Family's 44-hour Jetstar delay highlights growing Aussie problem

A Sydney family's dream holiday quickly turned into a nightmare after arriving at the airport only to be hit with 44 hours worth of flight delays.

Father and husband, Stephen Clements, said the experience with Jetstar left a "bitter taste" in his mouth, deciding to pay an extra $1000 to board with a different airline to try save as much of the holiday as possible for his family of five.

"We didn't have faith that our rescheduled flight wouldn't be further delayed," Mr Clements said on Facebook.

"It ruined what should have been a really great family holiday for us," he told the ABC. The family also asked for a refund for the Jetstar flight.

Though now that their six-hour direct flight was out of the question, the family were forced to take a 14-hour flight, with a four-hour layover at 3am in Singapore, meaning their holiday was also shortened.

"Our 10-day holiday turned into seven days and was a lot more expensive," Mr Clements said to Daily Mail Australia.

Australian airline experiences only getting worse

Experiences like these are a sad reality for many Aussies, with new data revealing travellers have experienced some of the worst rates of delays and cancellations in almost 20 years.

In October, Jetstar was the worst performing in terms of on-time performance with 61.6 per cent of its flights leaving on time and 64.4 per cent landing on time, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE).

"It's frustrating that they took the massive handouts from the taxpayers to survive through COVID, sacking workers, and then this is how they repaid the taxpayers," Mr Clements said of the airline to the ABC.

Virgin had a 64.9 per cent chance of its planes arriving on time and Rex Airlines pushed ahead at 68.3 percent. The best performing airline was Qantas, who came out on top with 74.2 per cent of its flights arriving on time.

Jetstar flight change loses couple $2000

Just two weeks ago, another family were left reeling from an experience with Jetstar, after having their honeymoon in Bali postponed by a delay.

Three weeks out from the Brisbane couple's flight, Chris received an email to say their flight has been changed. They'd now be flying the following day and it will now be in economy, he told Yahoo News Australia.

Not only were the couple forced to forego their business class treat, their six-hour flight turned into a 16-hour journey thanks to a stopover in Sydney. This means they'd miss out on their first night's accommodation in Bali — a significant $2000 for one night's stay.

Woman's 90-minute Jetstar flight replaced with 10-hour journey across Australia

Another flyer was also not happy with a roundabout flight option after copping a 10-hour flight from Sydney to Melbourne that she accidentally booked with Jetstar.

The Melbourne woman's direct flight was cancelled due to "operational requirements" and after rebooking she noticed the mishap.

Ms Duffin spoke to Yahoo News Australia, saying if she caught that flight, she would leave Sydney at 8.25pm, get to Darwin at 11.20pm, leave Darwin at 1.10am and finally arrive to Melbourne at 6.50am the following day.

• Aussie travellers warned after tourist's 'terrifying' experience: 'So close'

• Jetstar bungle causes chaos for Aussie couple's honeymoon to Bali

• Woman's 90-minute Jetstar flight replaced with 10-hour journey

Luckily she managed to rebook with another airline.

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