Aussie Flyer

I recently flew to Bali and back and took advantage of a super cheap airfare Jetstar offered last year when Indonesia Air Asia X announced plans to fly direct to Melbourne from Bali. Here is a quick report of my experience on the flight. For Melbourne to Bali (Denpasar) I was booked on JQ35, departs at 5.15pm, arriving Denpasar 6 hours later at 9.15pm. The flight today was operated by VH-VKB, it was 18 months old at the time of the flight. Check-in was available at the automated kiosks with automated 'do it yourself' baggage tags and baggage check-in. With that done I headed off to the Qantas first class lounge for a while, and then to the gate at about 4.45pm where boarding was just getting under way. I had selected a window seat towards the back hoping for a vacant middle seat. Unfortunately thing's didn't go to plan when a woman with a baby was occupying the middle seat next to me. However as the flight was not full the crew found her somewhere more comforta...

FLIGHT JQ7 AIRLINE Jetstar ROUTE Melbourne to Singapore GATE DEPARTURE 12.00 (Scheduled) / 12.32 (Actual) GATE ARRIVAL 16.45 (Scheduled) / 17.31 (Actual) FLIGHT TIME 7 hours 30 minutes airborne AIRCRAFT Airbus A330-200 (8 years old) I recently needed a fairly last minute flight out of Melbourne to S.E Asia and as it was the beginning of Easter school holidays in Melbourne, the flights were quite heavily booked. However Jetstar still had a reasonable offer of $399 one way in economy class on their Singapore route which I decided to purchase. I normally try to avoid LCC's in economy on flights more than about 4 hours but on this occasion I was fairly price conscious and using points for business class on a major carrier was not an option either.  Fortunately 7 days before the flight came an email offering an upgrade for $180 to business class, or for $230 to business max (which in...

Jetstar are slowly changing the long haul fleet over from the Airbus A330-200 to the Boeing 787-8 and so far they have 4 aircraft in service. I recently took a ride on VH-VKE which was just 2 weeks old at the time. I rode on it between Melbourne and Sydney, which was a domestic tag for a flight that originated in Phuket. As such it departs from the international terminal but they do sell tickets for domestic passengers too. VH-VKE at the gate

AIRLINE: Jetstar AIRCRAFT: Airbus A320-200 (VH-VGZ) CLASS: Economy Class ROUTE: MEL-BNE SEAT: 4F SCHEDULED DEPARTURE: 16.10 ACTUAL DEPARTURE: 16.10 SCHEDULED ARRIVAL: 18.20 ACTUAL ARRIVAL: 18.25 With family up in Brisbane it was time for another visit to the Sunshine State of Queensland. It was school holidays and Qantas was a bit overpriced so I opted for a Jetstar flight from Melbourne Tullamarine to Brisbane, one of 2 daily flight they operate on this route. About 2.45pm, I dropped the car off at Melbourne airports long term car parking and got the shuttle bus for the short ride over to Terminal 1. Terminal 1 plays host to Qantas Domestic, Qantaslink, and Jetstar. In order to get a seat near the front, I had checked in online but decided not to print out my boarding pass and get one at the checkin kiosk instead. I had no baggage thankfully as the baggage drop off counter queues were very long! The check in kiosks were surrounded by people queuing to drop off baggage bu...

As part of a recent decision to start trying to get some status in the 'oneworld' airline alliance I have been taking a few oneworld flights. Although Jetstar is not a oneworld airline, it is owned by Qantas and a part of the Qantas frequent flyer program and when flying Starclass you earn status credits which get you to the higher tiers of Qantas Frequent Flyer and therefore, oneworld. Fortunately for me I live in Melbourne most of the time, and Bangkok some of the time and these two cities are served 3 times a week direct via a Jetstar A330-200. It's one of the cheaper options for flying in Starclass. So today I find myself checking in for JQ30 once again, and heading back to the cold in Melbourne. Check-in was quick, there wasn't many people around, I assumed a fairly empty flight in all classes. The recent political situation in Thailand had put a stop on many peoples travel plans, but things were bound to improve soon. As a Starclass passenger you have access t...

JETSTAR flight JQ30 Airbus A330-200 VH-EBC (the white as opposed to silver A330) Bangkok to Melbourne ON TIME - arrived almost 1 hour early I recently returned to Melbourne from Bangkok and happened to pick up a very cheap Jetstar fare (about 8000 THB one way) with the thought to upgrade to starclass at the airport. I had read on frequentflyer.com.au that the price had recently dropped to 5900THB for the 'On Departure Upgrade' for this sector, which seemed like a bargain. Checking online the day of the flight showed 13 Starclass seats available, I hoped these wouldn't go before I got to the airport, so planned to arrive nice and early!! Flight was scheduled out at 22.00, with check in opening at 19.00, I got there about 19.20 and went to the service desk for Jetstar to inquire about the possibility of a paid upgrade. There was no queue at the service desk, and on arrival I was told the price was 8000 THB! I was disappointed the price had gone up...