In a study of more than 11,000 passengers surveyed around the world by groups including Australian consumer watchdog Choice, Jetstar have been voted last out of 73 carriers for customer service.
It’s been the talk of the airline and media world since and not surprisingly, Jetstar aren’t happy about it.
Qantas came out tops in the survey for the best of our Aussie airlines, (ranked 36 with three stars on the global list) followed by Virgin (51) and Jetstar (73).
To achieve the ranking, all of the airlines were rated on a range of subjects including punctuality, boarding, checking in, customer service, on-board comfort, food safety and value for money.
The top five ranking airlines were Emirates, Avianca, Qatar Airways, Luxair and Singapore Airlines.
United even came in at No.49, before their recent infamous ‘Passenger dragging’ incident which has since prompted a massive review into the U.S Carriers policy and customer service.
According to the survey of international airlines, Jetstar had the second highest percentage of flight delays: with an average of almost four hours long.
Tom Godfrey, Head of Media from Choice was clear in his thoughts that Jetstar need to do much better on consumer satisfaction.
“With Aussies being slugged with excessive cancellation fees, a lack of redress when flights are delayed and cancelled, and other unfair terms and conditions it is little wonder companies like Jetstar see their ratings plummet when it comes to customer satisfaction. “It’s time our airlines stopped flying below the radar when it comes to consumer protection.”
Tom Godfrey, Head of Media at Choice
In response, Jetstar has released a statement saying;
“We recognise there is room for improvement and our team is doing a lot of work behind the scenes. Weather is often the source of delays, particularly in the more tropical destinations we operate to, and we’ll always put safety before schedule.”
Notably missing from the list were Tigerair who have encountered frequent customer service complaints including the most recent stranding of passengers in Bali and subsequent permanent cancellation of flights in and out of Denpasar. Not enough respondents had flown Tigerair for it to be included.
The frequently consumer bashed Irish Airline ‘Ryanair’ also escaped the list.
The survey was conducted by consumer groups around the world, though actually only eight countries were surveyed including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
No passengers from Britain, the U.S or anywhere in Asia or Africa were surveyed, which would also have skewed the results somewhat with many major airlines underrepresented.
The ‘Satisfaction with Airlines’ Ratings out of ten
Recent TripAdvisor International Airline award winners
1. Emirates 8.29
2. Avianca 8.17
3. Qatar Airways 8.15
4. Luxair 8.1
5. Singapore Airlines 8.1
6. Azul Brazilian 8.08
7. Thai Airways International 8.02
8. Cathay Pacific 7.94
9. TAROM 7.79
10. Vietnam Airlines 7.79
36. Qantas 7.24
51. Virgin Australia 7.05
73. Jetstar 6.01
