CrowdStrike crash: Sydney family stranded in Bali after vow never to fly Jetstar again
An Australian family are still waiting to get home from Bali, four days after being caught up in the world’s worst IT crash. They open up about the hell of their holiday and being left stranded by Jetstar.
David and Livia Sharp from Sydney spent the recent school holidays on the Indonesian island with their two daughters, aged 8 and 12. They were due to fly back home last Friday.
It was only when the family arrived at Denpasar airport that they were told their flight had been cancelled.
Their plane was grounded due to the faulty CrowdStrike update, which had already caused PCs running Microsoft Windows to crash around the world hours earlier.
‘We had a late flight, so it was already 8:30 am. [Bali time]“It was getting late, the children were tired and there was no communication before we left for the airport,” Mrs Sharp said Sky News.
The family alleged that Jetstar offered them $10 food vouchers and told them to return to their hotel and that the airline would send updates.
But when the family still hadn’t heard from the budget airline 24 hours later, the stranded Sydney residents called Jetstar but claimed they had received no help.
The family has vowed never to fly with Jetstar again.
David and Livia Sharp (pictured) said it was only when the family arrived for their flight on Friday evening that they were told they would not be able to fly home.
More than 150 Jetstar flights had to be cancelled on Friday evening due to the global technical failure (pictured is a Jetstar self-service check-in that was not working on Friday)
“There was no compensation for accommodation or anything else, food etc, which is probably running into thousands of euros at this point,” Sharp said.
Although the family’s travel insurance should cover the additional accommodation costs, they claim Jetstar did not cover the other costs incurred.
The airline offered the Sharps a flight back to Sydney for the following Saturday, before they found an alternative flight on Qantas the night before.
While an extra week in Bali sounds ideal to many holidaymakers, Mrs Sharp feels hopeless and exhausted by the family’s travel nightmare.
“My kids are so upset, everyone wants to go home, they’re missing school, David can’t go to work and we’re also in the process of selling our house, so it’s been quite stressful,” she said.
According to Sharp, passengers spend hours on hold on the phone with airlines and insurance companies, instead of enjoying their extended vacation.
Daily Mail Australia understands that the technical glitch, like other budget airlines worldwide, affected several of the airline’s systems, including the system used to communicate with customers.
More than 150 flights were cancelled on Friday night. Jetstar offered customers free rebookings for up to 14 days or a refund of their voucher.
Ms Sharp said it wasn’t a long holiday as people think as they spent “hours” phoning the airline and their insurance company (pictured are tourists in Bali watching the sunset).
A Jetstar spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they could imagine how “frustrating” the experience was for their passengers.
‘[We] “We would like to thank them for their patience and understanding as our teams worked through the impact of the IT issues and got them back on the road as quickly as possible,” they said.
The Sharps were offered an alternative flight, leaving on Wednesday, and accepted.
Most customers affected by cancelled international flights have now been rebooked onto other Jetstar and Qantas flights or opted for a full refund.
Daily Mail Australia has learned that all affected flights will be compensated, including those on the day of the tech crash.
The software crash, which affected 8.5 million computers worldwide, has resulted in a national revenue loss expected to be at least $1 billion.