Hello, here is my first trip report after many years of reading others.

Sydney (SYD) – Christchurch (CHC) – Sydney (SYD)

Jetstar (JQ)
Flight No. JQ409
Aircraft: A320-200
Load: 42/171
Dep: 8.50am – Arrive: 1.50pm
Sydney to Christchurch

I purchased 5 tickets to Christchurch when JQ released there start up fares to New Zealand, cost including all taxes and other charges was $1260.00 ($252 per pax), this represented a huge saving compared to QF, NZ and EK.

Having previously flown Jetstar on number of occasions on there B717-200 services, I knew what expect, boy was I wrong.

As we live inn the outer suburbs we had an early start to be at the airport for a 6.00am check in, check in was handled by QF ground staff and was fast and efficient. As I was travelling with 3 children (the only kids on the flight) we were called to board at 8.20am followed by the rest of the pax, push back was at 8.45am and then the short taxi to the runway, we were advised by the Captain that we were 4th in the international queue.

Flight was pleasant and smooth, flight deck made all the usual announcements. As JQ is a low cost carrier you have to buy everything on board, travelling with a 3 year old this can get expensive as they want and want and want, so he was well packed for and taken care of and the older twins are no hassle so we did not mind spending $26.50 for 2 coffees, 1 juice and 2 muffins. Crew came around selling head phones for the audio and were renting Digiplayers for $15.00 – all the Digiplayers on board were branded with Independence Air logos and instruction cards, we came prepared with plenty of Barney, Hi-5 and wiggle DVD’s for our son on his 7” player which we took on board.

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Landing in Christchurch was smooth and deplaning was quick and easy, by the time we walked to the baggage claim bags were out.

Overall a great flight, excellent, friendly and professional crew – professionalism had a hint of Qantas in there tone and manner, the kids were even taken to the flight deck once we were on the
ground.



Jetstar (JQ)
Flight No. JQ410
Aircraft: A320-200
Load: 100/171
Dep: 6.45am – Arrive: 8.50am
Christchurch to Sydney

Very early morning start at 3.00am, kids not happy, wife totally not happy.

Arrived at Christchurch airport at 4.00am, huge check in lines, but were moving at a reasonable pace – SYD, BNE, MEL we checking in. Check in agent was dressed in a Jetstar orange uniform, seemed professional but seemed ill trained; she was having trouble with the concept of weighing each bag to ensure we were in out 100kg total combined weight limit. She checked in the 5 of us, handed back 5 boarding passes but on 4 passports, she then had the hide to say we only gave her 4 passports, not a good attitude to take with me at around 4.00am – remember kids and wife all bad mood. After a small but heated exchange of words and my refusal to hand back the boarding passes until she search for the 5th passport, the passport was found under a large amount of paperwork and tags, customary smile and apology was given.

Once at the gate we were called to board at 6.00am first along with a couple of other families, push back was at 6.30am and we rotated at just on 6.40am, once again all the usual announcements and cabin crew were just as good as the inbound sector.

Flew into a storm at Sydney, large amount of turbulence was experiences, Captain did his best to manoeuvre around the storm, advised we had a runway change to the 3rd runway in Sydney, furthest from the terminal, due to the traffic congestion on the ground from the storm, we waited on a taxi way for 45min until we could cross the main north-south runway.

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Again after passport control, bags were out and did not have to wait.

As Jetstar has a 30” seat pitch and I am 6’5” tall, it was a little cramped, but for me on both sectors the middle seat was free and the flights were light loaded so there was plenty of room to stretch out. But for the price that we paid and the flights were around 6.5 hours I could not complain, flying them on there newly released Asian sectors of up to 10 ho