Jetstar accused of heartless act over Christmas holidays as it claims mother and children were kicked off flight due to fundamental error

A man has accused Jetstar of 'disgusting service' after claiming the airline left his mother-in-law and her three young children behind when she forgot to pay a $35 excess baggage fee.

Jaimie Tawhi, who lives in the city of Tauranga on New Zealand's North Island, said his mother-in-law and her three children under 10 had stepped off a Jetstar plane flying from the Gold Coast to Melbourne.

“My mother-in-law forgot to pay for her excess baggage before boarding the plane,” he said.

'They processed her luggage while she checked in and informed her that she had to go to the service counter to pay for the few extra kilos. She forgot about it and boarded the plane.

“Because I was the one who paid for the tickets, they called me to let me know that my mother-in-law would not board the plane if the baggage was not paid for.”

Mr Tawhi, who made the claims in a social media post on Facebook, said he was frantically trying to pay the outstanding fee when Jetstar contacted him.

“They told me I had ten minutes to pay $35 or they would be removed from the flight and I would be charged additional fees for delaying the flight,” he wrote.

'I hung up, transferred money and called back within four minutes.

'Jetstar didn't take payment and took my mother-in-law off the flight altogether, leaving her and three children at the Gold Coast airport with no water and no food.

Mr Tawhi expressed his anger at the airline, saying they had failed to explain why his payment was not accepted

“My problem is not paying for excess baggage because we knew we had to do this.

'My problem is how they were treated. Not only my family, but also me as a paying customer.'

She was an inexperienced pilot and had only been on an airplane once.

With his mother-in-law and four young children left languishing at the airport, Mr Tawhi was forced to pay another $600 to get them on another flight to Melbourne.

“It then cost me another $600 to book them on the next flight to Melbourne with Bonza,” he explained.

While some people noted that the airline had the right to turn away his mother-in-law over the missed payment, Mr Tawhi said his anger was about the way the incident was handled.

“(It was) the most disgusting service and the worst I have ever been treated by a customer service representative,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Jetstar said they were investigating but could not confirm the story.

“We are concerned to hear the experiences of these customers and are urgently investigating what happened,” the spokesperson said.