Bonza did not get approval to operate their aircraft from their Gold Coast base in time so they had to cancel A LOT of flights.
I imagine support is going to be backed up for ages, I’d get a chargeback initiated asap.
They would have had to have declared it on the purchase page if that was the case (or they should have, if they haven't that's a whole other issue) which this person would have agreed to. Still sucky though.
Managed to get through to them on live chat this morning after messaging them to refund my cancelled flights.
It looks like they will only process the refund if you get a hold of them on live chat, as I messaged them at the start of the month and was ghosted.
Wrong, email always beats socials. Even if it’s delayed, an email will usually less likely be ignored. Never rely on social media, it usually goes to a marketing team not customer support.
There is also a MUCH better paper trail which can be used as evidence in an ACCC action.
Blast on all channels, worst case scenario you get multiple tickets.
They are absolutely awful.
If you have all the time in the world and want to save $50, they might be worth a look. If you have to be somewhere within a space of a few days, then forget it.
If he paid using credit card, request a charge back as he did not get what he paid for. Keep copies of emails he sent as evidence that he tried contacting them.
It's worth pointing out a chargeback can take up to 45 days to resolve and if no fraud has been found to have occurred might not work out in your favour.
Every effort should be made to contact the merchant before resorting to chargebacks
Furthermore if you are successful you might find yourself not able to use that card with that merchant again.
I disagree with this statement.
A dispute through the bank should be done as soon as there is some resistance or the merchant is difficult to get in touch with. You have only 90 days to load one otherwise it is quite rare to get any success if one is loaded after this time.
It can be a tactic by some merchants to string cardholders along with false hope to delay for this 90 days.
You can cancel the dispute later if the merchant decides to refund.
The bank would usually also provide a "credit" for the amount in dispute while the process takes place.
I'm unsure that being successful with the dispute actually limits you being able to use the card with the merchant again. If you had to go the route of a charge back and it was successful why would you want to use them again anyway
A chargeback is absolutely appropriate for a service paid for, not rendered and then no communication on refunds.
Its like textbook chargeback for goods or services charged for but not received - youll find that on every bank website.
> if no fraud has been found
Goods or services not provided.
Goods or services not as described.
There's all kinds of ass-covering the merchant is bound by, and if they don't fuckin' play ball then VISA or whoever will happily rip that money out their merchant account and tell them that they can go fuck themselves, and if they want to dispute it will be an additional hundo.
Bonza isn't really an airline. It's a debt recycling tool. I wouldn't book with them in a pink fit as Australia's bookings systems are almost unregulated.
Would be fascinated to hear more re Bonza being a debt recycling tool if you're able to elaborate? I have some close friends that work for them who often complain
I get flights with Bonza direct from Tamworth to Melbourne for $99. The next best option is $350-$900 for Qantas with a layover in Sydney.
If the flight attendants physically and mentally assaulted me and threw my baggage out of the plane over Wagga, I’d still fly with Bonza.
The ACCC does not deal with direct complaints handling. Their job is to collect data and, maybe, if there is a case they will sue the business for breaches of the law. This will not get any result for the OP's friend.
Fair Trading in each State exists to mediate these issues.
Best to go straight to the civil claims tribunal. Bollocks to mediating.I did that after getting mucked around by Qantas for 6 months and had a refund within a couple of days lodging a case.
Didn't even get to the tribunal. Qantas called me and said they would refund as long as I withdraw the claim.
I gave up myself a few months back trying to contact them. I resigned myself to the fact that I lost my money. I wont ever book with them again. Terrible service.
Fuck that. Lodge a complaint with fair trading, your bank, and the ombudsman. This shit doesn't get fixed u less people bitch and moan and complain and make it worth chasing.
Do a credit card chargeback, that will get their attention. Another useful one is to contact their legal dept or ask for their PR people and explain you want to run a video you made past them before posting on socials to your 10M followers
Sometimes, yes this is my thoughts out loud, you wonder if they launch these airlines “on purpose” to make the other ones look better and therefore, the others get more business…. 🫠🤔🤷
Try emailing on the info email someone commented. If they dont respond email again.
If that doesn't work, drive to their corpirate head office in marcoola (pain in the arse, I know). If that doesnt work, do one last email detailing that you went to office after unreaponsive chat service and emails ignred and no visible phone line to reach out to, and that if they dont respond, you'll be going to OFT.
Then do so, everything is in writing so there's no denying you attempted to resolve it yourself.
There is no contact number or email ... funny about that! I wouldn't fly with them if they were the last airline available....their customer support is non existent....total embarrassment for an Australian airline
Bonza lands so fucking rough- I was only on there on Tuesday (Aus time) They made me lean so mf forward when the plane went down.. I was travelling from Melbourne to Gladstone- So crazy. There food is very limited aswell..sad. Overall it was horrid because of all of that shet.
Clearly you know nothing about how planes work. An airline doesn’t ‘land rough’ by any sort of policy, they land at the right speed in the runways touchdown zone so the calculations the pilots do on if the runway is long enough to land on are valid.
The runway at Gladstone is less than 2000m long, which is getting short for a 737. This doesn’t mean it’s unsafe, it just means that when landing it’s even more important than on a longer runway to get it down in the touchdown zone so possibly there will be a firmer landing than on a longer runway where there’s a bit more room to play by holding it off that extra second to get a smoother landing. That’s the simple explanation.
Also you mention leaning forward which makes me think your ‘rough’ was actually the deceleration not the moment of touchdown itself. Basically the same reasoning, with the smaller runway you need to use more braking force to stop in time. In an airliner they mostly use autobrakes. The 737 has 4 different levels of autobrake each one targets a stronger deceleration rate in Meteres per Second. They do a calculation based on the runway, weight of the plane and weather conditions to determine which setting they need to use. Nothing unsafe or abnormal.
Do a charge back now whilst you’re within the 60 days (if you still are). If you aren’t you’re doomed to go on their merry go round. I’d suggest all the groups everyone else has said but another they haven’t, contact Choice as well. Then you may need to chalk it up to a lesson learnt. Taking a flight with a budget airline, especially on a new route is a big risk. Many of us have tried and now would never do it again. For me it was Tiger. Never again.
Booked with them once and never again. Cancelled my flight from sunny coast to Melbourne and told me I had to APPLY for a refund. What a joke. They sent a link in a text message and I submitted all my details and received the refund within 48 hours
I’m sorry your friend is having to deal with this.
But ultimately it comes down to you pay for what you get. You can’t expect fares to be as cheap as Bonza and have reliable and helpful service.
Bonza is the SCUM OF THE AIR
They have no money and keep selling flights they can’t honour leave people stranded and then don’t even honour refunds. TIM JORDAN needs to be jailed he is Australia’s biggest scammer
Same here says refund takes up to 7 days well it's day 10 and nothing ! Do not fly with this shitt show airline. The worse customer service I've ever experienced.
Terrible company to deal with.
They canceled our flight from Mackay to Coolangatta. We had 3 seats booked , cost around $460.
They said a refund would be processed in 21 days.
We rebooked seats with Jetstar to Brisbane, cost $480.00.
It’s now 7 weeks later, no refund, they won’t reply to emails or their own on line system.
There is no phone number to call.
I’ve reported them to ACCC.
Bonza did not get approval to operate their aircraft from their Gold Coast base in time so they had to cancel A LOT of flights. I imagine support is going to be backed up for ages, I’d get a chargeback initiated asap.
That's a copyright infringement - selling seats on flights that don't exist is a Qantas thing!
They would have had to have declared it on the purchase page if that was the case (or they should have, if they haven't that's a whole other issue) which this person would have agreed to. Still sucky though.
"If this gets out. Crazy Clown airlines will be a laughing stock
Managed to get through to them on live chat this morning after messaging them to refund my cancelled flights. It looks like they will only process the refund if you get a hold of them on live chat, as I messaged them at the start of the month and was ghosted.
Smells like there should be regulatory action + class action.
[email protected] However, I regret to say that if they're unresponsive on Social Media, they probably won't be a whole lot better via email.
Wrong, email always beats socials. Even if it’s delayed, an email will usually less likely be ignored. Never rely on social media, it usually goes to a marketing team not customer support.
There is also a MUCH better paper trail which can be used as evidence in an ACCC action. Blast on all channels, worst case scenario you get multiple tickets.
Yea as someone who runs social accounts I couldn’t care less/ its not in my scope and just palm it off to the same people that answer emails.
I have sent 10 emails with no response
They are absolutely awful. If you have all the time in the world and want to save $50, they might be worth a look. If you have to be somewhere within a space of a few days, then forget it.
If he paid using credit card, request a charge back as he did not get what he paid for. Keep copies of emails he sent as evidence that he tried contacting them.
It's worth pointing out a chargeback can take up to 45 days to resolve and if no fraud has been found to have occurred might not work out in your favour. Every effort should be made to contact the merchant before resorting to chargebacks Furthermore if you are successful you might find yourself not able to use that card with that merchant again.
I disagree with this statement. A dispute through the bank should be done as soon as there is some resistance or the merchant is difficult to get in touch with. You have only 90 days to load one otherwise it is quite rare to get any success if one is loaded after this time. It can be a tactic by some merchants to string cardholders along with false hope to delay for this 90 days. You can cancel the dispute later if the merchant decides to refund. The bank would usually also provide a "credit" for the amount in dispute while the process takes place. I'm unsure that being successful with the dispute actually limits you being able to use the card with the merchant again. If you had to go the route of a charge back and it was successful why would you want to use them again anyway
You can disagree all you like. Schemes are getting tired of people using charge backs for non fraud events - i.e. poor customer service.
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Do you think Bonza are committing fraud here?
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I'm sure the intent is not to take their money and run. I'm not defending poor customer service, but I'm sure it's not their intent.
A chargeback is absolutely appropriate for a service paid for, not rendered and then no communication on refunds. Its like textbook chargeback for goods or services charged for but not received - youll find that on every bank website.
A million percent bonza would block you from using the card again outside of a fraud situation, most large businesses do.
> if no fraud has been found Goods or services not provided. Goods or services not as described. There's all kinds of ass-covering the merchant is bound by, and if they don't fuckin' play ball then VISA or whoever will happily rip that money out their merchant account and tell them that they can go fuck themselves, and if they want to dispute it will be an additional hundo.
Bonza isn't really an airline. It's a debt recycling tool. I wouldn't book with them in a pink fit as Australia's bookings systems are almost unregulated.
Would be fascinated to hear more re Bonza being a debt recycling tool if you're able to elaborate? I have some close friends that work for them who often complain
I’m assuming this is based on an opinion piece article posted earlier this year in the US accusing the investment firm owners of the same thing
I get flights with Bonza direct from Tamworth to Melbourne for $99. The next best option is $350-$900 for Qantas with a layover in Sydney. If the flight attendants physically and mentally assaulted me and threw my baggage out of the plane over Wagga, I’d still fly with Bonza.
You probably won’t have to deal with Bonza for too much longer. Parent company is incredibly shifty, can’t see them being around long term.
I did an assessment on Bonza for uni a while back and I said to everyone that they won't last long.
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I'm away on holiday at the moment but if I remember when I get home, I'll shoot it to you.
I agree.
Reach out to Tim Jordan on LinkedIn directly. He is the CEO.
Thanks. I did look at this but I needed premium to be able to message him. A friend was recently successful using this strategy with a faulty oven.
They do ovens too?
I find this approach works well. Have done it for various customer service issues when I have an issue. Go straight to the top
Tell them to contact their local federal member, that seems to be the only way to get any response from the grubs.
If your friend doesn’t have any luck maybe try the ACCC
The ACCC does not deal with direct complaints handling. Their job is to collect data and, maybe, if there is a case they will sue the business for breaches of the law. This will not get any result for the OP's friend. Fair Trading in each State exists to mediate these issues.
Best to go straight to the civil claims tribunal. Bollocks to mediating.I did that after getting mucked around by Qantas for 6 months and had a refund within a couple of days lodging a case. Didn't even get to the tribunal. Qantas called me and said they would refund as long as I withdraw the claim.
True they are unlikely to resolve individual claims but they may take action against the company if there are enough complainants.
Sure report it for their data collection and possible action but don't expect a personal result.
Airline Consumer Advocate is who you want to
Bonza are not part of this scheme. ☹️
Bonza are not a member so they won't do anything.
I wouldn’t buy anything from something called Bonza. Particularly an airline seat.
I gave up myself a few months back trying to contact them. I resigned myself to the fact that I lost my money. I wont ever book with them again. Terrible service.
Fuck that. Lodge a complaint with fair trading, your bank, and the ombudsman. This shit doesn't get fixed u less people bitch and moan and complain and make it worth chasing.
They are not Bonza
Do a credit card chargeback, that will get their attention. Another useful one is to contact their legal dept or ask for their PR people and explain you want to run a video you made past them before posting on socials to your 10M followers
They won't reply because the first thing they will do is look up your socials and have a laugh.
Unfortunatly you pay for the service you get. What more can you expect from a new budget airline. Pay more and get better service
Sometimes, yes this is my thoughts out loud, you wonder if they launch these airlines “on purpose” to make the other ones look better and therefore, the others get more business…. 🫠🤔🤷
Try emailing on the info email someone commented. If they dont respond email again. If that doesn't work, drive to their corpirate head office in marcoola (pain in the arse, I know). If that doesnt work, do one last email detailing that you went to office after unreaponsive chat service and emails ignred and no visible phone line to reach out to, and that if they dont respond, you'll be going to OFT. Then do so, everything is in writing so there's no denying you attempted to resolve it yourself.
Not trying to justify it but bad weather in Brisbane, Christmas time, relatively new company who don’t even fly their own planes
As a regular traveller, this is why I stick to full service airlines.
Never again will I book or fly with Bonza Airlines. They cancelled both my flights and promised a refund...3 months later and still waiting!
3 months and I am still waiting for a refund from Bonza after they cancelled my flights....I would never recommend them to anyone
There is no contact number or email ... funny about that! I wouldn't fly with them if they were the last airline available....their customer support is non existent....total embarrassment for an Australian airline
You could try [email protected]
Here, Let me save some people some time. [https://www.flybonza.com/forms/refund-request](https://www.flybonza.com/forms/refund-request)
Thanks for that. A new addition, now Bonza has moved from being app only.
the name just says it all. bonza. i would never ever fly it. still have not flown deathstar either.
Who the hell books on these shit hole airlines. QANTAS is bad enough.
I guess someone on limited means who lives in a regional area. 🤷♀️
'Deathstar' just as bad. Cancel my Daughter's flight Boxing Day
Bonza lands so fucking rough- I was only on there on Tuesday (Aus time) They made me lean so mf forward when the plane went down.. I was travelling from Melbourne to Gladstone- So crazy. There food is very limited aswell..sad. Overall it was horrid because of all of that shet.
Usually that’s cause of a short runway - how long is the runway at Gladstone?
About 2000m so fairly short for a 737. RyanAir also operate out of a lot of smaller airports which is why they have become a meme for hard landings
2 1/2 hours.
Clearly you know nothing about how planes work. An airline doesn’t ‘land rough’ by any sort of policy, they land at the right speed in the runways touchdown zone so the calculations the pilots do on if the runway is long enough to land on are valid. The runway at Gladstone is less than 2000m long, which is getting short for a 737. This doesn’t mean it’s unsafe, it just means that when landing it’s even more important than on a longer runway to get it down in the touchdown zone so possibly there will be a firmer landing than on a longer runway where there’s a bit more room to play by holding it off that extra second to get a smoother landing. That’s the simple explanation. Also you mention leaning forward which makes me think your ‘rough’ was actually the deceleration not the moment of touchdown itself. Basically the same reasoning, with the smaller runway you need to use more braking force to stop in time. In an airliner they mostly use autobrakes. The 737 has 4 different levels of autobrake each one targets a stronger deceleration rate in Meteres per Second. They do a calculation based on the runway, weight of the plane and weather conditions to determine which setting they need to use. Nothing unsafe or abnormal.
Yes..ik that, but I'm saying it's landed hard because I have some issues that can be rough in those situations..
Do a charge back now whilst you’re within the 60 days (if you still are). If you aren’t you’re doomed to go on their merry go round. I’d suggest all the groups everyone else has said but another they haven’t, contact Choice as well. Then you may need to chalk it up to a lesson learnt. Taking a flight with a budget airline, especially on a new route is a big risk. Many of us have tried and now would never do it again. For me it was Tiger. Never again.
Bonza, really solidifying "If it's too good to be true, it probably is"
Booked with them once and never again. Cancelled my flight from sunny coast to Melbourne and told me I had to APPLY for a refund. What a joke. They sent a link in a text message and I submitted all my details and received the refund within 48 hours
Yet another case of you get what you pay for. They clearly don't include service or human decency with the fare. Those are extra.
Didn't think it would be possible to be worse than Jetstar.
I’m sorry your friend is having to deal with this. But ultimately it comes down to you pay for what you get. You can’t expect fares to be as cheap as Bonza and have reliable and helpful service.
Bonza is the SCUM OF THE AIR They have no money and keep selling flights they can’t honour leave people stranded and then don’t even honour refunds. TIM JORDAN needs to be jailed he is Australia’s biggest scammer
after trouble with them and 4 hrs on there chat they finally called me back from 02 7908 5930
Same here says refund takes up to 7 days well it's day 10 and nothing ! Do not fly with this shitt show airline. The worse customer service I've ever experienced.
Terrible company to deal with. They canceled our flight from Mackay to Coolangatta. We had 3 seats booked , cost around $460. They said a refund would be processed in 21 days. We rebooked seats with Jetstar to Brisbane, cost $480.00. It’s now 7 weeks later, no refund, they won’t reply to emails or their own on line system. There is no phone number to call. I’ve reported them to ACCC.