Above: Jetstar’s Business Class offering from Auckland to Singapore.
Sudan?
Today I’m off on my Sudan trip. Sounds crazy? I’ve heard so much about Sudanese hospitality so I wanted to give it a try. I had to time this trip so as to avoid their harsh summers but also avoid the windy season on the coast so I can fit in some diving. There’s only Feb/Mar that kinda fits that criteria.
Jetstarring to Singapore and then KL
I’m travelling through Malaysia to see family, as usual. I was lucky enough to snap up a ticket on Jetstar AKL-SIN-KUL during a sale. The economy ticket was about NZD400 and if one adds on luggage and meals, it was only about NZD150 more to fly in their Business Class. The only thing that ruined this booking was a reschedule of the shorthaul flight which meant the 2h connection in Singapore became about 4h. Not so good with the 5h time difference.
With an 1130 departure, I pretty much woke up, showered and had breakfast before leaving the house but all at a relaxed pace. The rush hour was nearly over. I arrived to the airport 1h45 before the flight to find the check-in area deserted (and was passenger #176 to have checked in).
The Jetstar ticket allowed me 30kg of checked-in luggage plus 20kg of hand-carried! There’s no way I can carry all that without a porter! But I did take about 26kg of checked baggage consisting of old travel enlarged photos (framed and canvas prints) for the apartment in Kuching. They’re not as nice as the newer ones that I have in Auckland, having gotten better and enhancing the photos for enlargement.
Having had no queues at check-in, I was also met with the same at immigration and security. Way to go! I had an hour to kill before boarding. I went up to the ramp area and there was not a single seat that wasn’t part of an eatery; all the public seating was further back towards immigration. Auckland Airport kids itself as being quite good. I reckon they believe in continuous improvement, never complemented by great leaps or significant capital investment. For the last 20+ years, there is always works of some kind going on and the place is pokey rather than spacious.
Onboard, the aircraft seating was what I’d call a domestic-style business class; a little better than Premium Economy on some airlines. The seats were wider than cattle-class (but narrower than business class on most B737/A320) and the pitch was a little better than economy. The crew were pleasant and the meals were OK … one was better than economy class on a full-service airline and the second was far too light for a 10 hour flight. For the price, it was OK.