Deathstar v2

Just a quick one - because we didn't take piccies and nothing worse than a big block of text.

So after swearing we'd never do Jetstar again, we did it.

This time, we went from OOL (Gold Coast Airport) to Narita.  So an hour's journey in the car.  We did this from Shearwater to Launceston, so not a major issue except getting up early to drive.

Jetstar bloke at the OOL counter was really nice.  We checked in online and went to the counter to grab our final tickets.  Lovely bloke moved our family of 6 down toward the front of the plane and was just really nice and efficient and quick.  He also suggested we use up our baggage allowance (we took basically 2 empty suitcases for our touristy crap  I mean, holiday treasures and had some space to spare).

We also paid for food beforehand, entertainment beforehand.  We travelled 787-9 (Dreamliner) in the LCC configuration.

Sitting in the overpriced food court of OOL

The thing with Jetstar - if we had the time available, there was a super special we could have flown for an extra $400 in total (so like $70 per family member) on a full cost carrier to HKG, had extra foot room and proper meals and flown on an A330.

So yeah, it was cheap, but LCC needn't be the only cheapie available.

I also found the food too variable, service too variable, the noise on the much-touted Dreamliner too variable.  The thing with full service is that there is a level of consistency (even if it's consistently average) that's oft-missed.

The food on the plane to Narita - pretty passable.  The offerings on the return leg - I didn't touch and as a result, we grabbed some Lawson's Sandwiches, Onigiri and drinks and ate before bedtime kicked in.

Service in OOL aiport - pretty decent, as was the service to Tokyo.  The return service - very matter of fact and minimal, not at all friendly.  I've had this in HKG Jetstar and Singapore.  It seems that the service model varies from airport to airport.

The Dreamliner - pretty quiet and I was raving about it once we'd flown to Tokyo.  On the return trip - it was wheezing a high pitched squeal that was worse than the plane noise on an A330.  Again, a variable that I didn't want to deal with.

Narita Terminal 3 (the LCC terminal) has a decent enough food court, decent directions and it is easy to get a bus to Tokyo central.  More on that in another post.