Time to head home from Melbourne on our $20 tickets! We only have carry-on baggage at a limit of 7kgs, so there wasn’t much shopping done, but we had a great time visiting Chloe, eating at Flower Drum Restaurant and our hotel stay at The Grand Chancellor Hotel was lovely! How does one get $20 fares? Read on!

It was the thunderstorm that suddenly broke over Melbourne on our way to the airport that made us slightly nervous whether we would make our fight. While on the bus, the traffic came to a standstill. Then I realised if the cars and busses aren’t moving from the heavy rain, I doubted our flight would be on time!

I was correct and while we arrived just on time, our flight inbound was a little delayed so we had plenty of time to get through security and have a quick pit stop at the bar.

We had a maximum carry on allowance of 7kgs, I test my bag and I am slightly over. I throw my small toiletries case into Jens carry on and viola, I am under. Jetstar have a strict carry on allowance with staff known as Cabin Baggage Officer routinely weighing all passengers bags at the waiting departure gate.

One thing I am not a fan of at Melbourne’s Terminal 4, which services the Jetstar flights, is the facrt there are no aerobridges. Thank goodness the rain had stopped!

The aircraft we are flying on today is a 12.5 year old Airbus a321-232. Jetstar operate eight a321’s in two versions. Version one seats 220 people, the second seats 230 people. Todays aircraft is the second seating a whopping 230 passengers. I am sure this is the same aircraft I flew some 11 years ago between Darwin and Denpasar (Bali)….

Review: Jetstar Airways – Darwin to Denpasar (Bali) Economy Class

Seating 230 passengers does cause it to be a rather long plane with a tight configuration. Boarding is made from both the front and back of the aircraft to make it a little quicker.

Seatguru.com states the seat pitch is a mere 28″ which is a pretty tight fit, and the seats are arranged is a standard 3-3 configuration. There is no inflight entertainment on the Jetstar narrow body jets so we flick through the menu.

Generally the a321s are used on short – medium haul international flights on the Jetstar network. This is evident with the buy-on-board menus showing meals available for international flights. I could have gone for one of those mac and cheese bowls!

We order a tasting plate each – wine with either cheese and crackers and olives or salami sticks. Although a little higher than if we bought these from the supermarket, at $15, I suppose it’s not too bad since we have only paid $20 for the airfare!

Jen goes for the olives and I the salami sticks, we both have a white wine and its enough to ‘entertain’ us on this short flight.

My tips for getting great sale fares are:

• Sign up for airlines emails.
• As soon as you see an awesome deal, try and find flights then and there – don’t wait!
• Be flexible with your dates and times – it’s highly unlikely you will get a great deal on a Friday night returning a Sunday afternoon – even less likely over public or school holidays!
• If its a short trip – just take carry-on and save on those ancillary charges.

We had such a great little trip to Melbourne. When we got home we found $39 tickets each way to the Gold Coast! We jumped online, grabbed some tickets and now have another mini break booked for mid year. Get out there and travel!

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MattySomewhere paid for the tickets independently. Some links in this post may serve as affiliate links where MattySomewhere may earn a very small commission at no extra cost to you.