Finally to wrap things up, the return flight home on Jetstar Asia. It was the standard short-haul budget flight on Jetstar Asia and service was even pretty good! However the down side was that I was allocated row 29 on the A320 (even when during web check-in) and there were no other rows available. The last 4 rows have really tight seat pitch (can refer to my previous reports) and there was no way I can shift to other rows as the flight was almost completely full! Well, at least I was not at row 30.
15 July 2012
Jetstar Asia
3K 516
Bangkok (BKK) - Singapore (SIN)
A320
9V-JSG
Economy Class
Departure was from Gate G4.
9V-JSG will be the workhorse for today's flight.
Jetstar boarding pass. My sequence number was already 167 when checking in slightly more than an hour before departure!
Boarded by rows. Rushed to board to find storage in the bins near my seat as the overhead bins above Rows 28-30 are not available for luggage storage due to the storage of the emergency life raft and medical equipments. 4 cabin crew and 2 pilots on this flight. They were a mix of nationalities, with the captain from Oz, a Japanese 1st officer, 2 Japanese cabin crew (a male and a female), a Singaporean female crew and a Myanmese (I think) female crew-in-charge. Wow, that is a lot of Japanese crew on a flight not bound for Japan! Guess they are mainly hired to operate the SIN-TPE/MNL-KIX flights, with the occasional regional routes.
Jetstar seats.
Really tight seat pitch at Row 29. My knees were almost touching the seat in front! Try to avoid at all costs!
The stuff in seat pocket.
Boarding in progress. Cabin crew were very actively guiding passengers to seats and helping in storage of carry-ons, unlike many other carriers where the crew merely gave mental/eye support! Great job by Jetstar here! With the crews' effort, the cabin filled up pretty fast and everyone settled down in no-time. In fact, all passengers had boarded and doors closed even before the ramp guys had finished loading the luggage!
Some interesting carriers: Tui Airlines Belgium B763 with winglets.
According to the Jetstar Asia magazine, there is supposed to be new dishes offered for the hot meals. But this was not stated in the menu.
Cabin crew dishing out the pre-ordered hot meals (orders were taken prior to takeoff) and conducting the BOB service. Quite a number of ad-hoc orders for hot meals on this flight as the crew were scurrying back and forth from the galley with the mains. Crew also attended to call buttons promptly and service was generally efficient and friendly.
Cruising...
Very soon, the captain came on with the arrival announcement. Even with the "earlier than usual" landing preparations, it was still conducted halfway through the descent, much later than SQ or Scoot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKA4gXx55Pw
Descending along the eastern coast of Malaysia.
Circled for a while before approaching the runway from the north.
Landing on Rwy20R. Even though the final approach was kinda unstable with gusty winds, touchdown was very smooth! One of my smoothest touchdown on an A320 till date. Landed 10min late mainly due to the delays at BKK and Changi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY8LmYpv238
2 Xiamen Airlines B737s at Changi.
Parked at C11, just a hop over to immigration.
Another satisfactory flight with Jetstar, apart from the horrible legroom. Jetstar generally performs well for its inflight service and I would rate them higher than the other LCC carriers. As for Scoot, as it is still rather new, probably it would need some time for the airline to gradually pick up the ropes but for the short hop to BKK, they are a rather decent alternative too.
My upcoming comfirmed flights:
SQ Economy SIN-MLE-SIN
JQ Business SIN-PEK
SQ Business PEK-SIN
Does Scoot board the aircraft following Door 1 for ScootBiz and Door 2 for the rest of Economy like BigBro SQ? I imagine rows 21 to 24 using door 1 as well but just wanted to confirm.
Does Scoot board the aircraft following Door 1 for ScootBiz and Door 2 for the rest of Economy like BigBro SQ? I imagine rows 21 to 24 using door 1 as well but just wanted to confirm.
From memory I think everyone used Door 2 for SIN-OOL on my flight awhile back
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