Jetstar (and other LCC’s) are for the time rich and cash poor. Delays are somewhat part of this tradeoff. Premium carriers are favoured by the time poor, cash rich. Though Qantas has upended this notion somewhat lately…
Getting from Bungendore to Broome- which I hope to do later in the year- is a royal PITA, btw. You guys in the major capitals have it easy. I hope to do Virgin from SYD-PER-BME and just get the train from Bungendore to Sydney and stay the night there each way (the SYD-PER-BME connection is early, and BME-PER-SYD is late into Sydney).
Part of the tradeoff for living regional of course.
Jetstar’s been struggling just in general lately. Faults and problems on every flight (technical, medical, logistical), delays on nearly every flight (I have not seen an international flight in recent days that has not been delayed, especially the Bali and Thailand ones).
Something must be really wrong in the background because even as a budget airline you’d expect them to be a bit better than the likes of EasyJet or RyanAir who are notorious for these kinds of problems.
It’s the cancellations then not offering a flight until 24-48 hours later, and often the rescheduled flight is also delayed.
I know someone who got burnt on the Jetstar MEL-SIN flight. Cancelled and next flight the following day. Cancelled again. Spent $3k to get home on Singapore, scoot and AirAsia sold out.
Jetstar had had no crew base in Perth for an even longer time than that, at least 5 or 6 years now. They were running barely any flights to/from Perth for a bit (2019 was 1-2x daily MEL, 1x daily ADL, 4x Weekly SYD, CNS, OOL and that was pretty much it for domestic services) since last year are running more than they have in a long time with the lack of Tiger and less Qantas mainline capacity due to less wide bodies on the trans-con routes.
The aircraft operating the Jetstar night departure from PER-MEL is also effectively used as a backup for the morning PER-DPS departure, it’s not unusual for MEL-PER to be run, then PER-MEL to be cancelled and that aircraft towed across to T1 because it’s much easier for them to do recovery cancelling a 1am PER-MEL departure than it is to cancel a 7am PER-DPS departure.
CBR-PER flights are rare, expensive and it doesn’t work without an overnight stay in PER. I prefer the least amount of flights possible. Virgin via Sydney seems to be by far the cheapest option also.
They were very handy for me being able to fly home from Perth and still make it back to work the same day by making the early flight back to Rocky from Brisbane relying on sleep on the plane. But those were also days where I had the occasional 11AM start time for work which doesn’t exist anymore.
My run of good luck with Jetstar has ended,Yes my 6.am flight out of Sydney tomorrow has been cancelled,they’ve sent me a text and email.I do need to return to Brisbane tomorrow or by Tuesday at the latest, not happy .
and you are lucky you got a text and email tonight. i got mine 2 hours before my flight from Melbourne to the gold coast at 5 am on a Sunday after we got out boarding passes and checked in. Luckily my other half was with me as well. and yes this was Jetstar. give me Qantas any day
I’ll ring their call centre first thing tomorrow and discuss my options,I can get a replacement flight for free,the email I got said the flight was cancelled due to ‘engineering requirements’ maybe a problem with the aircraft?
It could be that also,
I know I don’t have to get back for work but I have stuff I need to this week,I’ll need to pay for another night here at my hotel if I can’t get a flight home tomorrow,my car is in the long term park at Brisbane airport, I have paid for 4 days parking,I’ll need to pay for another day
I can see why most people don’t want to fly on a low cost carrier,ie:Jetstar.It’s 20 years since I last flew with Qantas before today. I Found the seat was more comfortable,and they served breakfast, a ham and egg toastie(as I don’t like eggs I didn’t eat it).I had more leg room as I was in the 1st row behind the business class seats row 4 (In economy )
The aircraft I was on this morning is 19 years old.Qantas need to upgrade their fleet.
I’m so glad I was able to get home this morning
.
All good 