An outraged Australian tourist alleges Jetstar spoiled her Bali vacation by preventing her from boarding a flight due to a tiny passport damage. The woman said that because of a small torn on the photo page, staff members would not let her check in due to a passport damage for her trip to Bali on Wednesday, 7th of June 2023, ruining her vacation plans.
The Australian tourist stated on social media that the page of her passport had split from the stitching by around one centimetre near the binding. The woman described the helping employees as “absolute jerks” and said that she had “no assistance or help to change anything,” leaving more than AUD2000 and her family out of money.
Similar issues have previously been encountered by Jetstar passengers travelling to Bali. The airline previously explained that its personnel were required to enforce the immigration laws of the countries they flew to, some of which do not let tourists enter the country with a damaged passport.
In 2019, Indonesian authorities tightened passport controls, with airlines subject to fines for transporting travellers to the island with damaged passports. Also, passengers may be denied to enter and will be sent home immediately if there is a damage in their passports.
This was the similar situation that another Australian tourist, Matt Vandenberg experienced, who was going from Sydney to Bali for a friend’s wedding on Tuesday last week and was turned away by Indonesian customs because of a tiny damage on his passport.
Sam Kerr, an Australian soccer player, was among those who had already experienced the sting of the law when she was denied boarding on a Jetstar trip to Bali in 2019 due to a “damage” on her passport.
The Australian tourist recognised a tear at the binding of her passport on her update, but she focused her complaints on the “lack of support, help, and understanding from the staff that we dealt with.”
She commented, “Perhaps they need to (educate) tourists more about this issue, as the majority of individuals I have spoken to have never heard of it.”
A Jetstar spokesperson stated that the client rejected the staff’s offer to transfer her to another aircraft.
Interested in this topic? Check out our other articles from Social Expat:
- Newlywed Couple from India Drowned During Honeymoon in Bali
- Bali Government Distributes Do’s and Don’tsCards to Foreign Tourists While Entering the Island
