Melbourne Airport has recently opened terminal 4, (Tiger, Jetstar, Rex) anyone experienced it and care to comment.

Melbourne Airport has recently opened terminal 4, (Tiger, Jetstar, Rex) anyone experienced it and care to comment. I think a big saving was made on buying minimal seating for departure points.

It certainly has a budget terminal feel about it... Think secondary European airports- the Ryan Air hubs. 

Immediately as you go through to departures, it's a foodcourt with some shops. When I was there on a Sunday evening it felt crowded. Think Westfield during lunch break.

Then it was a relatively long walk to the gates. There was an area with some seats, a couple of vending machines, some toilets and a service desk. No Wi-Fi, but there were a few power points. Immediately adjacent to the gates there were no seats, it felt very much like a barn. Similar to the area that JetStar used to use in T1 before the move, but less seating. Lots of windows though.

Yes I used this last week.  The terminal is beautiful in every regard!  It's modern, has plenty of eateries and in my opinion, is the most beautiful terminal out of all Australian airports (I havent yet seen the new VA one in Perth though).  It actually made flying Jetstar a little enjoyable LOL!

You have to walk through all of the eateries before you get to the departure area.  Seating in the departure area could be better.  Plenty of people were standing however there were some empty seats.  I'd strongly recommend using Terminal 4 at Tullamarine!

I'm curious to know the number of people who still insist on using the Qantas lounges, who then make the trek across!

I doubt it would be many... It would take a reasonable account if time to do the walk, and your have to clear security again... You can't check in or bag drop until two hours before departure, so if you have luggage, it wouldn't give you much time. 

The hike to the departure point for Jetstar is exhausting, older people won't like that, nor the climbing down and up steps to get to the aircraft, (big saving made on zero aero bridges) reminds me of the old apron connections for Fokker Friendship travel in Ansett and TAA golden days. Still, after being fleeced by all the shops and eateries your funnelled through your wallet will be depleted of weight so that walk will be a little more bearable. I think it's best selling feature is the closeness to the huge highrise car park right out front. Drop off and collection point is undercover actually in the car park structure itself for driver and passengers, thats great. Great that it's total proximity and seperate entrance/exit roads means you don't get caught up in all that mess up on the main ramp with two of the busiest pedestrian crossings in Melbourne to negotiate.

Funny how Gold Coast is investing $250m on new terminals with aerobridges (and its mostly LCC flights), yet Melbourne takes the cheap option,

OOL is gunning hard for more international flights (CX, China x etc), and generally has more "vision", so those airbridges will be welcome. 

Not really funny, the two airports have very different priorities. 

Herd wanna save a dollar, thus we will see only more segregation, but apparently herd does not care.