Serhiy Kozak

I want to lay out the facts of our experience so other travelers can judge for themselves.

In March 2026 we bought six tickets, across two bookings, on JetSMART's direct flight JA3796 from Asuncion to Rio de Janeiro for August 17, 2026. It was to be our family's first flight with this airline.

JetSMART cancelled that flight and rebooked all six of us onto a connecting itinerary through Buenos Aires: departing about seven hours later, an overnight layover of more than ten hours with an aircraft change, and arrival in Rio about twenty hours after our original arrival time. We were never notified. We found the change ourselves. I searched my entire mailbox, including spam: no cancellation notice, nothing. Flight tracking sites show the direct route stopped operating at the end of May.

We tried to resolve it through every channel they have. Their change tool refuses connecting itineraries. Their refund tool offered 40.80 dollars per passenger against fares of 92 to 172 dollars. Their withdrawal tool said we did not meet the conditions. Five phone calls to two different numbers each ended in a recording promising a WhatsApp callback that never came. A written demand sent to ten JetSMART email addresses got exactly one human reply, which redirected us back to the same phone lines.

Then, on August 5, JetSMART finally emailed us three options, one of which was a full refund to the original payment method. I selected the card refund on both bookings. Their system confirmed it on screen and by email, in writing: "Your refund will be made to the original means of payment." Thirty nine minutes later they sent a different email saying they had refunded us with a gift card instead. The gift card's own terms say it is not redeemable in money and expires in one year. Requesting the refund also deleted our bookings, as their email warned it would. So we ended up with no tickets, no money back, and a voucher for an airline we will never fly.

I rejected the gift cards in writing the same evening and asked for the refund they had confirmed. That email has now gone unanswered for more than three weeks. We are pursuing the refunds through our card issuer and consumer protection authorities.

Every sentence above is documented: their own emails, their confirmation pages, their gift card terms, phone records, and public flight data. Book with this airline only if you are comfortable with how they handled ours.

Renting from this company was an expensive reminder that bargain-hunting in car rentals can backfire. Firstly, they coerce customers into purchasing their overpriced full coverage, surpassing the rental cost regardless of existing third-party coverage. They might reject your credit/debit card or, in my case, insist on additional coverage for my US driver's license, which had never been an issue with other rental companies in Italy. While I should have obtained an international driving license, this had never been an issue before with other rental companies.

Secondly, their vehicles are poorly maintained. Despite receiving a fairly new SUV, it hadn't been serviced—brakes squeaked, wiper fluid was empty, and one tire constantly lost air, necessitating daily trips to gas stations for reinflation.

Lastly, their rental practices seem borderline fraudulent. They didn't provide any paperwork or allowed me to inspect the car, instead copying my signature from a single screen that focused on minor points like opting into promotional offers. I received these "signed" forms by email after the rental was finalized.

Overall, this was one of the worst rental experiences I've ever had. Next time, I'll choose Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, or Europecar instead. It will be less expensive in the end.