The only people I feel sorry for are those that would rather pay for a full service airline, but are forced to fly low cost due to it being their only option on the route they wish to take.

LCCs offer the opportunity to save money if you can put up with lower standards than full service airlines. I can pay $50 a night for a hotel room or $500. For $50 I can't complain if the carpets seen better days, the wall paper is peeling and there's no cable TV.

LCCs suit some people, not just those in flannelette shirts and tracksuits. Divide the $$$ saved by the length of the flight, "earnings" of $70+/hr are quite possible. Not bad money for sitting down reading the paper.

I have the choice of 3 LCC and 2 full service airlines (Singapore Airlines being one) on a route I wish to fly later this year. If I fly SIA the schedule is more convenient, we depart from the main terminal with all facilities vs budget with minimal, B777 with good leg room and inflight entertainment vs A320 high density seating with no IFE. Free meals, drinks, newspapers and magazines vs pay for your own. Superbly trained cabin crew, awards for inflight service vs min number legally required of low pay high turnover worked to death people.

But, as there are 4 of us and SIA are three times the price I think I know who I will be travelling on :( Will check last minute deals though might get lucky ;)

Buy a band aid, he (the person you have replied in the above to) has a pretty good point. As pay and conditions lower at an ever increasing rate, those intelligent and motivated people fresh out of University will look elsewhere for a career they view as rewarding. The only result that can come of this is a steady decline in the standard of candidates that apply for airline positions.

I made more money selling toasters at a harvey norman than I ever have flying an aircraft.

Must have sold a hell of a lot of toasters.

Mate,The mark up on Toasters is huge so he had a lot of room to move on them.

Gotta remember to haggle more when the missus wants me to buy a new toaster next time.At the same time he never did tell us what sort of aircraft he fly's.

Metroman,

Please consider this,starting your trip with a lousy flight and the thought of repeating it at the end of the holiday might just ruin your entire trip.:}

Half a Temazepam washed down with a G&T, a sweater, a blow-up neck-rest, an eye-mask and earplugs will get me anywhere pretty painlessly. :ok: .

Taillee, the medical profession strongly advise against mixing alcohol with any sleeping tablet style medication. This has been the cause of many behavioural problems encountered on aircraft. From the perspective of other passengers, JQ's reputation would only get worse.

Going Boeing,

Fair call.

My point was that these days, IMHO the only stand-out airlines (in any class) are the bad ones; there are a couple of stand-outs the other way but by and large, you pays yer money and you gets the same thing no matter what's on the tail; the bean-counters have, over decades, standardised everything at a reasonably low level to keep the investors happy :hmm: .

Hence, these days I don't really care who the carrier is, I just try to knock myself out as soon after departure as possible and sleep as long as I can :zzz: .

That way, the service can be as bad as you like, but I won't know about it. Just wake me at TOD.

Mind you, it's worth waking up for the in-flight calisthenics session on China Eastern!

Has anyone tried to ger a surfboard on a Jet* flight?
I am considering going to Indo for a surf trip however their website claims they do not take boards over 2 meters. A short board in Indo or Hawaii is about as useless as t!ts on a ball.
How strict are the check in staff if a few inches over? Or is back to gold old GA? But they dont fly out or here anymore.
:ugh:

Beer Bong, that is indeed the question we are waiting for and answer on.
If it Bali, I am directing traffic (with board coffins containing 3-5 boards) onto GA, and as always they are having no problems, just impacts rather than landings and full service with free Bintang opposed to buy it and pay a potential fortune for excess. The $100.00 fare difference is well worth the expense. I love GA. They are pleasantly confused and treat you very nicely.
As for Hawaii, nobody has been able to advise me accurately what is charged for a board coffin on JQ and what number of boards constitute a particular charge.
I have a bunch of crew there at the moment but most all are on the QF codeshare side of the aeroplane and should technically be afforded the 2 piece system and their normal QF Club and Gold/Platinum (yes many professional surfers are Golds and Platinums) baggage leeway.
I would suggest booking QF one way and qf on JQ in the other direction so you will be fed etc etc and get the 2 piece allowance and frantic flapper points if you are a member. It is not much dearer.
Will advise as the horror stories come in.
Best all
EWL

Beer Bong

It's no so much a question of check-in staff being lenient with a board over 2 metres but the issue of anything over 2 metres in length not fitting into the cans as the aircraft is containerised.

Check-in could turn a blind eye however when the bag chuckers go to load the board it just won't fit.

On the A330's the surfboards, bikes, skis and any other oversize item goes in the Bulk Hold. The Bulk Hold on these aircraft is quite large so anything a bit over 2m shouldn't be a problem. Now whether Jetstar make it a problem, that's another question.

Surfboards
 

I will be very surprised if J* accept long boards at all. This has been an issue on the domestic front as well. The A320's also have a large bulk hold however it is not allowed to be used as it is considered by occupational health and safety as unsuitable for use by the contract baggage handlers because they only use the siscor lift and containers and don't normally use a conveyor belt to access that hold. Maybe with Qantas baggage services handling the 330 turnarounds things will be different. Surprise me!!!

Miss B - most airlines including the rat I believe schedule at least one open pallet in place of 4 LD3s (LD2s on the 763) to surf based destinations such as Hawaii or Bali to accommodate boards. Either that or use the bulk hold. The same LOCO are doing the build on JQ flights so hopefully some sense prevails.

We even managed to convince SQ to do this with a Maldives competition and randomly organised group movement with great success.

It aint rocket science and the most important thing is to load an SSR SPEQ to advise the load planners the size and weight of unusual baggage so they can preplan the configuring of the cans and pallets.

Just don't let Management anywhere near airport ops.

Best all

EWL

Thanks for all the info Loco.

I aint no long boarder (yet).However J* say that your board ( <2 mt small wave board) is part of your 20KG alowance. fKnHell she will be a no duty free trip.

It will be interesting to see if they will take a 6'10 and what sort of spin JQ will put on if if they wont.

Given the destinations they wanna operate too, J* wil loose a lot of business given the restrictions.

Bong On

Rumour has it that at one of Australia's Golf classics the golfers were impressed with the fares they were given on J* but after they had paid the excess on their clubs and so on at the airport they might have as well got together and chartered their own aircraft.

This is the brave new world bought to you from your friendly Darth.It's called the Treasurer's airline in other words it's the airline we had to have.

... and no other airline on the planet has ever charged for excess baggage ...

:E :E :E :E

A friend of mine flew Ryan Air from Liverpool to Riga in Latvia because FR offered a GBP0.99 fare! With taxes it cost him & the Missus about AUD12.00 each for the return tirp which included checked baggage allowance (I forget how much).

Other pax weren't so lucky because at the airport they found out they received zero checked baggage allowance and had to pay 'excess' for whatever they checked in.

I don't know whether that applies to all Ryan Air routes or just some but I hope it's not a sign of the times to come down under! :eek: :eek: