JETSTAR AIRWAYS
HNL TO MEL SERVICE
PREFLIGHT
I’ve travelled from Honolulu to Melbourne via Sydney on Qantas in the past and I less than enjoyed my transfer experience through Sydney for the short flight to Melbourne. This time I was going direct. I’d been reluctant to do this since the only game in town that had this routing was JETSTAR AIRWAYS. There were plenty of negative reviews out there about the seats and service being bad. I had aquaintances in Australia tell me the same thing. What pushed me over the edge and give it a whirl was the price. Thousands of dollars less than the competition for business class seating. I got on the website and booked seat 1C, on the aisle, at the front, as is my custom. Honolulu airport, as anyone who has travelled out of there, will tell you, is in need of a serious upgrade. There is no business lounge for many flights that operate out of the main terminal . There is priority boarding for business passengers and I was first on so I could quickly store the bags in the overhead and take my seat to check the level of service out.
SEATS
The seat pitch is 38 and the width is 19. I’m well over 6 feet in stature and I found the seats adequate especially when slightly reclined. It’s really is a shame however, that in a beautifully designed new aircraft such as the Boeing 787, the airline went with seats that look like they belong in something built 40 years ago. This is a so-called “budget airline,” and the pricing reflects that, but an attempt at something more modern to plonk yourself down on would go a long way for many long-distance travellers. This flight is in the neighbourhood of 11 hours and you want to “park it” on something nice
FLIGHT
The service on board was quite good. The selection of wine and food was pretty standard for this class of airline travel. I enjoyed both en route, and much to my delight found the flight time go by quickly. There is a nice size screen in the setback to enjoy entertainment with. Plug-ins and USB ports are available for charging your own devices should you choose to operate those. I got some work done on my laptop and amused myself with some other diversions, and when I looked up next, we were preparing to land at MEL.
THE DEBRIEF
If you want to go direct HNL to MEL at a fairly reasonable price for business class then JetStar Airways is your choice. My experience was positive and I’ve given it 2 thumbs up mostly because of the seats. I would fly them again on my next sojourn from hula land to down under.👍👍
