Hello, my name is Paul Stewart and I'm currently in a Melbourne Airport, I'm about to fly to Sydney.
Usually I would do this in a Qantas 737 although today. I've managed to get onboard a Jetstar
787 which is doing their short domestic hop from Melbourne to Sydney and then traveling on to somewhere international. Not sure where it is,
Bali or Hawaii or somewhere?
So coming up is Jetstar economy class in a 787 Dreamliner!
The 59 minute journey on this clown-faced aircraft, and yes
It is slightly unnerving seeing unpainted panels from a scrapyard on your airplane, begin in the departure hall
Where quite a few people had already lined up prior to check-in opening three hours before the flight. After that
It was through the rather festive customs. Because we were on a domestic flight,
Although from the international terminal, we weren't able to use the e-gates
So it was a fairly lengthy process
But as always for this little aviation nerd, the view made up for it on the other side. Here's a Qantas Airbus A380,
Or as its affectionately called, by me, the 'Dugong off the Skies'
Now one of the perks of being a Qantas platinum is that I was allowed into the first-class lounge
Even though I wasn't flying with Qantas or a One World alliance airline. The view in here is pretty cool!
And I've uploaded a separate tour through this very impressive lounge in another video.
Now let's get back to Jetstar and here's our aircraft VH VKE
Which is a 787-8 and was assembled in
2014. This shot really highlights how big the General Electric engines are that power this aircraft, or
Tyrion Lannister is moon-lighting with Jetstar. Our flight was called and we headed on board.
Looking right is the main cabin and on the left is a much smaller economy cabin just behind
Business and this is where you should sit and I'll explain why in a sec.
Here's my seat 11J
Which was actually a mistake as I had intended to book 10J as all of the seats in this forward mini cabin cost
$13 extra although row 10 has more legroom as you can see in these comparison shots. And because it's a bulkhead seat,
There's no one reclining into you.
Let's have a quick quiz at my seat in more detail. In front of you is a TV
Touchscreen and I'll mention that in more detail later.
Underneath that is a USB port and an audio plug and traveling further south is the fold-out table.
The arm rest folds up, unlike the row in front of you which has the TV screen integrated into it, and
above you is thankfully an
individual air vent. For reasons unknown to man and science, airlines seem to keep cabins far too hot and I always
Appreciate having a steady stream of air flowing into my head.
Then of course the most important feature of the seat is a decent view of the wing and engine,
Which is somewhat ruined by Boeing's electric window shades, which I'll rant about later, and underneath you are power plugs
Which you share between the three seats.
Now back to the window shades
instead of using a simple thin piece of plastic, Boeing have added a layer of magic goo between two pieces of glass and then they
electrocuted it . When the electrical current is applied, it gets darker.
Now I have a few issues with this as I'll show you more after we take off. In direct sunlight,
It still doesn't really block the sun's ginger burning rays
and then when you want to enjoy the amazing views at
40,000 feet, the crew can lock it in the dark setting as they did in this flight.
And of course this whole process of darkening the windows takes minutes, or for us gingers, third-degree burns.
Anyway enough whingeing, let's head to Sydney and a shout out to Sony who's autofocus stuffed up during the 15 seconds
I actually wanted to capture the bits of the wing during their dance in preparation for takeoff.
In the background right now is a Qantas 787
Although this is the larger -9 variant, which has just been added to their fleet.
I'll include a link to my review of that aircraft in the video description below
A 787 scooted off to Singapore
while a Jetstar A321 arrived from Queensland and then it was our turn.
I'll stop talking and let you enjoy the takeoff footage
It was a reasonably clear day, so we got a great view of Melbourne's CBD and here's Tullamarine Airport
Which we've just taken off from a few moments ago.
I caught this rather cool shot of an Air New Zealand aircraft just as a crew locked the windows into a semi dark setting.
This was frankly rather annoying as it draws the colors out of the footage while .I managed to
Partially salvage these with computer trickery, it's not the same. Here's what it will look like without digital editing.
Another thing I might mention is just common courtesy. As soon as the seatbelt sign went off the passengers in front
immediately reclined their seats which seemed unnecessary for such a short flight. If you're new to flying,
please be considerate of those behind you and keep your seat straight up during meal service and
On short flights if you really must recline, select a seat at the back of the cabin like mine
so there's no one directly behind you and
Just to add to it all, she proceeded to relax her hands just above my poor neighbours TV screen.
Now on the topic of TV screens and since the view outside wasn't great, let's briefly look at the in-flight entertainment
The screen is decent quality and the touchscreen works fine.
Although being a low cost carrier you have to pay for everything. It would have cost me $8 to watch Mission Impossible
So I skipped that and went for something to eat
Much like British Airways and other low-cost carriers, you have to pay for the food and here's a glossy magazine
Outlining the meal options while I wasn't hungry
I thought I'd get into the Jetstar spirit and grab a beer, or actually a cider as I'm not manly enough to drink beer and need
something sweet. The guy next to me was served at this $8 little green cider, although for some reason
I was completely ignored even though I went to make eye contact. Once I realized they had forgotten me,
I hit the call bell only to have it ignored for 10 minutes.
After that I canceled the call and press it again
but after another five minutes
They announced our descent into Sydney would begin so I cancelled it. While forgetting me is fine,
And that happens every now and then, was surprised by the number of crew that walked past when my call light
Was illuminated. Alas I suppose I saved $8.
So to summarise. You should catch the domestic Jetstar
787 flights if you're an avgeek and want to fly in the 787,
Which otherwise is a great aircraft and that's actually how I first flew in one.
Or if you're Qantas platinum and want to spend three hours dining in the first-class lounge.
Otherwise, it's probably not worth the fuss of going through customs and catching the usual A320 from the domestic terminal is quicker. Having said that,
If you are flying the 787 internationally
I'd suggest you pay a little extra and get those seats up front in this mini cabin and book row 10.
It'll be quieter with less other passengers and sitting just in front of the wings always provides a smoother ride .
And finally, be considerate of other passengers. You probably don't need to recline on a 59 minute flight
Now, I don't know about you, but these views a perfect antidote to my grumpy mood.
Even if you're looking through these ridiculous half tinted stupid windows. The issues
I've mentioned before seem far less significant once you consider the amazing engineering that has gone into this aircraft.
Here I am hurtling through the air at a thousand kilometres an hour in a carbon fiber and plastic tupperware container.
Even with a few little hiccups, it was still faster than driving and while charging money for everything seems tight,
I guess that's capitalism and the whole flight was just over $100. Anyway, just bring
your own entertainment and snacks, although be careful
with the liquids and how heavy your carry-on is as Jetstar do police it like a hawk.
A shout-out to my home city of Wollongong, which you can see now as we flew over the coast in preparation to land into Sydney
Are the topic of my newfound positivity and as a belated Happy New Year's gift
I'm giving away and medium sized Qantas business pajamas to a subscriber. Simply reply below with (Jetstar Yarstar) in brackets, and yes that's now a patented term, and
30 days after this video is published
I'll randomly select a winner. Full details are in the video description below. If you enjoyed the video
Don't forget to subscribe and click the thumbs up button.
Check out my channel for other aviation videos including Jetstar business class in this very aircraft and follow me on Instagram and Facebook
Thanks again for watching. See you another time