If I could give no stars, I would. My first flight (SYD-ADL) was cancelled due to "engineering issues" - not announced at the gate we were all waiting at, but instead via text. The gate attendant didn't announce anything until people started queuing at her desk confused and wanting to know why the flight had been cancelled. Everyone was redirected to the service desk and the line was diabolically long, as they had cancelled quite a few flights that same day. No drama for me, I rebooked for the next day via the text link and was lucky enough that I had someone to stay with in Sydney that night. My returning flight (ADL-SYD), however, was a horrendous experience.I had booked an early flight from Adelaide to Sydney with a boarding time of 7:15am, meant to arrive in Sydney at 9:45am. I should have been ready in Sydney by 10:30am to catch the ONLY regional Rex flight to Parkes that same day which departed Sydney at 11:10am. Do I know this is cutting it fine? Yes. Is it unfortunately unavoidable due to regional flights being limited? Also yes. Jetstar did not board in Adelaide until 7:45am, the original take off time, departing well and truly after 8am, resulting in a significantly delayed arrival time and me missing the Rex flight. Boarding the plane in Adelaide was extremely disorganised - passengers had no direction from staff and were boarding from the back when they were sat in the front or boarding from the front when they were sat in the back, resulting in unneccessary crowd jams on board the aircraft. Departing the plane was just as bad - staff lacked crowd control skills and passengers were directionless despite doors being open, resulting again in crowd jams.Once in Sydney airport, I was directed to the Rex service desk in Terminal 3. I walked all the way from T2 to T3, only for them to say that because it was a Jetstar issue, I needed to talk to Jetstar. I walked all the way back to T2, queued in the Jetstar service desk line, only to receive the most uncaring, out-of-touch service I have ever encountered from an airline company. When I explained my situation, the lady told me there was nothing they could do because I hadn't booked the Rex flight as a connecting flight. After re-explaining that it was Jetstar who caused the delay, and I had experienced issues with both of my flights that week, she remained adamant there was no compensation and there was nothing to be done.I asked to speak to the manager on site, who came out and had the same story. Nothing they could do and it was my fault for not booking it as a connecting flight, and for not taking into consideration that there might be delays. I tried to explain again that there are minimal, limited flights to regional areas like Parkes and this was the only flight available that day which I had now missed. When I asked "so I'm stuck here?", the manager simply said "unfortunately, yes". No offer for flight credit, hotel stays, anything. I even said I would drive myself back to Parkes that night if they could pay for a hire car, because I had to be home that night, to which the response was no.With nowhere to go, I walked all the way back to the Rex desk in T3 and ended up having to pay $500 extra to get on a flight to Dubbo that afternoon, to get as close as possible to home so a friend could pick me up. I will never fly with Jetstar again. Please, if you can afford it, use a different airline.
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