• expired

Jetstar + JS Asia: Melbourne to Penang via Singapore Return fr $238 (Fly Jan-Jun), Penang Hotel fr $80/Night @ Beat That Flight

1110

I can't work this out. A loss-leader or a weird promo, but for some reason, Penang is really cheap. Like SYD-MEL return cheap on some airlines! It is Jetstar, and it is via Singapore. But my goodness this is cheap. And quite a range of dates too. I've tried to find as many as I could under $300, which as it turns out I had some time on my Saturday night while looking after my baby and watching Clone Wars. So there's that.

Anyway, some sample dates below. All flights are via Singapore and include 7kg carry-on luggage. Long haul flight is on a 787 Drealiner, and the local Jetstar Asia is an Airbus A320.

Some of the dates include quick turnarounds in Singapore, others have up to 22 hours to kill, so you could even have a day/night in Singapore to explore. Don't forget to search for a hotel - I can recommend the Wink Hostel on Mosque Street.

In Penang, I've found a discounted 5-star hotel - the Evergreen Laurel Hotel Penang, from $80 a night, which seems pretty awesome.


Melbourne to Penang

Dates: 30 Jan 24 - 31 Aug 24

Cheapest found : $238 return


You can follow us at Beat That Flight for more deals, error fares, promos and sales, on Youtube, on Facebook, or on Google News.

Check out all the latest Hotels Coupons & Deals

Related Stores

Beat That Flight
Beat That Flight
Third-Party
Evergreen Hotels
Evergreen Hotels
Jetstar Airways
Jetstar Airways

closed Comments

  • Worth skiplagging for Singapore?

    • +17

      Well if you do that, just get a one way ticket to Penang (dropping the final leg) and a one way from SIN back to MEL. Otherwise once you miss that leg to Penang they'll cancel the rest of your ticket.

      • Great advice, thank you!

    • Looking at this since parents want to travel to sg as well. Would like to know how many times skiplagging will just result in them blacklisting you.

      • +1

        Depends on the airline.

      • +1

        Do a cover story. call them to cancel/go to the desk, rather than just not getting on.

      • Be very careful with this. I tried it with air Asia, I spoke to them on the chat and got confirmation that it was ok, so I did it, but then they cancelled my ticket and refused to let me board. I had to wait six hours at the airport and buy another ticket at triple the price. They were awful.

        • +2

          shh, don't let qantas know more ways to screw customers

          • +4

            @Headless:

            Be very careful with this. I tried it with air Asia, I spoke to them…

            This is where you went wrong. That's like asking the cops if it's ok to speed. No airline will approve of such behaviour. The idea is to do it on a one way flight so they then have no power to ruin your return leg.

    • There are mega cheap flights to and from Singapore on Jetstar currently too, might work out cheaper going direct depending on your dates

  • +1

    Are the links working for you guys?

    • +1

      They are for me, but I'm OP :) Have heard of an issue in Chrome where it doesn't show the right ports - clearing cookies/cache or opening in an incognito window seems to fix that.

  • +9

    Nothing is worth Jetstar..specially if you live in Melbourne and have to travel an hour or two to get to the airport and then flight gets cancelled ..not notification no warning .. thats a 200 dollar Uber ride one way or a 50 dollar bus ride plus the pass getting charged.. Jetstar..heck no

    • +6

      Historically I'd agree, but the last couple of months, Jetstar has had a lower cancellation rate than Qantas or Virgin - for domestic flights at least.

      • +1

        I shall wait and see some reports ..But my flights has been cancelled.. not rescheduled .. 3 times with no warnings at all post Covid with their cheap fares.. I for one call thrice is enough ..Their marketting division is doing way better than their operations I guess.. even after the public outcry they keep coming up with cheap fares and keep failing

        • Is that domestic or international?

          I've had 6 domestic flights with Jetstar this year, all delayed (one cancelled).
          4 international flights with Jetstar this year, no delays or cancellations.

          YMMV

      • That doesn't mean much when you're comparing with other terrible airlines…
        It's a step towards the right direction and hopefully they keep it up to rebuild trust.

        • +1

          I never compared it to any airlines ..terrible or not .. neither did I say they are terrible.. I have stated my experience and if you as a consumer are okay to spend money go to the airport to be told your flight is cancelled and you spend money to go back home spending the same amount ..please by all means dip in ..take a chance..I did that three times ..for me thats enough .. you can help them rebuild trust .. they have lost mine

          • +1

            @shaidas: Hey, I agree with you. I was replying to the post above yours

      • +2

        jetstar's reputation is so poor it will take much longer than a couple of months. Maybe in a couple of years.
        though the negative stories haven't stopped yet.

    • -3

      You mean, you don't have travel insurance?

      • +2

        Travel insurance reimburses the air line fees..at times.. mostly they cosy out of it ..what travel insurance company do you use since you raised the question ?

      • Moreover Jetstar is very happy to reimburse the costs after cancelling the flights so where does insurance come in ?

      • I'd love to know which insurance you're getting as I've never seen any reimburse cancelled flights as it's usually in a clause that it's not covered. Also Jetstar reimburses

  • What is the trick to finding the cheap fares with different dates?

    • +3

      Trial and error? The airlines have certain dates at various fares. No trick, I just try a few and then when I find some cheapish dates I do variations of those by changing the start/end dates.

      Otherwise, click one above that's close to what you want, and wait 30 seconds - a grid will appear and may give an indication of cheap dates around the date you chose.

  • +5

    Jetstar has rescheduled my flights two times and cancelled the flight on my return journey. Had to alter all my bookings cos of the fight change.
    I think it's better to book through MAS or SIN airline for some peace of mind.

  • What does a flight like this usually cost on average these days?

  • +1

    If Jetstar cancels the flight, will they book the next available flight free of additional charge?

    • Replying cause i want to know too, I bought flights to Japan next year Feb 14 through them and now i'm worried lol

      • +3

        Did for us. Melb to Tokyo, cancelled flight from Cairns to Tokyo. Dumped us in hotel for the night and bundled us on the next days flight.

    • +1

      will they book the next available flight free of additional charge?

      Yes but the problem is the the next available flight could be a day or two away which is very inconvenient for most people.

      • Thanks, now I'm reassured 😊

  • Gone. I think expedia has fixedthe issue

  • +1

    Didn't work for me on the jetstar website, price goes back up when it gets to the payment page

    • +1

      These prices are generally via online travel agencies, rather than direct through Jetstar. If you follow the links above it'll take you to them.

  • +1

    Why are review really bad for mytrip.com, budgetair, etc. Check https://www.productreview.com.au/, all around 1.6 stars and lots of cancellations with bad refund conditions.
    Anyone actually took a trip with these guys before without being cancelled? Haha..maybe book Scoot could be safer or book direct but price is not that cheap.
    Book direct with Jetstar is $430 vs $275.

    • +6

      Yeah, I have! Mytrip, gotogate, kiwi. Not budgetair as far as I remember. All the OTAs make their money by selling cheap tickets, but then unfortuantely having kinda crappy customer service and upsells when things go wrong, with hidden fees and the like. So if you're careful and read and double check everything, all goes smoothly and you don't even remember who you booked through, just the airline name. If you need to change something ,that's when it's a nightmare. And thus the reviews for them :(

      Hope that helps!

      • K thanks

      • +3

        +1 this comment. I’ve booked via kiwi a couple of times with nice promos and had no issues. They try and upsell you everything as you make the booking but you can just ignore all the add ons (baggage, seat selection, insurance, car rentals, etc.)

        Then you just show up at the airport, flash your passport at check-in and there are no problems. As OP suggested, it would likely be a bit nightmarey if you needed to make a change or a cancellation, hence the bad reviews. People only tend to leave negative reviews - not positive ones. When have you ever gotten off a seamless flight and felt the need to go to productreview.com.au and leave a glowing review about the middle man?

        The people who have been wronged probably didn’t read t&cs properly and couldn’t get a refund, or customer service was a bit shit or unforgiving. That’s why you’re getting it so cheap though.

    • Probably covid didn't help.

      But mytrip I use the most. If you book through some aggregators like I want that flight with MasterCard you get 5% off the ticket price.

      Never had issues with booking. But they try and sell you everything. Need to not pick anything. When seats come up don't pick seats etc. Eventually you will get to the end and pay the price shown on the aggregator.

  • I've tried to book twice and when it goes to process the payment it says unfortunately the price has increased.
    Jib

  • +6

    Penang is a great destination. Georgetown is excellent. You can also get a ferry to Langkawi, and spend some time there as well as Penang.

    If this was a deal from GC or Bris I’d be jumping on it.

    • +4

      Agree Penang is great, love the Chinese Malay food in the region some of the best in Asia !!!

      • +1

        Penang is great, love the Chinese Malay food in the region some of the best in the world !!!

        FTFY

    • +2

      and make it a grand tour, travel up to Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Pangan.

      • +4

        and make it a grand tour, travel up to Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Pangan

        Yeah this is always my strategy. Find the cheapest flight out of Australia to anywhere in South East Asia, then fly on from there because it's so much cheaper.
        As a general rule it's usually (but not always) one of these: Scoot to SG, Air Asia to KL or Jestar to Phuket or Saigon.

    • +1

      I love Georgetown.

      The food, the shops, the mosque, the street art, the architecture, the mix of people (backpackers, local ethnicities, tour boat tourists, Malaysian tourists, typically older Englishmen taking pictures of buildings, Australians and others with ww2 connections).

      Langkawi; tax free, no hawkers, and no drunken louts. Perfect.

      • Yeah I really enjoyed Georgetown, amazing food, great buildings and street art. Actually this deal has inspired me to start planning a Malaysia trip.

      • Actually preferred Penang over Langkawi! Langkawi definitely has more to do but the food is way better in Penang and Georgetown is charming. Best part is Malaysia is still affordable. I've noticed prices in some Asian countries have gone up so much recently.

      • +1

        I spent a few days there last month after not having been threre for 20 years and absolutely loved it all over again. Next time I head to Malaysia George Town will be high on my list.

  • +3

    One of the best food destinations in the world. Some great hotels too; the E&O is like Raffles by the sea but at less than half the price.
    Did the return trip on Jetstar earlier this year and it was a doddle except for one thing; at the second of two bag inspections my aftershave was confiscated, in spite of the fact that it was less than 100ml and in a transparent bathroom bag.
    The inspector took it out of the bag, sniffed it and told me that it had to be in a separate bag, in spite of the fact it had already been inspected. Next time I will pack it in the luggage.

    • Welcome back to Australia!

    • Confiscated in which airport?

      • +1

        Singapore. Was very unhappy

  • Looking at one of these, adding baggage was an extra $244. So maybe that’s why it is so cheap b

    • But I think it would've been an extra $244 for baggage anyway even if the base fare was higher.

  • Why these flights wont show the same fare on google flights?

    • +1

      Some reports above of this fare being unbookable. The fare is possibly an IT error. Not a single report yet of anyone successfully booking this fare.

  • They now redirrect at payment to the new price of over $400 ;(
    Any way around this?
    Im looking to travel for over a month!

  • Any deals from Sydney to Penang?

  • How can we book the premium Jetstar packages?

    Seems no luggage/meal option only.

  • Good luck to whoever gets them! I've tried booking two different dates via mytrip. After processing payment price has increased to >$500

  • +2

    Gone/fixed, prices now updating to >$500pp return.

  • +1

    It’s a good discount prices but not something you can’t get on certain random non peak seasons on AirAsia.

  • I can fly here then drive to kl correct?

    • Or take the electric train from Butterworth to KL

      • sounds like a better idea

        • +1

          My last trip I took the train KL to Butterworth and enjoyed the journey, just caught a Grab from Butterworth to Penang.

          • +1

            @oldrocker: The train trip to or from Penang is great, comparable in time and cost to flying and a lot more convenient.
            And at the Butterworth end the ferry to the island costs RM1.20!

Login or Join to leave a comment