetstar. It goes: ‘Thank you so much for your pie purchase on your recent Jetstar flight’,” she says.
“I was shook… Someone on my flight had charged a foot to my seat and I got that invoice.
“Honestly, I was just in disbelief. I was thinking, ‘Is this real? Are they having me for a laugh?’ I was done at this point.”
After the mishap, Jetstar offered her a $116.22 cash refund and a $350.78 voucher.
However, Clare is demanding a full cash refund of $467 and a $50 reimbursement for the taxi fare into the city.
“They didn’t give me the compensation I asked for, but they sent me a voucher to ‘compensate’ for the flight I was kicked off,” she says.
“I don’t know why they bothered giving me a voucher – it’s not like I will be flying with them again.”
Jetstar responds
In a letter to Clare, a Jetstar employee explained why the airline was unable to offer her a “monetary refund”.
“I hope you’d appreciate that we can only return something to you in its original form,” the letter read.
“Since you have paid for this booking using a voucher and a credit card payment, we can only process a voucher equivalent to the amount paid via voucher and a cash refund equivalent to the amount paid via credit card.
“We are unable to process a cash refund for a booking which wasn’t paid in cash in the first place.”
The letter added: “We have assessed your claim in line with all relevant laws and conventions and I appreciate how unhappy you are with this outcome.
“However, we’re comfortable that we’ve met our obligations under applicable law by providing this outcome to you.
“We will respect your opinion and decision on this matter however our position remains the same.”
A Jetstar spokesman told 7NEWS.com.au: “We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding and are looking into what took place.”
Four months on from the flight drama, Clare is speaking out about the ordeal on TikTok.
“Now that I’ve overcome my PTSD, I can finally share to you all the trauma that Jetstar gave me,” she said in a now-viral video with more than 700,000 views.
She adds: “I’m glad I shared my experience though because everyone is starting to share their horror stories too and hopefully something will change on how budget airlines treat their customers.”
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