To the Harbour City and back on Jetstar’s A321
Late last month, I finally got to try out the Airbus A320’s biggest sibling, the Airbus A321-200, with Jetstar return to Sydney.
| Flight Details | |
|---|---|
| Airline | QantasLink |
| Aircraft Type | Boeing 717-200 |
| Registration | VH-NXE |
| Route | Hobart to Melbourne Tullamarine |
| Flight Number | QF1550 |
| Date | 04/02/2022 |
Upon checking in at Hobart Airport, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Jetstar still issue proper card boarding passes, unlike the flimsy paper ones you tend to get with Qantas. Unfortunately we were departing from HBA’s cramped gate 6, with no view of the tarmac, and it ended up getting a bit pokey with almost a full 220 passengers packed in waiting for departure.
Boarding took quite some time, as a number of passengers hadn’t had their bags weighed prior to the boarding call, holding everyone else up, but eventually we were settled into row 28 of Jetstar’s second newest Airbus A321-200, 4.5 year old VH-VWQ. After a 10 minute wait on the tarmac, we pushed back and taxied out for takeoff from RWY 30.
Not long before reaching our cruising altitude of 35,000ft the crew began the service, and, as the booking had been made through Qantas we were entitled to ten dollars of food off Jetstar’s buy-on-board menu. The ham and cheese toastie wasn’t too bad for something heated in an aircraft oven, though, whether it was worth ten whole dollars is debatable.
The rest of the flight passed fairly quickly, and we were soon descending into Sydney Kingsford Smith’s Runway 16R, with some excellent, if a little hazy, views of the CBD and Sydney Harbour on final approach.
After an exceptionally smooth, almost unnoticeable touchdown, we began our round to the Jetstar pier at Sydney’s Domestic Terminal 2. Weirdly, the first aircraft to land after us was the same that landed directly after me in Melbourne back in May, Olympus Airways Boeing 757-200 SX-APX, one of the last 757s operating in Australia and NZ.
Overall, a pretty good experience, the crew were friendly and helpful. I feel like Jetstar really aren’t quite as bad as their reputation, especially when compared to Rex, a supposed full service carrier.