After 5 lovely days in Tasmania, I was ready to explore Melbourne and the great ocean road. With the exception of one flight, all my domestic segments in Australia were booked using BA avios, as the flights on Qantas can be pretty pricey sometimes, the use of reward flight saver tickets on BAEC is an excellent "bang for your buck" ! The exception was this particular flight back to Melbourne, from Launceston which I booked on Qantas low cost affiliate JetStar. The flight is short enough that flying a LCC was acceptable for me (although I never flew a low cost carrier before, even if nowadays the border between legacy airline and low cost carrier is very thin, I almost consider Brussels Airlines as an LCC for instance, the only thing that saves them is that they are part of a global alliance and have airport lounges !).
Departure options from LST are limited, and mostly to Melbourne, and sometimes to Sydney, besides a few local Tasmanian destinations. Qantas' affiliate Qantas Link operates a few daily flights to Melbourne Tullamarine on a Dash 8 but there were no available flights using avios on my day of departure (and I started to look for flights only a couple weeks before heading to Tasmania). The best option which came to me ended up to be one of the few daily Jetstar flights to MEL.
With a check-in bag and a small snack voucher (included in the ticket package I booked), I ended up paying 150 AUD for this one way trip (about 95 Euros at that time). Reasonable to get back to the continent (If I would have gotten more time, I would have loved to go back to mainland using one of the daily ferries ! The crossing takes about 10 hours as far as I can remember)
Luckily enough, a couple of my newly made friends were booked on the same flight as me so we shared an Uber to LST airport (and yes - the our greatest surprise, there is Uber in Launceston !)
LST airport
LST check-in area
Checking in my bag took no time, just like the security check. Launceston is a pretty small but convenient airport, with 4 boarding gates. There was no lounge available as far as I remember, just a souvenir store and a cafe/restaurant
LST terminal airside
LST terminal airside
Sydney or Melbourne are the options ! We relaxed in the meantime as the departure board suggested
Virgin Australia B737-800
Flight was planned to arrive late from MEL
VH-VFU just arriving from MEL for a supposedly quick turnaround in LST
We were informed that our Jetstar flight to Melbourne was delayed of about 30 min due to a late arrival from Melbourne. As soon as the aircraft landed, we were invited to proceed to the gate downstairs and they began the preboarding by 12:00.
The turnaround was pretty quick and we were on a good track to recover the delay.
Got in at 12:05
Jetstar Australia JQ734 – January 14th 2019
LST Launceston - 11:50
MEL Melbourne Tullamarine - 12:55
Airbus A320 – VH-VFU – Seat 8F, Economy, window
Row 8...
It's... tight !
And it's also pretty full !
Boarding was completed by 12:15
10 minutes after I boarded, we were ready to close the doors... until the captain went out of the cockpit and addressed all the passengers, which is usually not always a good sign ! He announced our aircraft had a technical issue with the onboard computer and that the local technical team was looking for spare parts in the local warehouse.
Captain speaking... at least he kept us well informed !
In the meantime, I was curious to see which destinations JQ flies to :
Jetstar destinations. They are quite strong outside Australia too, in Vietnam and Japan for instance
Although it is a low cost carrier, the friendly crew started to serve some water to all passengers.
The next flight to Melbourne - Which left before us !
Drinks on the house !
This flight was delayed, the legroom was tight and the cabin was full. Not the best recipe for a good flight memory, and my friends were seated 10 and 15 rows behind. However, my seat mate, an Australian lady and entrepreneur named Sue, was very friendly and we talked together about my trip and her European adventures for pretty much the entime journey. We stayed in total 1 hour and half on the tarmac of LST until the issue got fixed but the time flew fast thanks to great chats with her !
Qantas Link flight to MEL. It also left before us !
We eventually left our parking position around 13:35 and took off a few minutes later.
Leaving the parking position and taxied right next to the local Flying Doctors station
I booked a package containing a checked-bag and a credit for a snack. The crew member actually came to me to remind me that I was eligible for a free snack, I would have otherwise simply forgot !
Approaching mainland
Welcome in Victoria !
MEL low cost terminal
We landed in Melbourne at 14:15, which is 1 hour 20 min late. Despite this, the crew was typically Australian : Friendly and quite chill.
I might fly jetstar again if the price is competitive, but only for short flights or by adding an emergency exit or front row seat !
The walk back to the luggage claim was quite long, and the luggage took forever to arrive. The signage in the luggage claim area was also quite confusing as our flight was not indicated on any screen (Only the QF flight was indicated - not sure if this was the exact QF Link flight or the codeshare number of our Jetstar flight)
Luggage eventually arrived by 15:00...
A skybus ride to the central station and a quick connection with the local shuttle later and I reached my new hotel, the recently opened Ibis Melbourne central an hour after collecting my bags.