To whom it may concern (hopefully management that can stop this type of nightmare happening to another young adult)
On Christmas morning of 2011 my daughter was beside herself with joy and excitment of a gift sent to her from a friend in QLD. This gift was a return ticket from Newcastle to Gold Coast with Jetstar, spending 2weeks with her best friend that had moved to QLD.On Jetstar flight JQ 492 on 4th Jan the joy and excitement of her holiday, drained from her body turning into fear and guilt. Upon arrival at the checkin desk for this 10:40am flight, my daughter checked in her baggage and was asked the routine questions regarding aerosols, dangerous goods etc. She was then asked how old she was. She replied 12yrs. She was then asked had she started high school, to which she replied, I start the end of this month when school starts the 2012 school year.
This is when I asked the question, "Does my 12yr old daughter need any adult supervision on this flight?" The reply to that question was "No" she is of legal age to travel alone. This answer was concurred with the person who booked the flight in QLD as she was given the same answer and so she was charged an adult fare. I accompanied her to the exit where I said my goodbye's and she walked out to board the plane. Travelling home from the airport i received a phone call to inform me that my daughter had to be disembarked from the plane and that i had to return to the airport. Arriving back to the airport i found my daughter standing behind a jetstar representative at the front counter sobbing uncontrolably for all the airport to observe. After embracing my daughter and telling her all would be o.k i then asked the qustion. "What's going on?' Her answer was the pilot would not allow her to fly as she had not started high school. My response was confusion and disappointment. I asked you if she needed supervision on this flight and your were adamant that she did not. As far as i am aware and other empoyees agreed, she is legal to fly unacompanied by herself was her response, but the pilot has the final say. The staff then tried to get her on the next flight with a staff member with jetstar, to my understanding this was going to happen then no this won't be happening and to cut a long saga in half i was given the only option which was to buy myself a ticket and take her to Brisbane not the gold coast, which she had paid an adult fare for, which also inconvienanced the friends at the other end who were there to meet her at the gold coast. The events of that day just snowballed into a nightmare for myself having delay after delay after escorting my daughter to Brisbane leaving my faith in your company also in shatters and disbelief. I understand that there are delays with aircraft and things can go wrong, but to subject my young daughter to such humiliation is unacceptible especially when the error came from a big corporation that is too busy taking monies for profits and leaving innocent young adults in distress. Please take future steps to ensure this doesn't happen to any other young adult by simply raising the age status and have your policies and procedures the same accross the board.
Tracey King (Disappointed Jetstar patron)
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