Bali and Gold Coast on repeat: Jetstar Sydney after two years, the layover life on the leisure routes and the burnout nobody talks about
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#1 Jetstar Sydney, two years, and I want to write about something that does not fit the usual layover thread: what it is like when the layover is somewhere amazing and it is the same somewhere amazing every week.
The flying
Jetstar is Qantas Group's low cost carrier. From Sydney: the domestic trunk (Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns) on the A320s, and the international leisure on the 787s: Bali, Phuket, Tokyo, Osaka, Honolulu, Fiji, Queenstown. Full cabins, buy on board service, a young crew, sector pay style structure with a solid Australian award underneath it.
Bali on repeat
My first Bali layover I cried a little in the hotel pool because I was being paid to be in Bali. My fifteenth Bali layover I did laundry and watched Netflix in the room. Somewhere between those two is the truth about leisure flying: the place stops being a place and becomes a hotel you know. That is not a complaint. It is a warning for the people who think the layover will stay magical. It becomes work travel, and work travel to Bali is still better than work travel to a business park, but it is work travel.
What I do now
I have a Bali list and I do one thing off it per layover. A warung I have not tried, a temple, a beach on the other side, a surf lesson, a day of nothing on purpose. It keeps the place a place. The crew who do the same three bars every layover burn out on Bali, which is a sentence that sounds absurd and is true.
The burnout
Here is the part nobody talks about. Leisure flying is emotionally tiring in a specific way. Every passenger is on the best day of their year or the worst, and both need managing. The Bali flight out is 250 people at the start of their holiday and the Bali flight home is 250 people sunburned, sad, and sometimes still drunk. The Gold Coast flights are schoolies week and hens and stag groups. Two years of that and the smile takes effort. The senior crew say it comes and goes. I am in a going phase.
What helps
Bidding a mix, not just the international. A month of Bali and Phuket sounds like a dream and is exhausting. A month of Melbourne turns with one Bali in it is balanced. Also: not drinking on layovers, which I resisted for a year and which changed everything. And the crew, who are the best part, and who all understand the sentence 'I am tired of Bali' without judging.
Money
Fine for Sydney if you share a flat. Not great. The domestic turns pay less than the international with the allowances, so the crew who need money chase the 787 and then burn out faster. There is no clean answer to that.
Would I recommend it
Yes, for a few years, for a young person in Australia who wants to fly and see the region. The Qantas Group thing is real: there are pathways to mainline and to long haul. But go in knowing the layover becomes a place you work, not a place you visit, and plan for that from the first week.
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#2 Virgin Australia Sydney, and 'tired of Bali' is a sentence every leisure crew in this country has said and every non crew has laughed at. The list per layover is a good trick. I do the same with Fiji.
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#3 Qantas Brisbane domestic, and the mix point is the one I would underline for the young crew: all international is not a prize, it is a fast route to the going phase. The senior crew know this and bid a balance on purpose.
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#4 Qantas domestic, six years, kids, and I read this thinking about my colleague who moved to Jetstar international for the allowances at 24 and came back to domestic at 27 saying almost exactly this. It comes and goes. You are in a going phase. It will come back.
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#6 Air New Zealand, and the Pacific island routes are our version. Rarotonga on repeat. The first time is paradise. The twentieth time the hotel wifi is the highlight. Same lesson, different ocean.
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#7 Perth based, and the Bali flight from Perth is three and a half hours, so we do it as a turn sometimes, which means Bali with no layover at all. That is the version that really breaks the magic.
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#8 Also Perth, and I want to add: the not drinking on layovers thing is the single change that separates the crew who last five years from the ones who last two. It is not a moral point. It is a sleep point.