If you've ever flown with Jet Star Australia, you'll understand why I was feeling nervous and sick this morning about checking in. Mike called the "help" line yesterday to ask about their policy on carrying car seats and strollers for children. He was told by two people (two phone calls) that the answer was categorically NO. Only infants get to take those things for free. Cue panicked weighing and repacking of three months worth of clothes, toys, books, food, gifts and junk. And two large car seats and two strollers.
After reading a couple of recent online forums and hearing from others who have flown with jetstar recently, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for another 5kg checked baggage (taking us to 95kg between three of us, still less than our flight from Paris to Melbourne) and requiring us to take the maximum carry on allowed. At around 10:30 last night I found a current jet star page claiming they charged extra for none of those things but it still wasn't clear (and still at odds with what we'd been told on the phone and with others' experiences).
When we packed up daniel's cot and added in PJs for four and all those last minute things we were just over our 95kg. We decided to leave our trusty Carrefour stroller in Melbourne for another time and hope that we'd get a nice person on the check in counter.
Next we all piled into two cars with Elly and John acting as chauffeurs. Traffic wasn't too bad despite a supposed delay on the freeway and we arrived with lots of time to spare (yay!) which was fortunate since the carparking is such a maze!! We said our goodbyes to John and Elly and waited for our turn to check in.
I was even more nervous by this stage, and the stress continued to build as the unsmiling check in girl confirmed we had 95kg luggage allowance and she'd do the car seats first.
WELL. A few minutes into the process Mike asked a question about the weight of the carseats (they seemed heavy) and finally we got our answer - they do NOT charge for carseats, strollers or portacots and you can have four of these items for free. Yes, we'd paid for approximately 25kg too much baggage. Sigh. On the bright side, something in this conversation cheered up the check in woman and she was all smiles after that.
Even more surprisingly, every single person we dealt with after that was charming and cheerful! The flight even took off sort of on time ;)
So far so good on the flight too. Mike is sitting with the boys at the mo while I have a turn on my own (yay again!), the kids have been great and the in flight snacks were half price since its the last flight of the day. Nice one.
Postscript..
Arrived in Christchurch to find stunning blue skies and warm weather, helpful kiwis and only 9 out of our 10 checked in bags. They lost the one with the kids PJs and all Daniel's bedding (and our shoes!)
Regretstar indeed.
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