Low-cost long-haul to Asia’s island city-state
Back in 2023, shortly after a family trip to the UK, I was off again on a tightly budgeted little Southeast Asian jaunt, this time with a good friend. Booking in late August for a January departure, Jetstar’s MEL-SIN route was the cheapest option from Australia’s east coast to anywhere in Southeast Asia, with the exception of Bali, and so we planned an itinerary starting in Singapore, including a few nights in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and finishing in Kuala Lumpur, to make use of AirAsia X’s cheap fares back to Melbourne.
| Flight Details | |
|---|---|
| Airline | Virgin Australia |
| Aircraft Type | Boeing 737-800 |
| Registration | VH-VUH |
| Route | Hobart to Melbourne Tullamarine |
| Flight Number | VA1313 |
| Date | 13/01/2023 |
Heading out the front door just past five am, we got a lift to Hobart Airport for our first flight of the day, a short hop up to Melbourne Tullamarine. Our ride, a 2006-built Boeing 737-800, VH-VUH, had started life with Virgin Blue, and spent six years as ZK-PBI in New Zealand with Pacific Blue and Virgin Australia. I noted that my seat had a broken headrest, probably as the aircraft retained its original seating at the time, not being refurbished until June 2024, according to planespotters.net.
With an eight-hour layover ahead of us, we picked up our bags and spent the morning with my friend’s uncle, stopping at The Fat Spatula in Carlton for some brunch galettes, before a short beach walk and a milkshake at Cowderoy’s Dairy down in St Kilda.
| Flight Details | |
|---|---|
| Airline | Jetstar |
| Aircraft Type | Boeing 787-8 |
| Registration | VH-VKA |
| Route | Melbourne Tullamarine to Singapore Changi |
| Flight Number | JQ7 |
| Date | 13/01/2023 |
Heading back to the airport for midday, we found a particularly long line at Jetstar’s terminal two check-in, taking us just over 45 minutes to make our way to the front. Security and border force behind us, we had a two-hour wait before boarding began at 3 pm, having been delayed due to late crew.
Having splashed out on Jetstar’s now-discontinued Starter Max fare bundle, we picked seats in the front economy cabin, with row 11 providing an excellent wing and engine view. This being my first flight on a Dreamliner, I was pretty impressed with the enormous windows, with plenty of space to set up my GoPro (although I can’t find the footage anywhere, so that video must have fallen victim to my corrupted SD card).
Coincidentally, @christians_aviation photographed our departure and sent me some great pictures, including the main image at the top of this trip report. Take-off was smooth, and the Asia-based crew came round with cups of (warm) water for everyone before beginning the first meal service an hour into the flight. Having pre-selected our meals included in our fare bundle during booking, my butter chicken curry and my friend’s mac and cheese were served first, before the buy-on-board trolley was wheeled down the aisle. I found the meal to be a bit plain, with little flavour, but it was filling.
The seat was comfortable enough for an LCC, with a few degrees of recline despite the bulkhead behind us. We had paid the $10 fee during booking for IFE access, though the selection wasn’t great, and we both had content downloaded on our own devices, so we didn’t get much use out of it. While the seatback included a USB-A charging port, the universal power outlet under the seat was only usable intermittently.
With two toilets each between the mid and rear cabin and at the rear of the aircraft, the sole toilet for the front half of economy was situated behind our seats, with a constant line throughout the flight. While it wasn’t awful for our evening trip up to Singapore, I would probably avoid the front cabin on a night-time flight for this reason.
The rest of the flight was uneventful other than a little turbulence over central Australia, and we touched down at Changi on time, just past 8 pm. Passing through immigration took a matter of seconds thanks to Singapore’s digital arrival card we had completed beforehand, and our bags appeared on the carousel within minutes. After a quick look around the Changi Jewel, as this was my friend’s first time in Singapore, we got a taxi into the city and checked into our hotel for the next five nights.
I’m hoping to find some time over the summer to start tackling the backlog of trip reports I have to write, so you can expect the other parts of this January 2023 trip in the coming weeks. This includes a short hop on Vietnam Airlines’ 787-10, and a pretty grim overnight on an AirAsia X A330-300. As always, the best way to make sure you don’t miss out on these is to follow me on Instagram by clicking on the footer below!