After enjoying all the flavors that Sydney had offered for three days, we said goodbye to Sydney and embarked on our journey to the city that’s been named the most livable city in the world for 7 years in a row – Melbourne. We chose to travel with Jetstar – Australia, the popular low-cost airline. Not only is the price incredibly friendly – cheaper than trains or buses – but the travel time is also only 1 and a half hours (compared to approximately 10 hours by train or bus). This made our decision easy.

We chose to take the morning flight to Melbourne so that we would have time to explore the city on the same day. We decided to land at Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL), the main airport which is about 23 kilometers away from the city center. However, we had to be careful when purchasing our tickets because Melbourne has two airports, the other being Melbourne Avalon (AVV), which is a secondary airport located in Geelong, 60 kilometers away from the city center (although public transportation to Melbourne is available and tickets are usually cheaper than landing at Melbourne Tullamarine). When buying tickets on the Jetstar website, both airports are listed as “Melbourne”, so we had to choose the correct airport according to our desired destination.

Our flight’s details from Sydney to Melbourne are follows:

ROUTE              : Sydney (SYD) – Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL)
FLIGHT              : JQ507 – Jetstar Australia
AIRCRAFT          : AIRBUS 321-200
DATE                 : 16.06.2018
ETD                   : 08:25AM (GMT+10)
ETA                   : 10:00AM (GMT+10)
DURATION          : 1 HOURS 35 MINUTES
CABIN                : ECONOMY

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We started by arriving at Sydney Kingford Smith Airport – Domestic Terminal at 7 o’clock sharp, about half an hour before the flight took off.

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Since Jetstar is a low-cost airline, we had to do everything ourselves at the airport, starting from check-in, printing the boarding pass, printing and attaching luggage tags, and dropping off our bags at the automated machines. There were only a few staff members available at the counter to assist with luggage drop-off. However, if we had any questions about the process, we could always approach them for help, and they would gladly guide us.

The automatic check-in kiosk / boarding pass & baggage tag printer are all-in-one

Boarding pass and Baggage tag from automatic machine 🙂

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The baggage drop counters – It had only few staffs to assist the passengers

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After finished checking in and baggae drop-off processes, we passed through the security checkpoint.

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Today, our flight was boarding at gate – 52, it is not too far. 🚶🏻

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Our aircraft, A320-200 was parking and waiting us at the gate already.

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After waiting for a while, at around 7.45AM, the staff called us to board the plane. At first, I was confused as to why they called us so early, but later I realized that they probably wanted to allow enough time for passengers to check in their cabin luggage, which can be quite detailed. I saw many people being caught for exceeding the size or weight limit, and there was a weighing machine right there to check. Those who exceeded the limit had to pay extra according to the regulations, which were very strict !

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After that, we walked to the air gate bridge, but we didn’t board the plane at the bridge. We had to go down the stairs to the ground floor outside the building and walk up to the plane through the rear door.

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The seating arrangement was a standard 3-3 configuration, like most single-aisle aircraft. The legroom was quite narrow, and the seats were relatively cramped. Although the seats were padded slightly, it was still quite uncomfortable. But it didn’t matter because the flight was only for half an hour, and it was acceptable.

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After all the passengers had boarded, the plane quickly pushed back before schedule and headed to Melbourne.

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After the plane took off, flight attendants walked down the aisle to sell food, similar to regular low-cost airlines. However, there were only few passenger buy the food on-board. As for us, we were already full and just sat back for napping.

As the plane descended, the captain began to decrease altitude and prepare for landing at Melbourne – Tullamarine airport, arriving nearly 15 minutes ahead of schedule. 🙂

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After that, we entered the terminal building and walked to baggage claim belt number 2. It was a long walk to get there, maybe because the terminal we arrived at was for low-cost airlines, so it was unusually far.

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Upon we had picked up our luggage, we headed to the city to drop off our bags at the hotel and continue our trip. We decided to take the Skybus coach, which we could buy tickets for at the counter in front of the passenger terminal building (you can see it as you walk out of the building). The buses depart every 10 minutes during the daytime and take about 30 minutes to reach the Southern Cross Station, which is a central train station. We purchased a round-trip ticket for 18 AUD/trip, but we had to keep the ticket safely because we needed it to show when we returned.

Skybus’s ticket counters

Skybus’s coach from Melbourne airport (MEL) to city center

Interior of Skybus’s coach. It has luggage storage shelf and free Wi-fi

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Overall, we were quite satisfied with the services of this airline for short-haul flights. Although there were additional costs apart from the seat fare, the short flight duration made it not much of a necessity for us. The cost of the fare was relatively economical, safe, and punctual, which was what we needed. For those looking for affordable, fast, and on-time travel options between Sydney and Melbourne, this airline can be considered a good choice 🙂

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Written by : SHIPY SIWARIT TIASUWATTISETH
HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SHIPYSHIPDOTCOM