Coolangatta airport and Jetstar

[steve99]

Hi,
I have been a lurker on this website for some time but have became fired up because of my experience today at Coolangatta airport and Jetstar.

As Qantas/Jetstar seems to now require Brisbane people to fly to Japan from OOL instead of Brisbane, I booked my son's flight from TYO to OOL with J*.
After the long drive from Brisbane, we went to Terminal 1 as directed by the J* website to wait for him. The monitor advised that the flight from TYO was delayed by an hour.
A sign stuck on one of the monitors advised us that arrivals would be through the doors next to the departure glass doors.
Waiting in the shabby Terminal 1 building I reflected on the poor impression that fastidious Japanese visitors would have of their first sight of Australia.
After waiting a further 60 minutes at arrivals in Terminal 1 we were told by one of the other people waiting for arrivals that the passengers we had been waiting for were exiting at another terminal building through unmarked doors and onto the footpath! There were no announcements of this change and no facilities and seats on the footpath for those waiting for arrivals.

I also have a complaint about the very inconvenient transport arrangements to OOL for us Brisbane people. To travel to OOL requires taxi to a station, train to Robina and then a bus to the airport. The alternate is a $205 private limousine service.

Air Asia has provides a convenient and cheap bus pick-up service in Brisbane for its flights from OOL, but Qantas/J* doesn't offer such service. After their shabby treatment today by Qantas/J* I feel they have decided not to make travel easy for their Brisbane passengers.

[MelUser]

But isn't about what the market will accept. If all Brisbanites refued to travel to NRT from OOL and instead booked JAL/QF flights from BNE, Jetstar would soon change airports!

[Travel Guru]

You also have to remember that the airport is currently being rebuilt so it wont remain in its current form for long.

I agree with Meluser, if people don't use a service, the airline will soon redeploy it.

On the issue of the fastidious Japanese, I would have thought they'd be choosing to fly on JL/QF into BNE rather than using a budget LCC like JQ.

TG

[Evan]

Japanese tourist are very time driven due to there often short holidays, so you tend to see the best timed services being the most in demand.
Jet* seem to be doing ok from Japan so i guess its working for them.
E

[Platy]

Jet* seem to be doing ok from Japan so i guess its working for them.
E

I dunno. The Cairns Nagoya flights were a failure.

[Mal]

Japanese tourist are very time driven due to there often short holidays, so you tend to see the best timed services being the most in demand.
Jet* seem to be doing ok from Japan so i guess its working for them.
E

The tour operators will also back the bus up to the terminal to ensure that their tourists are safely locked onboard quickly. So I don't think a poor airport will negatively influence a package tourist's view of OOL airport. I'd be more worried about what they think of the inflight service - or perhaps the package operators have a 'sweet' deal with Jetstar to include meals etc.

[Evan]

The tour operators will also back the bus up to the terminal to ensure that their tourists are safely locked onboard quickly. So I don't think a poor airport will negatively influence a package tourist's view of OOL airport. I'd be more worried about what they think of the inflight service - or perhaps the package operators have a 'sweet' deal with Jetstar to include meals etc.

Mal, you make it sound like its transporting pets between zoo's, but your right the torur groups usually have that silly person with a flag and make sure they are out asap.

Certianly some adverts i have seen in Osaka/Kobe when i have been there included the feed-me pack in the price, I think it does get sold a little different over there.
Service in Japan is funny, somebody is always there to serve you but not always the case from what it looks like in the air, but i speak very little Japanese so i am sure its all lost on me, i can only say in my expereince it ranges from almost scared of the white guy to a novalty and get heaps of attention, a mix really.

E

[whereishome]

I'm flying OOL-NRT on Saturday, so I'll be interested to see how it goes. I haven't flown Jetstar before but since this OOL-NRT route has only been operating since Thursday I've been keeping an eye on the flight stats. Is there any reason to be consistently 35-45 minutes late even though you depart on time?

I dunno where the OP gets the idea that there is no longer an NRT to BNE flight. AFAIK, Qantas are still selling the QF360 codeshare (which is the direct NRT-BNE), operated on JL761.

My experience of living in Japan and seeing JQ promoted there was that it is being aimed at families and young people as an "add the options" airline, so you can take it if you want to save a bit of coin.

I can guarantee that most travel agents in Japan will book you on a JL operated flight with a QF number, EVEN if you ask for a specific QF flight number (long story, that one).

[Evan]

Could it be late due to headwinds at this time of the year or something like that ? Cant think of many other reasons if it really does leave on time and it probably does given its consistant. Unless its traffic at KIX end could be holding it up to land.

I will check out the adverts when i am there later this week.

E

[Andyc]

I dunno. The Cairns Nagoya flights were a failure.

Maybe, but I certainly enjoyed the 4 seats I got to myself on NGO-CNS two weeks ago

Saying that, SYD-OOl-KIX (which became SYD-OOL-CNS-KIX - grumble!) at the beginning of the month was one of the most painful experiences ever. I knew I deserved it for taking J* long-haul but the ones I really felt sorry for were the Japanese tourists who were on the JL codeshare.