Can I demand a refund from Jetstar instead of a voucher?

When Jetstar cancels a flight or makes a significant schedule change, the default offer is frequently a travel voucher or credit. But a voucher is not automatically the limit of your rights. Where the airline fails to provide the service, particularly a cancellation within the airline’s control, like crewing or engineering, the Australian Consumer Law’s guarantees apply, and the remedy for a major failure includes a refund, not merely a credit on the airline’s terms. The airline’s own conditions of carriage also commit to refunds in defined cancellation situations, and the ACL operates regardless of what the fine print says.

The pattern to resist is voucher-by-default: an email announcing the cancellation with a single prominent button accepting credit. Do not click acceptance if you want money back, accepting a voucher can be argued as electing your remedy. Instead, respond in writing: state the flight, the cancellation, that you do not accept a voucher, and that you require a refund to your original payment method. Ask the airline to state in writing the reason for the cancellation and whether it was within the airline’s control, because that classification drives what you are owed.

If Jetstar refuses or stalls, escalate in layers: a formal written complaint through the airline’s complaints process; a complaint to the ACCC, which has repeatedly scrutinised airline refund practices and taken action over consumer guarantee failures in the sector; and a chargeback through your card issuer for services paid for and not delivered, which has its own time limits, so do not let the airline run out the clock with slow correspondence. Vouchers with expiry dates for money you were owed as cash are exactly the kind of term worth challenging.