What was meant to be a dream holiday in Japan for Cassandra Nichterlein and her young family turned into a costly nightmare when their return flight was cancelled.

Ms Nichterlein, her husband and their three children — all under six years of age — were ready to return to Sydney after a 10-day break in Osaka.

But the family’s plans unravelled soon after arriving at the airport on July 19.

“There was a sign on the check-in counter telling us the flight had been cancelled due to mechanical failure,” Ms Nichterlein said.

Airport staff gave the family the same instructions as other passengers to, “find your own accommodation and seek compensation from the airline”.

With no offer of accommodation or vouchers for meals, the family checked into a hotel near the airport and waited for news from the airline about a replacement flight.

They initially considered themselves fortunate. They were able to cover the cost on a credit card.

Others were not so lucky.

“They had nothing, and it was dehumanising for Jetstar to just leave them there like that, with no offer of help.”

Ms Nichterlein tried contacting the airline directly through phone, email and its website chatbot and visited the airport multiple times to no avail.

What the family did not realise was that Jetstar’s communication systems had been impacted by the Crowdstrike outage.

After two nights in Osaka with no information, she and her husband made the decision to catch a bullet train to Tokyo in the hope there would be more flight availability.

Five days after their scheduled departure, Jetstar contacted them to offer a new return flight, which was then booked out of Tokyo on July 25.

The extra week in Japan cost the family of five an additional $7,000.

“It was quite traumatic, not knowing when we would get home,” Ms Nichterlein said.

“You have an expectation as a customer, that when you fly with an airline, you’ll be safe, and that if something like this were to happen, you would be looked after.”

Ordeal continued after family’s return

The family made it back to Australia on July 26 and, as instructed by the airline, uploaded their hotel receipts.

While each airline has different policies on compensating customers for flight delays, Jetstar states on its website that it “will consider claims for all costs caused by the delay or cancellation on a case-by-case basis, including claims for higher amounts where reasonably incurred”.

Engineering issues and Jetstar IT system outages are among a handful of instances which it classifies as within its control.

Ms Nichterlein believed it would be a straightforward process for a refund because she met the criteria and the family was not offered a replacement flight for a week.

“We spent hours and hours and hours uploading receipts and then were questioned about them, because they’re written in Japanese,” Ms Nichterlein said.

‘It’s time that Virgin and Qantas were made accountable’

The issue of compensation for families like the Nichterleins was a key element of this week’s Aviation White Paper.

The federal government used the paper to introduce a new “Charter of Rights” entitling airline customers to refunds for flights that were disrupted, cancelled or unreasonably delayed, as part of a wider industry shake-up.

The scheme is expected to be operational by 2026.

Transport Minister Catherine King said Australians were often not treating customers fairly. 

“If you’ve bought a ticket and the flight doesn’t go, you should expect the service is provided, so this is about providing remedies to consumers who have found it very difficult to pursue these issues and continuous improvement in our airlines and airports,” Ms King said.

Aviation expert Professor Ron Bartsch, who serves on the board of directors at REX Regional Express Airline as an independent director, said the government had made the right move, but “possibly too late”.

“We’ve already seen Bonza and Rex exit the domestic market, and we’ve got a very entrenched duopoly now, and it’s interesting and somewhat ironic that Rex airlines had the best on time performance and lowest cancellations rate, and yet they’re now no longer in existence in the domestic market,” Professor Bartsch said.

“So, I think it’s time that Virgin and Qantas were made accountable and do pay adequate compensation when they don’t provide the service they advertise.”

He said the reforms would improve passenger experience.

“When you look at the worldwide best practice standards in passenger compensation, and the systems that they have in place in the European Union and in Canada, providing compensation does make airlines more accountable, and therefore the passengers do get a better service,” he said.

In statements from Qantas and Virgin, the companies welcomed the release of the white paper and said they would review it closely.

Jetstar has now offered to reimburse more of the Nichterlein family’s expenses, after the company was approached by the ABC.

Ms Nichterlein confirmed Jetstar contacted her following the ABC’s questions, but she’d had no offer of reimbursement at the time of publication.

In a statement, a spokesperson said the “flight was cancelled due to an engineering issue on the same day that the global CrowdStrike outage took place, which grounded our flights and impacted our customer communications system”.

“This meant we were unable to communicate with our customers and there were limited alternative flights for a number of days,” the spokesperson said.

“The issue is that these companies have a deliberate wall set up,” Ms Nichterlein said.

“They push you into accepting an offer because there’s nowhere else to turn.”

Editor’s note (29/08/2024): A previous version of this story did not disclose that aviation expert, Professor Ron Bartsch, serves on the board of directors at REX Regional Express Airline as an independent director. It has also been updated to reflect that Cassandra Nichterlein was offered a return flight by Jetstar five days after her scheduled flight was cancelled, and that she was again contacted by the airline following questions from the ABC.