Things Jetstar Does & Doesn’t Do Well

Last year, I wrote about the things Qantas and Virgin Australia do and don’t do well. Now, it’s time to turn our attention to Jetstar.

Founded in 2004, Jetstar is a low-cost airline fully owned by Qantas, Australia’s largest and de-facto national carrier. Although it’s part of the Qantas Group, it’s run as a completely separate airline.

Famous for its cheap airfares and occasionally infamous for lousy service, Australians have a wide range of opinions on whether or not Jetstar is a good airline. Many people value the service it provides, but others would rather walk than book a Jetstar flight.

Of course, every airline has its own strengths and weaknesses. In this opinion piece, I share my thoughts on things that Jetstar does well – as well as areas for improvement. These are based on my personal experience and you might agree or disagree with some or all of the things on my list. That’s absolutely fine! I’d encourage you to leave a comment in the thread linked at the bottom of this article with your own thoughts.

Without further ado, let’s start with the things I think Jetstar does particularly well…

9 things Jetstar does well

Democratising air travel

Whatever you might think about Jetstar, there’s no doubt that its low fares have made air travel possible for millions of people who otherwise couldn’t afford to fly on a regular basis. That’s a great thing.

Good safety record

Yes, as a low-cost carrier, there are a few trade-offs that you have to accept when flying Jetstar. For example, you don’t get to choose a seat or check a bag for free. But you don’t have to trade-off safety: Jetstar’s overall safety record is solid, and the airline doesn’t cut corners on that front.

Great cabin crew

I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad experience with Jetstar’s cabin crew. That applies to both the Australian and New Zealand-based crews, as well as the Thai and Indonesian cabin crew that Jetstar uses to staff its long-haul flights out of Australia. I find them invariably to be friendly, enthusiastic and competent, working well as a team.

I do sometimes feel sorry for Jetstar’s cabin crew. They sometimes work long and unsociable hours, and have to deal with some “difficult” passengers. I suspect it’s also not uncommon for people to board Jetstar flights in a bad mood because they had a bad ground experience at the airport. They deal with all that professionally and with grace.

Offering ancillaries that are worth paying for

If you just want to get from A to B for the lowest possible price, and don’t need any frills, Jetstar is a great option. If you want more inclusions, Jetstar offers that as well. You just need to pay a bit more.

I usually purchase a Flex Plus bundle when I book Jetstar Economy Class, as I find it to be worth the extra cost. For a reasonable surcharge, I can choose an extra-legroom seat, check a bag, earn Qantas Points & status credits, get a snack and drink on board, and pay no change fees if I need to rebook the flight.

Yes, if you fly Qantas, you also get most of those things. But what if you want to sit in the front row, and want a gin & tonic on board? Qantas won’t let you choose the front row unless you have a high status tier (until T-80, anyway), and it doesn’t offer spirits at all in Economy on a Sydney-Melbourne flight. At least with Jetstar, you have the option to buy what you actually want at a reasonable price.

A good value long-haul premium product

Let’s be honest: Jetstar’s Boeing 787 Business Class is really a “Premium Economy” product. You don’t get a lie-flat bed, which is now the norm for long-haul Business Class. But it’s priced at a Premium Economy level (including when you book with Qantas Points), and for the price, it’s great.

In Jetstar Business Class, you get a wide, leather recliner seat with good legroom and access to entertainment. You also get some basic amenities, meals, snacks and drinks, including champagne. I find it a great way to fly from Australia to Asia, which is usually a daytime flight, for not much more than an Economy seat on a full-service airline. The fact that you can earn Business Class status credits with a Max bundle is icing on the cake.

Jetstar will soon start reconfiguring its Boeing 787-8s with more Business Class seats and a new, improved design. This looks promising – especially as you’ll also soon be able to upgrade into Jetstar Business using Qantas Points.

Enforcing exit row safety standards

When you sit in an exit row seat, some airlines simply ask if you’re willing and able to assist – and leave it at that.

Jetstar, on the other hand, subtly screens passengers sitting in the exit rows before they even board the plane. Once on board, the cabin crew give a thorough safety briefing and physically hand the exit row safety cards to each passenger to read. I like this approach – it gives me more confidence that we’ll be in good hands in the very unlikely event we’d need to evacuate.

A relatively modern fleet

Jetstar has a relatively simple and modern fleet of Airbus A320 family and Boeing 787 aircraft. This includes new, fuel-efficient Airbus A320neo and Airbus A321neo LR jets. Most Jetstar planes are in fairly good condition and the average fleet age is lower than that of many legacy airlines.

Club Jetstar

Many businesses these days offer subscription programs, such as Woolworths’ Everyday Extra and Accor’s ALL Accor+ Explorer. Airlines too are getting into the subscription game, including British Airways, TAP Air Portugal, Volotea, Qatar Airways, Finnair and Emirates. It’s a way to make some extra bucks and make customers more “sticky”.

Jetstar is no exception, offering a subscription program called Club Jetstar. I personally don’t fly Jetstar enough for a Club Jetstar membership to be worthwhile. But if you do fly Jetstar a fair bit, the value proposition is pretty clear. By taking advantage of Club Jetstar’s member pricing and early access to sales, it wouldn’t be too hard to recoup the cost of your membership.

A more relaxed vibe

When flying Qantas, there are often lots of business travellers in suits, pushing their way through the crowded gate area as soon as Group 1 is called for boarding. This is followed by Group 2, then Groups 3, 6, 4 and 5.

On Jetstar, the gate agent simply announces that the flight is ready for boarding. There’s no convoluted boarding procedure, and most people are probably going on holiday so they’re pretty relaxed anyway. Assuming they didn’t just get charged for an overweight cabin bag and aren’t flying from Terminal 4 in Melbourne. (More on this below!)

9 things I don’t like about Jetstar

So, what doesn’t Jetstar do so well? Here are a few things that come to mind…

Poor Boeing 787 operational reliability

Jetstar has 11 Boeing 787-8s in its fleet, which primarily operate the airline’s long-haul flights between Australia and Asia. The airline works these planes hard, keeping costs down by utilising its fleet as efficiently as possible.

The upshot is that Jetstar has very little slack in its schedule to recover the Boeing 787 operation if one or two planes unexpectedly go out of service with maintenance issues. The result is lots of delays and last-minute cancellations on its long-haul flights. This is made worse by my next point…

Poor customer experience during irregular operations

When everything works as it should, I don’t mind flying Jetstar at all. But if your flight gets delayed or cancelled, things can go downhill quickly. For that reason, I avoid Jetstar if I need to be somewhere at a particular time and my schedule isn’t flexible.

Australia has no rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers for delays or last-minute cancellations, so airlines here have less incentive to truly look after passengers. My past experiences with Jetstar during irregular operations have been especially bad. The airline seems reluctant to rebook passengers onto other airlines, and sometimes the next available flight might not be for a few days.

I once booked a cheap Jetstar ticket from Brisbane to Sydney on a Sunday. Jetstar cancelled my flight at short notice, and offered only to refund my ticket or rebook me on Tuesday. That wasn’t very helpful, considering the cost of buying a new last-minute ticket on a different airline was much more than the original airfare Jetstar was offering to refund.

If you’re unlucky enough to be flying on a day with wide-scale disruptions, e.g. during a weather event, you could end up waiting hours in airport queues to get rebooked.

Uncomfortable seats

I find Jetstar’s Economy seats fine for shorter flights, but they won’t win any awards for comfort. Let’s face it: the standard legroom isn’t great, and on the Airbus A320 and A321 jets, the seats have limited padding and no adjustable headrest. I wouldn’t want to fly a red-eye (overnight) on one of those planes.

You can only check in luggage 2 hours before departure

When you fly Virgin out of a major Australian airport, you can generally check in your bags any time on the day of departure. Qantas offers bag drop up to six hours before departure for domestic flights. This gives you more flexibility and more time to enjoy the lounge, if you have access.

Jetstar only accepts checked bags between two hours and 40 minutes before departure for domestic flights. I’m sure this saves Jetstar money, but it sure can feel inconvenient at times.

Terminal 4 at Melbourne Airport

Regardless of the airline, the ground experience can be vastly different depending on which airport you’re flying out of. For example, flying Jetstar from Canberra Airport is a pretty good experience. But I’m really not a fan of the Jetstar gates at Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4. You have to walk quite a long way, and once you get to the Jetstar gates, you’ll find few seats and the ambience of a tin shed.

Punitive cabin baggage weight checks

I understand that Jetstar’s business model relies on charging extra for things like bags. I also understand that people are less likely to pay for a bag if they think they can get away with bringing on a big carry-on bag for free. So, it makes sense that Jetstar employs people at the gate to weigh bags.

But I do think that charging someone $60 because their backpack weighs 8kg is a bit rough. Once someone is at the boarding gate, they really have little choice but to pay up. I bet they feel like they’ve just been robbed.

In fairness, Jetstar does emphasise its bag weight limits when you book a ticket on its website. If you play by the airline’s rules, you’ll be fine. But this does seem to trip up a lot of people who don’t have the attention to detail of a lawyer.

Charging for an SMS with your flight details

I can also sort of understand why people might not be paying close attention to every single detail when they book a Jetstar flight, given the number of times Jetstar’s website tries to upsell you during the process.

As I said earlier, I do think that many of Jetstar’s add-ons are worth paying for. And if Jetstar wants to try to sell travel insurance or rental cars during the booking flow, good luck to them. But does anyone seriously want to pay $1.75 for an SMS with your booking details?

I doubt anyone would actively choose to pay this unless they were confused or not paying attention. In fairness, though, Rex does the same thing – except that it charges $2.40 for an SMS. (And I guess you could argue that Qantas Frequent Flyer charging Australians a $99.50 joining fee is in a similar boat…)

The on-board menu almost never changes

I like that Jetstar has a wide variety of snacks and drinks to choose from on its flights. But the hot meals available in Economy on longer flights really aren’t great, and the menu rarely changes.

The food offered in Business Class is at least pretty good, but that menu never changes.

Lack of in-flight entertainment or Wi-Fi

You won’t find Wi-Fi on Jetstar and the in-flight entertainment options provided are either limited or non-existent (depending on which aircraft you’re flying). I personally bring a book and some pre-downloaded podcasts to listen to, but the lack of Wi-Fi (even for a fee) could make Jetstar uncompetitive for some demographics.

Do you think Jetstar is a good airline?

So, those are my thoughts on things Jetstar does and does not do well.

I’d be interested to read your thoughts on the Australian Frequent Flyer discussion forum: