Now I will start by acknowledging that I made a commitment to NOTuse this as a place for whining or being negative… and I don’t REALLY think what I am about to say is ….BUT I need to share my thoughts about ‘cheap’ airfares.
Having been lured by email alerts into believing that we could grab a ‘bargain basement’ flight to the Gold Coast …I quickly jumped at the chance of visiting my ‘sister from another mother’ who I have been missing. However, after going through the 8 page online booking process…I discovered my $59 (one way) ticket had suddenly become $240 (return) so I took a closer look.
There was an obvious cost difference to get back, because we need to fly on Sunday…and I accept that, but it was when I saw all the ‘opt out’ extras that I began to get irritated.
The basic airfare is for carry on luggage, which is fine (how can you possibly need more than 10kgs for 2 days on the Gold Coast ??) however Mr Jetstar assumed that I needed an additional 20kgs of baggage for my 2 days @ a cost of $20 until I ‘opted out’.
Next was the travel insurance… Now there is no way that I wanted (or needed) insurance on this ticket but it too was assumed, and so another $12.50 was added to the ticket….. until I ‘opted out’.
Then there was the automatic assumption that I want to donate to charity …they had even nominated my donation amount….until I ‘opted out’ and of course the (ever rising but expected) booking fees….. (this time I couldn’t opt out).
However, the final straw was the seating allocations that popped up with a message ….“you have been allocated the following seats and are free to change them” ….at a cost of : $20pp for an exit row, $10 pp for preferred seating (up the front for quick exit) OR $5pp just to change the allocation…..and OF COURSE Mr 50 Something and I were not seated together!!!!! BINGO an extra $5.
After re-tracing each page and ‘unchecking’ all of the extras, the airfare is very reasonable but nothing like the lure of $59 each way. What a con Mr Jetstar…what a con!
Wonder Years 
There is a sneaky way of changing your seating allocation without paying for it 😉 you do it as you are checking in – obviously before you confirm your check in…. But sneaky jet star will hide this process in teeny writing and gobbledygook 😠😠😠😠