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Where did I fly on this flight?
Rex Boeing 737-800
Booking the Flight & Cost of the Flight
This flight was booked through the Rex website paying full fare. I paid $152, with seat selection costing about $10. Nowadays, an economy class flight between Adelaide to Melbourne costs between $89 (promo fare), $159 (saver fare) or $299 (flex fare). Business class fares are available between $349 (biz saver fare), $499 (biz fare) to $649 (biz plus fare). Rex's website is quite easy to navigate.
Operating Aircraft
This service was operated by VH-MFM, which at the time of the flight was Rex's latest Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The aircraft was eight years old when I flew on it. This is the 5184th Boeing 737NG produced, and the aircraft has two CFM56-7B26 engines. This aircraft has had a colourful operating history in its eight years of flying, first being flown by Jet Airways in India (as VT-JTA) from November 2014 until March 2019. Jet Airways collapsed the following month. Following the demise of Jet Airways, the aircraft was re-registered VT-TGF and went to Vistara in India and remained until August 2021 when Samoa Airways took ownership of the aircraft. The aircraft carried the registration 5W-TFL but it never flew with Samoa Airways. Rex took the aircraft up in September 2022 and still flies with Rex to this very day. VH-MFM was a pretty clean aircraft and had been well looked after. It did not have much visible cues that pointed to any
Cabin
VH-MFM features the Boeing Sky Interior, which at the time of the flight was Rex's only Boeing 737-800 aircraft with this. It looks quite nice indeed, especially with the mood lighting, which was adjusted occasionally by the flight attendants. This cabin was very clean and had been very well maintained.
Seating
For this service, I was assigned seat 4A. With the addition of VH-MFM, Rex has two slightly different seating configurations for their Boeing 737-800s (ex Virgin Australia aircraft and only having one row difference; 29- or 30-row aircraft) and one very different configuration. VH-MFM has the very different configuration. There are a total of 29 rows. This means that there are 170 seats in total. There are two rows (1-2) in business class in a 2-2 configuration (eight business class seats total), the seats are made from leather with a seat pitch of 37 inches and a seat width of 19.5 inches. These seats are supposed to be the same seats from the Jet Airways days. In economy class, all the seats are in rows 3-29. The 'Rextra Legroom' seats (rows 3 and the overwing exits), seats have a width of 17 inches and at least 32 inches of legroom. 'Extra charge' seats are in rows 4-11 and are the same dimensions as the rest of the standard economy class seats. Economy class seats are made of leather and are in a 3-3 configuration, featuring a seat pitch of 30 inches and a seat width of 17 inches. Just an important note here, the overwing exits on VH-MFM are rows 12 and 13, whereas they are rows 13 and 14 on the other Boeing 737-800s. Depending on the fare ticket booked some seats need payment to book as opposed to others. My fare ticket entitled free selection for seats in 15-29 (row 30 also appeared on the booking seat map and was free as well), $10 for an 'Extra charge' seat in rows 6-12, and $15 for a 'Rextra Legroom' seat. The economy class seat I found on VH-MFM was not bad, but in comparison to the other Boeing 737-800s the seat was not my preferred one, being quite thin and slimline with no real headrest of any kind on it. Legroom-wise, it was fine.
Inflight Customer Service
Rex flight attendants carried out the inflight service. On this flight, the flight attendants were all very happy and served passengers with outgoing attitudes. The flight attendants served us extremely well and were consistently polite to all of the passengers. A personal shoutout must go out to Rahul; this flight's cabin manager, for his amazing service especially.
Inflight Entertainment
There is a magazine and safety card in the seat pocket (which is standard for any aircraft of any airline). There was no seatback TV or overhead TV monitor, electronic inflight entertainment is purely on a BYO basis. Luckily, the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne is quite often such a short flight and one could easily get by on this flight without any electronic inflight entertainment. The magazine was fairly eye-catching, as was the safety card. While some of Rex's Boeing 737-800s have inflight Wi-Fi capabilities, VH-MFM lacks this. Rex is the only airline I know to retain having a magazine in the seat pocket. I chatted to the cabin crew, some whom I knew.
Photos
The operating aircraft arriving from Melbourne as flight ZL437 and sitting on Adelaide Airport's gate 12
Views whilst boarding
Business class seats
Economy class seats
Legroom
Seat 4A
Taxiing to runway 23
Takeoff from Melbourne Airport's runway 27
Cabin inflight
Inflight snack
Inflight at 35,000 feet
Descending into Melbourne Airport
An attempt at a winglet shot but a bit glary
Landing on runway 16
Taxiing to the gate with ominous weather looming
Docked at terminal 4 gate F13
View of VH-MFM's Boeing Sky Interior
VH-MFM now off to Sydney as flight ZL152
Final Verdict
The 'ugly duckling' of Rex's growing Boeing 737-800 fleet was a decent aircraft to fly in. My seat was okay, but wouldn't be comfortable on a long flight with its very slim design. But still these things aside, the aircraft looked nice inside with the Boeing Sky Interior, and the service was fantastic as is usual with Rex. I always enjoy flying with them, and this flight was once again no exception. It is great to see Rex slowly adding more and more aircraft (at the time of writing three more have entered service) and growing more and more in the domestic Australian market, and I feel they have a great full-service product offering.
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