Jetstar Airways, Virgin Blue waive change fees for those delaying travel to Bali

Jetstar Airways and Virgin Blue, both Australia-based airlines, are waiving change  fee for people who want to delay travel booked to Bali in Indonesia over the next few weeks.

Jetstar Airways, the low-cost airline based in Melbourne, Australia, is a subsidiary of Qantas Airways, the national carrier of Australia. Jetstar operates an extensive domestic network as well as regional and some international services.

Jetstar Airways is currently the biggest Australian carrier serving Indonesia.

The low-cost airline Virgin Blue is Australia’s second-biggest airline as well as the largest airline (by fleet size) with the Virgin branding. Founded by British businessman Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, Virgin Blue was launched on August 3, 2000, with two aircraft initially offering seven return flights a day between Brisbane and Sydney. The service has now been expanded to cover all major Australian cities and many holiday destinations.

In separate statements, Jetstar Airways and Virgin Blue said that the carriers would waive change fees of $45 to $55 for people wanting to defer travel to Bali after the executions of the three Bali bombers the other day.

Both airlines warned that passengers could still face paying the difference if the new fares were more expensive and that they were not offering refunds for cancelled trips. They also said that there were no signs of mass cancellations.

The federal government of Indonesia has re-issued a long-standing warning asking people to reconsider travel to the Indonesian island of Bali because of the high risk of terrorist attacks, the website theaustralian.news.com has reported.

The Indonesian government, the report added, “stopped short of upgrading its warning to the next level, a move that would enable passengers to get refunds, but called on the travel industry to be flexible towards those wanting to change their plans.”

According to media reports, Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has warned that the executions of the three Bali bombers could prompt acts of violence. He urged those people who have decided to visit Bali “to exercise extreme caution and avoid areas such as beaches and bars that had been targets of terrorists.”

In the statement, Jetstar Airways said: “Jetstar is closely monitoring the security situation. It is offering passengers who are travelling in the coming weeks the ability to move their flights without paying alteration fees. If there is an applicable difference in fares, there will be a small charge for that. However, Jetstar is unable to refund fares because the government advisory did not tell people not to travel.”

The statement from Virgin Blue explained: “Virgin Blue will drop its change fee for people travelling between November 27, 2008, and December 18, 2008, who want to delay their trip or go somewhere different. If they choose to go somewhere more expensive, Virgin Blue will still charge the fare difference, but will not take a change fee.”

“Forward bookings to Bali,” the statement continued, “has slowed but there has been no run of cancellations or changes.”

While Qantas Airways, which flies to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, said the airline was waiving change fees, Garuda Indonesiathe, the national airline of Indonesia, said it would still charge change fees.