Postkiwi

Flew to Mackay and back with Jetstar this last week. I was reminded why I’ve been avoiding flying budget on small planes. You can take on a brief case and a laptop but it can’t add up to more than 7 kg. Anything over 20 kg checked luggage you pay $5 a kg excess fees. With Qantas we’re allowed to carry on items up to 7 kg per piece except for on Dash 8s in which case it’s 4 kg total.

I made sure I was there a bit earlier than an hour before on the way back. Which meant I was able to get into the blue class of passenger. Orange passengers get on first and can choose the best seats. These are Jet Flex passengers, passengers travelling with young children and passengers who need special assistance . Blue passengers, the earliest to check in, are on next. Silver (me, Bruce and Ben last Friday) passengers tag along last and get the seats that are left, if they’re lucky. Which we were. Passengers who arrive later than 30 minutes before the flight just miss out completely.

The good thing about Jetstar is that they’ve opened up the number of flights into places like Mackay. They’ve connected Brisbane and the Gold Coast with the rest of Australia for very affordable prices. And they generally leave and arrive on time.