Jetstar bag error costs woman $4.5K

A Jetstar passenger has finally been refunded $4,500 after a staffer made an error when going to charge her a $45 fee to check in an extra bag.

Jannine Meyers was flying from Auckland to Christchurch in New Zealand on September 15 when she had an extra bag she needed to check in.

However, instead of being charged just a $45 fee, when she handed over her credit card to a staffer, it was accidentally processed as $4,500.

Meyers was made aware of the error just before boarding the flight from Auckland Airport.

She was told she would see the money repaid into her account within 10 to 15 business days, however it took almost one month.

“We sincerely apologize to Jannine for the delay in refunding her money,” a Jetstar spokesperson told news.com.au.

“Our finance team processed the reimbursement earlier this week and as a gesture of goodwill, we offered her a travel voucher.”

Meyers said that because she and her father were about to board the flight, she could only take it in good faith that she would be refunded the money, as no proof of a refund request, such as a receipt, had been provided.

“By this time my father and I needed to go to the boarding gate and all we could do was simply have faith that they had successfully processed the refund; however, my gut instinct told me otherwise,” she told Stuff.co.nz.

She said what followed was a “comedy of errors.”

Meyers explained that when she failed to receive the refund after 15 days, she called Jetstar customer service only to be told in a “patronizing” way, to be patient.

She also claimed during one call she was told the case had been closed with no refund owing and that she needed to provide a screenshot of her credit card statement to prove otherwise.

“It was an extremely frustrating experience. A $4,455 discrepancy is no small error,” she told Stuff.co.nz.

She believes had she not kept calling the airline, she would never have been refunded.

“I want to avoid traveling with Jetstar,” Meyers told the publication.