Its a pain in the bum when I did it, mviy.
Nice to be able to do it, but its a pain in the bum.
Why I hear you ask.
a.With JQ doing it, I was not able to do OLCI flying as a dom pax on an int flight, as I had to show my Aust passport, to be able to get a JQ stock BP so they can stick that orange sticker onto it.
b.You can't use Smartgate.
c.You have to queue up on dep, and then again on arr. The queues can be very long.
d.They have to stamp your exit on the BP and then on arr on the BP, and you don't get to keep that BP either, its taken over by ABF as its a quasi IPC
e.Because the service is provided by JQ, what you are used to flying true int, is very different from this sector in question. I was in subclass of J on JQ SYD - MEL, they practically "forgot" to give me a welcome drink on me sitting down on that 330. I didn't make any comments, so just went with the flow.
Have also done it in Y on the 787 SYD - MEL.
Did the J on the (former QF8) 747 BNE - SYD, that was great, my first experience upstairs of the 747.
Its up to you, what you see as a downside and what you see as a plus.
Though I do like this flying dom pax on an int flight, I would preferably be flying to NZ though, even if its even for an Easter long weekend, or Christmas longweekend when it falls on 4 days, as it will this year.