More Asia Travel
October 28th, 2005 | Published in travel | 12 Comments
I like Jetstar Asia. I like them a lot. They are the only budget carrier I have the fuzzies for (or indeed the only carrier, though I like Gulf for its hot Swedish stewardesses), maybe because they fly to destinations I want to go to (instead of Krabi, or Hat Yai, or.. I don’t know where else I don’t want to go), and are constantly opening new travel possibilities. The period between August and October alone already saw them announcing new routes to Kolkata, Bangalore, Phuket � in addition to already flying the ‘healthy’ routes of Bangkok, Hong Kong, Taipei.
Now they fly to Yangon, Myanmar, too, effectively putting to rest all my grandiose plans about land and sea travel into Burma (yes, I spend my ’study’ time studying more of travel possiblities) so as to avoid the dreadfully expensive SilkAir flights. At S$338 return (>$400 with taxes factored in), Southeast Asia really isn’t the cheapest place to go to, for assorted reasons. Yet people here often confuse proximity for affordability, and expect to go to Cambodia for $100 or Myanmar for $150. Phnom Penh and Yangon are not Bangkok, not yet. But when they are, you can bet on the last dime in my wallet (the one reserved for Beer Lao) that I will be scurrying out of these places so as to avoid the package tour (Chinatown travel agents) crowd.
Jetstar is my favourite budget carrier also for one simpler reason: they do not employ the same gimmicks as the other carriers. AirAsia and Tiger can and will announce many rock-bottom prices, but you will never find them (even for someone like me who is online all the time, and online and surfing for travel news most of the time). Jetstar simply says they fly to Kolkata for $198 one way, and Bangkok for $30 one way, possibly cheaper Tuesdays-Thursdays. And you will find these tickets. Even after adding in the taxes, you could hardly be “shocked” about anything. Have I mentioned they have begun flying to India, and are working on more Indian routes? No reason not to love them. Jetstar, if you’re reading this, this blogger is waiting to heartily endorse you for the very cheap price of Bangkok return tickets twice a year for two, and tickets for two to all your Indian destinations once or twice a year.
To ‘upsize’ the endorsement, I will even pose in your dreadful uniform for the low, low price of flights and accommodation to Hong Kong and Taipei. (I sometimes say budget carriers can afford to pass on their savings to us by scrimping on proper uniform design, and that’s fine by me.)
But my girlfriend will tell you I like Jetstar over the other budget airlines for the superficial reason that they don’t have a godawful bright red or Tiger-striped, unintuitive website. Instead they have nice solid colours, OK typography, and a layout and checkout process that makes sense. And you know, she’s always right.
In other budget travel news, Tiger will fly to Da Nang (Vietnam) from Singapore. Yay!
October 29th, 2005 at 2:38 am (#)
in aus, i think virgin blue is slightly better than jetstair airways in terms of comfort. the seats in jetstar is horrendously small. not big enough for my fat arse. lol
October 29th, 2005 at 4:28 am (#)
Yah, in aus I like virgin blue. =) jetstar here has very nice seats though. Big enough for me. We should be same size right?
October 29th, 2005 at 6:15 am (#)
Maybe a possibly flawed study revealed that “Asians” have smaller butts than their caucasian counterparts. But I like the leather seats though.
October 29th, 2005 at 8:00 am (#)
no i have a bigger arse than you i believe.. haha.. child bearing ass what to do.. =P
October 30th, 2005 at 1:26 am (#)
We are going on an adventure in early-mid 2006 aren’t we not?
October 30th, 2005 at 6:43 pm (#)
Or maybe you are just cheap?
October 30th, 2005 at 7:09 pm (#)
Quite possibly maybe.
October 31st, 2005 at 10:41 am (#)
I think you have what is known as the ‘Must Travel’ disease. Everything else is restlessness and you need to know when’s ur next trip to keep you going…..
This disease though no uncommon to man, is not easily curable… It is addictive you see… many more years to go. =)
October 31st, 2005 at 10:59 am (#)
Jetstar only has our (if i am not wrong), only commerical female pilot!
October 31st, 2005 at 11:02 am (#)
jetstar is cheaper for Sydney to Melb by S$20 – S$50 depending on season. i flied jet in april. Very cool service. And like what the author wrote – no gimmicks. If I am not wrong again…Virgin has loyalty program so cost is factored in.
July 13th, 2006 at 5:43 pm (#)
well I wish I could say that I have the same happy “feelings” for Jetstar Asia. I have flown them many times. However, I wanted to make a change a name to a ticket (same ticket, same seat, same flight, same date) and they wanted to charge me a “fare difference” on top of the “change fee”. When I asked them what it the purpose of the fare difference fee, their response was a polite “those are the rules”. When I asked for further clarification, I got none.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:09 am (#)
Budget airlines are not good if there is a possibility you might make any changes. In that way, that is the shortcoming of the low cost airline model. It is a standard procedure, rule, if you will, across all budget and low cost airlines, that if changes in date or name are to be changed an administrative charge will be levied on top of any existing changes in ‘fare difference’, that is, the difference in fare between the date of booking, and any increase in fee during the time the new changes are made… oh well.