WindowSeat
Intern
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2010
- Posts
- 65
There’s been a few reviews of the Jetstar international StarClass on this site but not heaps so I thought I’d add another.
I flew Jetstar StarClass to Japan a couple of weeks ago. My previous experience with Jetstar was extremely limited (a couple of domestic flights years ago), and given a few reports was somewhat apprehensive. The reality was pretty good.
The StarClass check-in counter avoided the queues and flying ex Gold Coast rather than Sydney obviously helped as the customs and security screenings were much quicker. The Gold Coast Jetstar lounge is very basic (so ex SYD would have been better to be able to use the QF lounge) but no big deal.
Boarding was on time and we were offered a glass of champagne. Seats were basically the equivalent of QF domestic business but with leather upholstery rather than fabric. We had pre-booked and got seats 1A/1B OOL-NRT and 1J/1K NRT-OOL which gave us much more leg room. To be honest, the rest of the cabin seats didn’t look like they had a heap of leg room at all (probably less than QF domestic business).
The cabin was pretty full (probably by virtue of the long running sales throughout this year). Not sure how full the economy cabin was.
The flight departed about 11am and we were fed a lot on that flight (a chicken rice thing for lunch, a large cheese platter about 3pm and then a meat pie which was not bad at about 6pm before we landed).
The seats were pretty comfortable but didn’t really flatten out (again think domestic business on QF), so I imagine that is well below the standard of QF PE seats. They were big enough seats but difficult to get comfortable in to settle down for a proper sleep on the 9 hour flight on the way home (which was an overnight flight).
I got these flights basically half price ($1200 return Gold Coast to Tokyo) which was great value as QF economy is usually $1500 return, but I’m not sure that I would have loved paying normal price considering JAL have PE ex SYD from about $2000 return. I’ve never flown JAL PE but I would imagine if it’s anything like QF PE it would be far better than JQ StarClass – even just for better recline on the seats.
The NRT QF lounge was nice, although after reading about it on the Qantas site I was expecting a little more. Great for a shower and some drinks though (our return flight departed about 8pm). Once again on the return flight we grabbed a champagne and then a couple of beers and got a little bit of sleep. The limited recline on the seat made getting comfortable for sleep difficult – I wouldn’t want to be traveling on StarClass if I was relying on getting sleep, the day flight was much more palatable to me.
I didn’t use the AVOD unit as I had some books but my girlfriend did and it seemed fine (limited selection, only four or five movies etc – nothing like even the economy offerings on CX, Singapore or Air New Zealand).
In summary, I considered these seats very good value when discounted and would fly them again with a replicated price. They’re definitely better than QF (or other) international economy but the seats are probably considerably less comfortable than QF PE. The business class status credits are good though (surely an anomaly given they earn more credits than QF PE).
Strategically, it’s probably a great tactical move by Qantas as StarClass is another way to step their (probably younger) leisure passengers into the world of premium cabins which as we all know can become addictive. I wonder how many StarClass passengers will eventually graduate to Qantas PE or business class as they get older, whereas the jump from Jetstar economy to Qantas PE might previously have been a bit too much (in price if nothing else).
So no complaints given the (discounted) price.
I flew Jetstar StarClass to Japan a couple of weeks ago. My previous experience with Jetstar was extremely limited (a couple of domestic flights years ago), and given a few reports was somewhat apprehensive. The reality was pretty good.
The StarClass check-in counter avoided the queues and flying ex Gold Coast rather than Sydney obviously helped as the customs and security screenings were much quicker. The Gold Coast Jetstar lounge is very basic (so ex SYD would have been better to be able to use the QF lounge) but no big deal.
Boarding was on time and we were offered a glass of champagne. Seats were basically the equivalent of QF domestic business but with leather upholstery rather than fabric. We had pre-booked and got seats 1A/1B OOL-NRT and 1J/1K NRT-OOL which gave us much more leg room. To be honest, the rest of the cabin seats didn’t look like they had a heap of leg room at all (probably less than QF domestic business).
The cabin was pretty full (probably by virtue of the long running sales throughout this year). Not sure how full the economy cabin was.
The flight departed about 11am and we were fed a lot on that flight (a chicken rice thing for lunch, a large cheese platter about 3pm and then a meat pie which was not bad at about 6pm before we landed).
The seats were pretty comfortable but didn’t really flatten out (again think domestic business on QF), so I imagine that is well below the standard of QF PE seats. They were big enough seats but difficult to get comfortable in to settle down for a proper sleep on the 9 hour flight on the way home (which was an overnight flight).
I got these flights basically half price ($1200 return Gold Coast to Tokyo) which was great value as QF economy is usually $1500 return, but I’m not sure that I would have loved paying normal price considering JAL have PE ex SYD from about $2000 return. I’ve never flown JAL PE but I would imagine if it’s anything like QF PE it would be far better than JQ StarClass – even just for better recline on the seats.
The NRT QF lounge was nice, although after reading about it on the Qantas site I was expecting a little more. Great for a shower and some drinks though (our return flight departed about 8pm). Once again on the return flight we grabbed a champagne and then a couple of beers and got a little bit of sleep. The limited recline on the seat made getting comfortable for sleep difficult – I wouldn’t want to be traveling on StarClass if I was relying on getting sleep, the day flight was much more palatable to me.
I didn’t use the AVOD unit as I had some books but my girlfriend did and it seemed fine (limited selection, only four or five movies etc – nothing like even the economy offerings on CX, Singapore or Air New Zealand).
In summary, I considered these seats very good value when discounted and would fly them again with a replicated price. They’re definitely better than QF (or other) international economy but the seats are probably considerably less comfortable than QF PE. The business class status credits are good though (surely an anomaly given they earn more credits than QF PE).
Strategically, it’s probably a great tactical move by Qantas as StarClass is another way to step their (probably younger) leisure passengers into the world of premium cabins which as we all know can become addictive. I wonder how many StarClass passengers will eventually graduate to Qantas PE or business class as they get older, whereas the jump from Jetstar economy to Qantas PE might previously have been a bit too much (in price if nothing else).
So no complaints given the (discounted) price.
