‘Exploiting the urgency of travellers’: Jetstar passenger slugged $559 before boarding flight due to little-known rule

A Jetstar passenger was left in tears at the terminal after she was forced to cough up an extra $559 to get home, due to a little-known rule which she believes is an exploitative practice.

The 28-year-old, who has requested to remain anonymous, was returning home to Melbourne on Sunday night after a long weekend getaway in Hobart, travelling with her friends and her husband — whose last name was printed on her boarding pass, which was already sitting in her digital wallet.

The self-serve kiosks were out of order, but she still needed her bag tags, so she approached the check-in service counter where a Jetstar employee asked to see her ID — but when the passenger pulled it out, it was her maiden name printed on the driver’s licence.

Normally, a name change on a domestic flight would be possible for a $70 fee, but because this was a return flight, and she had already taken the initial outgoing flight to Hobart without the error being flagged, that option was no longer available to her.

She was told she would need to buy a brand-new ticket, costing her $559, roughly twice the price of the entire $330 return trip she had already purchased.

The plane was set to board at 8.15pm and, in the slim window before they were called to the gate, the group of friends frantically assessed their options — adding up hotel, taxi and food costs for an extra night in the state, to see which figure would be worse.

“I started crunching the numbers .... The cost was apparently similar,” the passenger’s friend, 26-year-old Ammad Arshad, who had made the group booking worth $1600 and who was with her at the time, told 7NEWS.com.au.

The workweek was beginning the next day, and considering the additional cost of booking further annual leave, as well as the emotional impact of being left in Tasmania after the airport ordeal, the passenger decided to cop the eye-watering cost of the new ticket at 8.04pm.

“This experience felt like a predatory practice,” Arshad said.

“It seemed Jetstar was exploiting the urgency of travellers needing to return home by presenting them with exorbitant fees, knowing most people would feel cornered and compelled to pay whatever was necessary.

“Such tactics left us feeling frustrated and exploited, undermining the overall enjoyment of our trip.”

“They justified this by stating that since she had already travelled one leg of the journey, a name change was not permissible. This was particularly frustrating because their website clearly states that name changes can be made for a fee of $70 at any time.”

While Jetstar does state the $70 fee on the “fees and charges” section of its website, without a visible disclaimer noting the return-flight terms and conditions, it does break down the rule in another area on the website, which Arshad and his friends had never seen.

“Name changes can be made for an individual passenger on a booking, but must apply to all flights for that passenger,” the Starter Fare rules,” the Jetstar website notes on a page accessible by clicking Help > Travel advice > Fare rules > Starter fare rules.

That section of the website also notes that name changes are not allowed on tickets purchased using Qantas Frequent Flyer Points Plus Pay, or on Jetstar or JAL Mileage.

However, there is no charge to change a name on a ticket from a maiden name to a married name, and this can be done by contacting Jetstar before travel.

Acknowledging a ‘genuine mistake’

Arshad said he would never normally take such a matter public, but out of a protectiveness, he felt compelled to: “They made my friend cry.”

“She was very distraught last night (Sunday), and during the flight.”

They said they would have been happy to pay even twice the cost of the usual $70 name change fee, but said $559 seemed blatantly unfair given the circumstances. The group split the cost between themselves, noting the “genuine mistake.”

But after 7NEWS.com.au reached out to Jetstar for a comment on the incident, the airline offered the passenger a full refund of the additional flight cost.

“Whilst it is a Federal Government requirement to travel with a ticket under your legal name, and be able to present ID on request, we’ve reviewed this particular case and have reached out to refund the customer for the purchase of the new ticket,” a Jetstar spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.