Star Class a Joke

[Limewood]

Just arrived back from Honolulu, departed on Jetstar Star class & returned with Q J, absolute chalk and cheese difference (as is price) but...

This "Star Class" is basic Y economy (no idea where the "Star" comes from), most uncomfortable seat we ever sat in had no room for anything when front seat was reclined, cabin staff tried but not enough bods to serve properly, food was awful and not much of it, aircraft looked old and tardy.

As the pilot came in to Honolulu landing was too fast told to go around again, frightened the daylights out of passengers as we took of from a low decline then rapidly to an incline, pilot came on 5 minutes later told us the story and said sorry.

Please Jetstar take out any word relating to "Star" your day dreaming!.

On return leg got up at 4am for 8am "Star Class!" Jetset departure, arrived at Honolulu airport at 5.30am in plenty of time, found out as queue filled up, the flight cancelled, no warning, like no email no phone call, flight cancelled, bloody lovely, passengers were livid.

Waiting at "Star Class" check in, was then told a Q J flight would take some passengers, saw the long typed out passenger list all with the have's and have not's, we were two of the lucky ones, many others missed out.

Off we went on Q J class at 10.10am, as usual seats and leg / body room huge, service A1, food & wine was excellent, friendly crew, real nice trip back to OZ.

 

[gilby08]

I think you need to remember that you are flying a LCC (Low Cost Carrier), this is reflected by the price you paid for the ticket. Maybe you should try out AirAisa and their XXL seats and compare them to the Jetstar fare and product.

If you wanted to travel 'real' business class you could've done this through QF and a QF plane at a cost of $10808.

Also i think it is obvious that the word 'star class' comes from the compaines name "Jetstar"

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/jetstar-starclass-7984.html
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/open-discussion/star-class-to-coughet-11319.html

 

[oz_mark]

I think you would find that if you flew in JQ 'Y' class you would appreciate that StarClass is indeed a step up from that. Qantas 'J' does cost a lot more, and, as you discovered, there is a reason for that.

The seats in StarClass are pretty much the same as what is used for domestic 'J' on Qantas. You would also likely find that the Qantas flight back was on an older aircraft than the Jetstar aircraft.

At the end of the day, you do need to remember that Jetstar is a Low Cost Airline, and the service levels across the airline reflect that.

 

[drewbles]

If you think Star Class is basic economy, try flying Jetstar Economy. It'll make you wish you were in Star Class.

FWIW, Star Class is pretty much on par with the style of Business class seat on the QF domestic network. The catering/booze is substantially better on QF Domestic however.

 

[gilby08]

If you think Star Class is basic economy, try flying Jetstar Economy. It'll make you wish you were in Star Class.

Even JQ's product is better than BA's club europe offerings IMO!

 

[moa999]

also those seats are exactly the same as the Qantas Millenium seats which are used in Business Class on the
737-800, A330-200 domestic config and 767-300 domestic and trans tasman - only covered in leather and with in seat power.

Sure they are not a SkyBed, but the pitch as much bigger than economy, they have a decent recline (which because it is decent does impede the passenger behind)

 

[Limewood]

Yes fair enough comment, but we just did not realise the vast difference between the Jetstar Star Class and Q J seats, will be using Q or other J's from now on for international travel:!:.

 

[Dave Noble]

I find JQ Star Class quite reasonable value. Get a domestic business seat for a reasonable choice. When doing hawaii, it was $2800 for starclass vs $9000 for Qantas business and the dreamtime seat definitely not worth that much more than the starclass service

Qantas doesn't offer skybeds on the Hawaii route anyway so the comparison needs to be between the 40" 2x2x2 starclass vs the 55" 1x2x2 dreamtime seats. There isn't a dramatic difference between them; the recline is more on dreamtime and it does have a 6" video screen but still just a seat rather than a slopey bed

My only disappointment with using JQ over Qf is that JQ doesn't provide priority baggage handling in their "business" class

Dave

 

[SYD]

If I'm paying, I would happily do SYD-HNL again in Starclass (noting the price differential for QF J - which is just insane). Who actually pays $10k+ to go to HNL anyway?

However, I do have to agree with Dave, that the lack of priority baggage is frustrating. Flying JS, you do get to appreciate that those other airline priority tags are not just decorative - well most of the time, anyway

 

[markis10]

Odd report - found the JQ A330 "old and tardy" and the seats a joke, yet happy with QF 767 product??? I cannot imagine there would be much difference between a QF dreamtime seat and JQs seat over 10 hours, neither are a Skybed by anymeans.

 

[yo yo ma]

I think you need to remember that you are flying a LCC...

Exactly... you get what you pay for.

 

[Alanslegal]

I found out that if I am sitting in a window seat and the person in front was fully reclined, there was no way I could get out (to the aisle) without asking my neighbour to move out as well. Because of this, I simply would not pay 3 or 4 times the price of an economy seat to be sitting up at the front. And also as I travel in pairs, the economy seats do fine for me given the 2-4-2 configuration.

ps. my one and only StarClass experience came by way of a paid op-up HNL-SYD a week prior to departure.

 

[Mr Ed]

Dear Limewood,
Your mistake is, you believed the marketing hype of Jetstar.

Quote "Marketing never matches the product or service advertised." Mr Ed.
You expected the service you have seen on Jetstars TV adds, your a silly billy.
Rows full of helpful attendants fluffing your pillow and serving your every beck and call, hahahahahahaha dream on.

Yes it is a LCC but don't believe the marketing.

 

[Travel Guru]

Dear Limewood,
Your mistake is, you believed the marketing hype of Jetstar.

Quote "Marketing never matches the product or service advertised." Mr Ed.
You expected the service you have seen on Jetstars TV adds, your a silly billy.
Rows full of helpful attendants fluffing your pillow and serving your every beck and call, hahahahahahaha dream on.

Yes it is a LCC but don't believe the marketing.

Irrespective of what the OP chose to believe, there's no need to speak rudely or condescendingly do him Mr Ed, this board thrives because of mutual respect; sure we debate frequently, but there's no need to get personal...perhaps you should remember that next time if you want to be treated with respect by other forum members, or to have your posts taken seriously.

TG

 

[holdenvxman]

I flew *class with v8statesman, the seat was faulty both ways syd>hnl we just changed seats hnl>syd the engineer came on a fixed it, other then that everything else was fine, service was good. no its not QF J but I didn't pay the same price.
Much rather sit in *class then fly JQ Y
You get what you pay for.

 

[Mr Ed]

Sorry T.G. No disrespect intended.

Will watch my wording in future.

I really should have said, we are all silly billies for believing the marketing hype.

 

[sampson]

Star Class is a joke? Of course it is. That's why its called "Jester".

 

[medhead]

Well it may be a joke. But then on my planned flights to NRT, star class is coming up as cheaper than QF Y. So I would use it for the fact that I can pay less and earn at least double the points and SC. It seems to be a no brainer.

Of course if I extend to europe then something with JAL, or Finnair might be better.

 

[JohnK]

I found out that if I am sitting in a window seat and the person in front was fully reclined, there was no way I could get out (to the aisle) without asking my neighbour to move out as well. Because of this, I simply would not pay 3 or 4 times the price of an economy seat to be sitting up at the front.

Had the same type of issue with QF premium economy recently. The person in the window seat finds it almost impossible to get out of their seat if the person in front is fully reclined.

 

[anat0l]

I think most people here have summed it up correctly. Star Class is basically a leather Millennium seat with only slightly better catering than QF Y (international & domestic) - a bit tackier on the decor (a lot of plastic) - and a few more of the J luxuries, again with a share of tackiness. It's close to normal JQ Y with all the features for free, plus a better seat.

I flew Star Class before between SYD and KIX (via OOL) and it was a fine choice for the route. It was a good price too (at least for that time - this was the era of fuel fines), and as noted by someone else it was slightly cheaper than QF Y. Priority baggage would be nice too, but oh well.

SYD-NRT and SYD-HNL are operated by QF 763s, both with Dreamtime or Millennium seating. Not sure if they are using 333s on those routes yet, because using 763s - especially on SYD-HNL - is nothing short of criminal .

No idea why the sudden cancellation, however rather fortunate that QF accommodated you in J on their other flight.