In September of last year, I booked a flight to Egypt for Easter through Jettzy, an unknown agent. The flights were on Qantas and Jordanian Airlines. However, two months later, in November, Jordanian cancelled my flight from Bangkok to Amman, forcing me to cancel my booking altogether. When I sent the request, Jettzy insisted on charging me a service charge of $80 and a credit card fee. I find it ridiculous that I am being charged for a service that was not delivered.
In the first response to my query, the service representative sent me a message in Chinese that was completely irrelevant to my concerns. When I sent my queries again, I received a reply from the same person in broken English, stating that it was company policy to charge me the fee. I escalated the issue to their manager, but they just repeated the company policy again. Frustrated with the lack of assistance, I decided to take legal action. This initiated a long battle between myself and the unknown agent.
I chose NCAT to file a consumer dispute because of their quick and satisfactory service in my previous experience.
When I was gathering the necessary documents for my NCAT application, I came across more informnation about this agent Jettzy. This agent was based in New Zealand and did not have a presence in Australia. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the business was founded by foreign investors and relied on unprofessional staff who did not speak English well. To my surprise, the person who responded to my NCAT application did not have a good understanding of Australian legislation.
During the first hearing, Jettzy was absent as they claimed they did not receive the correspondence from NCAT. Later, they confirmed that they had indeed received the letter and would participate in the second hearing. The second hearing was conducted via a conference call last month and the outcome was satisfactory. The order mandated Jettzy to refund me the service charge as well as the credit card fee.
Purchasing tickets from agents is sometimes unavoidable. Although agents may have company policies allowing them to charge different fees, they must abide by Australian legislation. If you encounter any unfair charges, the best course of action is to take legal action and reclaim your money. Some businesses are attempting to scam customers out of their money. Although it may be time-consuming and exhausting, you should not give them the chance to make a dishonest profit.
Jargon Killer 