Bali holiday ‘ruined’ as Jetstar, Qantas slap Australian couple with fee for downgraded flight home

An Australian couple has accused Jetstar of ruining their romantic getaway to Bali after the airline downgraded their seats and requested they pay hundreds of dollars for the change.

Ryan Bloch and his wife had travelled to Bali for a holiday — just their second trip without their three young kids, who were staying with a carer in Sydney — when, on day two in paradise, he received an email from Qantas about their upcoming return flights.

Mr Bloch told news.com.au he had booked business class flights for a Jetstar flight on the Qantas website using Qantas Frequent Flyer points in September.

But on Tuesday, the second day of their break, he received a new e-ticket itinerary for economy seats on a returning Jetstar flight.

To add insult to injury, when he looked at Jetstar’s website to see why he was downgraded, a notification requested he pay $320 to “confirm” the new booking.

“I thought, something is wrong here,” he said.

Mr Bloch said the airline provided “no information or reason” for the downgrade.

He also said when he contacted Jetstar to fix the change, he was told they could not assist him or his wife because the booking was made through a third-party service.

After spending “nine hours” trying to fix the issue, Mr Bloch received confirmation on Thursday afternoon — a day before his departure — confirming two economy seats on a returning flight without having to pay the $320 fee.

He did, however, have to pay more than $60 for seat selection.

Despite his relief to have a seat on a plane to return to Sydney, Mr Bloch said he was worried they would get caught out and have to fork out more money at the airport to get their luggage on the plane, too.

Mr Bloch told the outlet the couple’s trip was “supposed to be a beautiful holiday” but became riddled with “stress and anxiety”.

When contacted by The Nightly, Jetstar said the reason the couple was downgraded was because their original flight was swapped from a Boeing 787 aircraft to an Airbus A321neo LR, which is a plane “without business seating”.

“We appreciate this was a frustrating experience for Mr and Mrs Bloch and we sincerely apologise,” the spokesperson for the airline said in a statement.

It is understood the change was made due to maintenance requirements.

The airline said all customers were moved into economy seats “with complimentary meals, in-flight entertainment and additional baggage allowance”. Jetstar said the $320 confirmation fee was displayed “due to a processing effort”.

“Our customer team has reached out to Mr and Mrs Block to waive these additional charges,” the spokesperson added.

“We know this is an important occasion for Mr and Mrs Bloch and we have arranged lounge access ahead of their return flight tonight and each customer will be issued with a $200 Jetstar travel voucher for a future trip.”