Jetstar Kicks Family off Flight and Social Media Users Rage

11th Jan 2017

Did Jetstar Australia overreact when its flight attendants escorted one family off the airline's Bali-Adelaide flight this Tuesday? It depends who you ask.

If you ask the Australian carrier, it will tell you that they stand by its captain's decision. But social media users are not of the same opinion and Facebook user posted a video of the incident. The video had thus far received more than 100 shares and nearly 300 comments.

One of the commenters, Elena Della Foresta Scamon, who was also on the flight said:

"I was on that flight and the flight attendant overreacted. They didn't refuse to sit like Jetstar say they just questioned why the seats were the way they were and they couldn't sit alongside their family. The young flight attendant overreacted no one was rude to her they merely discussed this between each other and I heard them say it's not the attendants fault no one was blaming her, Jetstar didn't even let the 2 families explain the story, the families were shocked the attendant was upset."

She added:

"To kick two families off with young children was disgusting and completely unnecessary they were no way abusive or rude, Jetstar should be ashamed of themselves for doing such a thing to families with young children it was completely out of line ... if the air hostess can't handle being questioned then she's in the wrong industry she ruined everyone's flight delaying us all for no reason ... my son actually cried he wanted to sleep but said he was scared the lady (flight attendant) might tell him off!"

In a statement, however, Jetstar said the family refused to site at their allocated seats:

"We had customers board a flight from Bali to Adelaide overnight who had taken other passengers' seats and refused to move to their allocated seats. The passengers refused to follow numerous requests from our crew so the captain decided that they would not travel on that flight. Like all airlines, our customers are allocated specific seats and we can't have a situation where passengers sit wherever they like. This causes disruptions to other customers and delays the flight departing."

According to the spokesperson for Jetstar, the family was rebooked to a later service.