BACKGROUND The Asian offshoot of Qantas’ budget subsidiary Jetstar is based in Singapore and, since its maiden flight to Hong Kong in 2004, has quickly added to its portfolio short-haul destinations such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam and long-haul destinations such as Australia and Japan.
Jetstar has three economy class fares: JetSaver Lite with hand carry only (non refundable); Jetsaver with hand carry and 20kg of checked-in baggage (non refundable); and JetFlex with hand carry and 2kg of checked-in baggage (refundable). StarClass is the carrier’s business class offering.
I easily purchased my ticket online (jetstar.com) without any problem, selecting the JetSaver fare immediately for the promise of checked-in luggage.
There are two daily flights to choose from: 1110 and 1450 – I chose the first, 3K692 in order to make it to a friend’s wedding reception at 1830 in the Lion City.
CHECK-IN Check-in at the Airport Express Line stations was introduced in August, which is always a great convenience. Jetstar shares counter space with Philippine Airlines, which is towards the left of the main entrance of the check-in area.
Mindful of the airline’s rule to show up at the counter 90 minutes before departure, I arrived at the Central station at 0740 for the 1110 flight, got processed and was on the train by 0815.
At the airport, I headed for Burger King in the arrival hall to fill up with a bacon sandwich and (scalding hot) tea as I didn’t fancy purchasing any food onboard. Jetstar though is not finicky about passengers bringing their own provisions but will not heat these nor provide utensils or plates for them. So be warned.
BOARDING My boarding pass indicated gate 523, which is located in the main concourse and can be reached by taking the escalator down to the second level to the gates, where buses wait to ferry passengers to aircraft parked on the tarmac. The first batch, which I joined, were waved through at 1040 although the vehicle did not roll off until a good 20 minutes later. Fortunately, I met a friend and we spent the time catching up.
THE SEAT Jetstar started off in 2004 using Boeing B717-200s until it phased them out for Airbuses: 41 A320-200s, seven A330s and seven A321.
On the route I was taking, an A320 is used, and this baby is a single aisler with 180 leather seats. All seats are upholstered in charcoal gray leather, which I found to be quite comfortable.
In my section, the configuration was 3-3 and labeled ABC-DEF, with C and D (my seat) along the aisles.
I was in row 10, which was not too far a walk to the washrooms, which were located in the forward and rear areas.
WHICH SEAT TO CHOOSE Aisle seats are the ones to go for in this 3-3 set up, which does feel very much like “cattle class” as one passenger described his experience in Business Traveller’s Seatplans website (seatplans.com, Jetstar review). Just be careful of stretching your leg further out into the aisle to avoid being trampled on by the quickly moving flight attendants (this happened to me twice) or worse, the food cart.
THE FLIGHT I napped most of the way. The only wrinkle in an otherwise relaxing flight was the pesky youngster behind me who seemed to like taking out his aggression on my seat and would kick it when you least expected it. His mother seemed unperturbed by her son’s boisterous attitude.
ARRIVAL We landed safely in Singapore at 1440, 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. But it was with such a screech that I thought we were going burn the rubber off our tires.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn we were to disembark in the superb Terminal 3 and not the Budget Terminal, which is nice enough but no comparison to the Changi Airport experience.
Margie T Logarta
FACT FILE
PLANE TYPE Airbus A320
SEAT CONFIGURATION single aisle with a 3-3 seating
SEAT Pitch 30 inches (76cm)
SEAT RECLINE 27 inches (68.58 cm)
PRICE Jetsaver fare is HK$2,037 (US$262.55) including all required surcharges
CONTACT jetstar.com
VERDICT All in all, the experience from booking to arrival was straightforward and hassle free, although an earlier morning departure would have been more convenient.
