Friday 2 October 2015Jetstar JA926 – Brisbane / Cairns – A320

After restless sleep, I rose early – 5:15am in preparation for my Jetstar flight from Brisbane to Cairns. Kevin, an Asian-Australian Uber driver collected me from Carseldine on the Northside of Brisbane at 5:40am in a pristine Toyota Camry and delivered me safely to the Brisbane Domestic Airport at 6:10am. Cost $35.80 which is around $20 cheaper than a taxi.

From my experience, Uber drivers tend to be very polite, helpful, friendly and enjoy sharing their story on how and why they were Uber driving. Kevin aged around 25 was an apprentice motor mechanic who decided to quit the trade 3 weeks ago because Uber pays better and he had grown very tired of his girlfriend’s nagging about his stained grease monkey hands. An Uber driver can earn up to $500 a day working around 12-14hours. Kevin loves his new job and glad to have his girlfriend off his back!

Air travel processes are more and more automated these days from booking flights online, check in and baggage drop off. Consumers are adapting to doing more things themselves. Grocery shops like Coles and Woolworths and petrol stations have paved the way for many other customer service based companies. We are used to filling up our car, scanning and packing our own groceries and now we process ourselves and luggage at most domestic airports in Australia.

The Jetstar process consists of weighing in luggage on scales located next to the checkin booths which are like an ATM – type in your name, select the destination, declare your not carrying anything explosive, toxic or dangerous, choose your seat allocation, the number of check-in luggage, print boarding pass and baggage tags. My seat allocation 1E was an exit row so I had to confirm I was willing and able to assist should an emergency arise. The adhesive barcoded baggage tag are placed through the side handle on your luggage. No tagging process is required for hand luggage. The Bag Drop Off process consists of placing your luggage (one at a time) on a conveyor belt, then you scan your boarding pass, your luggage disappears and an adhesive baggage confirmation label prints out and a receipt for your records.

There is ground staff floating about helping in the check-in and bag drop areas should passengers have problems or find the automated process too daunting. I’d be interested to know whether the airlines have reduced staff related Work Health and Safety injuries since these new processes were introduced.

The security process in airports does my head in! I don’t understand why passengers can’t follow simple instructions. While lining up you repeatedly hear security officers saying “laptop, devices, umbrellas need to be removed from hand luggage and placed in a tray; are you carrying arosols, cigarette lighters or anything sharp”. Next thing the line is held up by some idiot who’s left an umbrella inside their hand luggage or carrying something sharp like a samurai sword!

Passengers boarded via the front and rear doors saving a few precious minutes. Our pilot, Steve Austin took off nearly on time (7:10am) and landed nearly on time (9:20am). The flight was mostly smooth and comfortable although two male passengers behind me talked constantly. I thought only women could talked incessantly!

Passengers seated in an exit row are not permitted to have any hand luggage in front of them and under the seat in front during take off or landing. The crew were very helpful and offered to get my handbag out of the overhead locker.

I rarely eat on domestic flights if I’m paying for it. I either bring something with me or eat at my destination. For sometime after the September 11 disasters, passengers were not allowed to carry water through security check points. Thank goodness that restriction has been reversed.

Our very attractive and confident Cabin Manager Nicky and her elves Rene and Keira were a great team and it was obvious that they had worked together often. I had a problem clicking in my safety belt and between Nicky and Rene they worked out that a twisted belt was the problem.

Landing in Cairns was perfect – very smooth.

Overall another exceptional Jetstar experience.

Jetstar Booking Pass

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Next flight Cairns to Weipa on QantasLink QF2478 – 2 October 2015 – 11:30am