Reporter fuming after Jetstar flight

An Australian television reporter is fuming after she was made to pay for a pillow to prop up her injured leg on a Jetstar flight home from Thailand.

WIN television reporter Jodie Lee posted a photo of her bandaged leg to the budget airline's Facebook page, saying she was refused an upgrade even though she had a medical certificate saying her leg needed to be kept elevated after she snapped her Achilles tendon in Phuket, news.com.au reported.

In her post to Facebook, Ms Lee said there were four vacant seats in business class.

She was then made to pay for a pillow to prop up her leg on the flight to Sydney, before having to wait an hour on the plane after landing.

"I was forced to wait alone on the plane for an hour after landing then hop down a flight of stairs in the rain to a waiting bus," she wrote on Facebook.

"There was no wheelchair waiting as had been arranged. When a wheelchair did arrive I was taken to baggage claim and abandoned, my travel partner forced to push two suitcases and my wheelchair through Customs.

"I understand you are a budget airline but surely concessions can be made for passengers clearly suffering injury or illness."

Not all Jetstar customers agreed with Ms Lee's concerns, with Charlie Houston writing "Jodie Lee is a cry baby."

"Na, Jetstar -- you did nothing wrong. Want a seat, you should pay for the seat," Daniel Moyo wrote.

After news.com.au picked up the story, Ms Lee tweeted, "Oh lord from a Facebook complaint to news- must be a slow day! All okay, thanks?"

Since then she has been trolled by Twitter users.

A Jetstar spokesman told the Herald she was put in a row with an empty seat beside her so she had more leg room.

"It's disappointing that Ms Lee's experience with us didn't meet her expectations but our team did try to make her flight with us more comfortable.

"We didn't agree to her request for a free upgrade to Business but did organise an empty seat next to her and allocated her and the person she was travelling with seats towards the front of the aircraft so her flight was more comfortable.

"We also organised a wheelchair to transport her through the airport. We needed all other customers to disembark before we could start assisting her.

"We have contacted her to get more information about the wheelchair assistance that we provided at the airport, which doesn't sound adequate."

News.com.au reported that comfort packs containing a pillow and blanket needed to be paid for by economy class passengers.