A Review of Jetstar Airlines
I’ve flown many budget airlines over the years. Some of my favs included Ryan Air in Europe and SKY in Chile. I will now add Jetstar out of Australia to that list and wanted to share my review of Jetstar for domestic flights on our recent trip to Australia.
Jetstar offers the usual budget airline product with cheaper seats and a la carte purchases of food and drink. The flight attendants are very cheery and do a great job of managing the boarding and disembarkation procedures.
Booking:
Booking on the Jetstar site is pretty straightforward. After a review of Jetstar flights, I noted there are often several flights to choose from. This is especially true for popular destinations such as Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth. Please note depending on which site you’re searching in, you may be seeing quotes prices in Australian dollars $AUD if on the Australian site or U.S. dollars $USD on their US site.
There are multiple tier fares so be sure to read and understand the conditions and ‘what you get’ for each. I prefer to know where I’m sitting on a flight when traveling with the family. Also, when taking a long vacation we will frequently check bags (even if they’re small enough to carry on) just to avoid traipsing through the airport with a heavy backpack or roll aboard bag. In those situations, it is normally best to purchase the seat and baggage options when booking your flight or at least ahead of your departure date.
Jetstar Booking Tip:
When searching for domestic flights in Australia, there are several choices. In addition to Jetstar, there are also: Qantas, Virgin Australia, and TigerAir Australia. I recommend checking an aggregator site like Momondo or Kayak first. Then, narrow down your choices and checking those airline sites directly for additional details before purchasing. I will note on our recent trip while searching Qantas’ site a review of Jetstar flights seemed to indicate the Qantas sites fares that included Jetstar flights were significantly higher. However, in reading the fine print, the Qantas site flights on Jetstar already had seat selections and checked baggage built into the cost. However, even when accounting for that, the Jetstar site was cheaper for our flights.
Amenities:
The seats are a bit tight on legroom for those > 6 feet tall on their A320 domestic flight routes but overall offer the standard airline seat comfort.
Food choices are plentiful for longer flights but a bit steep in price. Choices range from croissants and coffee, to snacks, to noodles, or even cheese and wine plates. Overhead bin space availability is good given Jetstar’s strict carry on baggage policy for size and weight. The policy can be found here but essentially allows a small carry on suitcase + a personal item.
Jetstar Amenities Tip:
There are various ‘add-ons’ available to purchase with your ticket. Ensure when booking you understand what is and what’s not included by a review of Jetstar’s options. I highly recommend the ‘Starter Plus’ option with if you purchase a cheaper fare. The Starter Plus gives you the ability to select a seat and 20kg of checked baggage weight. It also includes on board credit for food and drink purchases. This was a nice benefit for our almost 3 hour flight from Sydney to Cairns.
Summary
Our overall experience on Jetstar was a good one. I would recommend Jetstar when flying between points within Australia. While I can’t speak to the their international product as they fly between Australia and many countries in Asia and the Pacific (including Honolulu, HI). The ‘no-frills’ experience will likely translate to those flights too, so up to a 5 or 6 hour slight should be tolerable and worth considering if they are significantly cheaper in price. Also remember if on the Australia site booking prices are quoted in $AUD. A $1000.00 flight will equate to around $730.00 USD, depending on the exchange rate.
I hope you found this review of Jetstar helpful and if you have any comments on your experience with Jetstar or questions, please leave a comment below. Safe travels!