An Auckland woman has accused Jetstar of lacking compassion for wanting to charge her to transfer tickets, for a flight to Christchurch, to a family who lost someone in last week's devastating quake.
Lee Stanish, of Auckland, bought four Jetstar return tickets from Auckland to Christchurch for March 17 to March 20 for a family holiday.
But after talking with her family, it was decided the tickets would be better off for a family needing to go to Christchurch for a funeral of someone killed in Tuesday's quake.
They did not have anyone in mind, but assumed there would be a family who would welcome the offer.
But when she called Jetstar she was told it would cost $50 per name change on the ticket, and an extra charge for the difference in price on the new tickets, she told NZPA.
"How does it work? I don't understand where the compassion is," she said. "Does it really matter who's sitting on the seats?" she said.
However, Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the rules were very clear when people bought tickets.
He said Jetstar had been very accommodating over the quake, offering full refunds until yesterday, and now offered a Jetstar voucher if people needed to cancel or change flights.
"We are being as flexible as we can."
Yesterday, a Wellington woman was told she would not get a refund for her Jetstar ticket bought to attend her University of Canterbury graduation next month.
"I'm very frustrated because it's as a direct result of the earthquake, they should have included this into their earthquake consideration," she said.
Mr Westaway said it was offering customers with flights to and from Christchurch before March 25 the ability to transfer credit to other flights.
It would look into cases where customers had flights after March 25 on a "case by case basis".
