Dirty bus in the sky

October 6th, 2008

10 reasons why I hate cheap dirty rotten scoundrels, Jetstar.

Let me give you the backdrop for this hate list. I was on my way up to the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle on the weekend, destined to be an enjoyable weekend away with friends. Say it ain’t so.

1. Their jets ain’t got no stars.
2. They canceled my flight to Newcastle 2 hours before it was scheduled to depart
3. At this point we were given 3 options: refund, flight the following day, flight to Sydney on Qantas and bus to Newcastle.
4. For some reason I was coaxed into option 3, for I needed to be in Newcastle earlier than tomorrow.
5. The Qantas flight was delayed and when we got to Sydney we sat in the Jetstar arranged bus for 2 hours before leaving for the castle
6. Jetstar are liers, they told us the bus ride to Newcastle was one hour, it was two and a half in fact
7. The bus Jetstar organised for us took us to the Newcastle airport (40 minutes out of town) – by this stage it was 3am
8. Jetstar told us they had organised taxis into town, they had not. We had to hitch-hike into town mid morning, and due to the previous circumstances were flustered and lost the code to our accommodation.
9. Jetstar employers are bitter and nasty because they don’t get paid enough because the company doesn’t factor customer service into the ticket price.
10. I will tell everyone that I will never buy another Jetstar ticket again, but next time I book an interstate ticket, Jetstar will have the cheapest rate because they have a monopoly, and that will be the draw card for me cos I am a sucker for a bargain, especially with plane tickets, and I will book with them again.

The flight home was again delayed nearly an hour, so I was relieved when I finally made it home, but some further highlights from the trip to Newcastle were discussed in the car on the way back from the airport:

- Getting mooned in the bus at 1am by four young local boys
- ‘No shots in Newcastle’ – to our horror, this is the response we got from the bar tender at the pub when we asked for a round of tequila shots (apparently they are band in Newcastle)
- No mixed drinks after 9pm (another strange communist law)

Apart from that Newcastle is really a beautiful city, and despite my dog-gone moaning, I had a great weekend there and at the festival – http://www.thisisnotart.org/

Entry Filed under: Stories, mary's pearls