ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The nation’s least favourite air carrier has gifted the nation with an early Christmas present this year, telling some passengers due to fly in January that their flights are cancelled.

This breaks Jetstar’s usual protocol of letting people get to the airport first before telling them that they won’t be flying anywhere today, which is something most people find quite annoying.

While this type of this usually happens on other low-cost carriers, when Australians buy a ticket on Tiger, they know that there’s only half a chance they’ll actually take off from their destination.

Tiger knows this and the passengers know this. There’s an unwritten contract that stipulates this. When you buy a ticket on a Tiger flight, it’s a gamble.

Where Jetstar differs from this is that they pretend that they don’t pull that type of charade, too.

Which is why they’re the nation’s least favourite airline. If they had any semblance of self-awareness, people might actually like them a bit more.

One local Jetstar passenger who was due to fly to Brisbane in the days before Invasion Day said he was pleased that the airline had told him not to bother turning up to the airport.

“They refunded my ticket and wished me luck,” he said.

“I absolutely have to be there so I just bit the bullet and got a Qantas flight. They’re a bit more expensive and I mean they’re fucking heaps more expensive but fuck it. At least I know I’ll get there,”

“Sometimes you just need to.”

More to come.