Hi all
Made a trip with the missus and our 11 year old to Thailand over the Easter period 23/03 to 07/04 and for the first time in 28 years, I flew on Garuda. The last time was in 1985 when I was a backpacker doing the trip back to the motherland (UK). Got to see the world for the price of a return ticket. From memory, I think Garuda would stop at Denpasar, then onto Hong Kong or Singapore, from there to Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt or Zurich and finally London. The flight, I recall, was eventful due to the plane landing in Abu Dhabi and requiring some spare parts before taking off again, which needed to come from Singapore. We had a nice stopover as a result - all expenses paid.
This time round, I was impressed with the many reviews I'd read about the revamped fleet and in particular, Garuda's executive class which also seemed to be good value for money. We paid on average $2,100 per ticket. I was also pretty happy with the flight times, 11:30 am Sydney departure, approx 8 hrs flying time on an A330-200 to Jakarta with a 1.5 hr wait in the lounge at Jakarta before a connecting flight to Bangkok on a 737 (800 I think) which took around 3 hours. The return flight would be departing Bangkok around 5:30 pm on Saturday on the 737, again stopover and connect to the A330 in Jakarta (wait about 1.5 hrs), and finally the red eye flight back into Sydney with a landing time of approx 0930 the following day (Sunday).
We love the business class experience when travelling right from the moment of arriving at the airport. This was no exception as we lined up at the biz class check in. The wait was very minor. We were allocated row 1 seats and issued with Express passes as well as lounge invitations. Garuda uses the Qantas business class lounge at Sydney which is a great bonus.
Sydney Biz class lounge is great and the service is awesome. There is one guy who works there (name escapes me) who is the consummate 5 star service professional. Every time we use this lounge, he takes the time to recommend from the menu, arrange table service and drinks, and seems to be a genuinely nice person. A great ambassador for the airline I think.
After our sojourn in the lounge, we headed off to the gate in time for boarding which had just commenced. We had a good view of our home for the next 8 hrs from the departure gate. Inside we were directed to our seats and promptly offered the welcome on board drinks. At this point, I'll handover to the pics from here but suffice to say, the quality of the service and the overall flight was as good as most south east Asian carriers, which is to say better than most carriers worldwide. The cabin appeared clean and looking new and the food was most acceptable. I've head a few complaints about the IFE but for flight time, the programmes on offer were more than enough to keep us occupied. No complaints from us. All in all, I would have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Garuda as a good value for money alternative - as long as you are happy to accept the connecting flight in Jakarta. The Biz class cabin was split into 2 cabins with the second cabin being completely empty and the the first cabin occupied by ourselves and another 1/2 dozen passengers. Anyway...over to the pictures.
Made a trip with the missus and our 11 year old to Thailand over the Easter period 23/03 to 07/04 and for the first time in 28 years, I flew on Garuda. The last time was in 1985 when I was a backpacker doing the trip back to the motherland (UK). Got to see the world for the price of a return ticket. From memory, I think Garuda would stop at Denpasar, then onto Hong Kong or Singapore, from there to Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt or Zurich and finally London. The flight, I recall, was eventful due to the plane landing in Abu Dhabi and requiring some spare parts before taking off again, which needed to come from Singapore. We had a nice stopover as a result - all expenses paid.
This time round, I was impressed with the many reviews I'd read about the revamped fleet and in particular, Garuda's executive class which also seemed to be good value for money. We paid on average $2,100 per ticket. I was also pretty happy with the flight times, 11:30 am Sydney departure, approx 8 hrs flying time on an A330-200 to Jakarta with a 1.5 hr wait in the lounge at Jakarta before a connecting flight to Bangkok on a 737 (800 I think) which took around 3 hours. The return flight would be departing Bangkok around 5:30 pm on Saturday on the 737, again stopover and connect to the A330 in Jakarta (wait about 1.5 hrs), and finally the red eye flight back into Sydney with a landing time of approx 0930 the following day (Sunday).
We love the business class experience when travelling right from the moment of arriving at the airport. This was no exception as we lined up at the biz class check in. The wait was very minor. We were allocated row 1 seats and issued with Express passes as well as lounge invitations. Garuda uses the Qantas business class lounge at Sydney which is a great bonus.
Sydney Biz class lounge is great and the service is awesome. There is one guy who works there (name escapes me) who is the consummate 5 star service professional. Every time we use this lounge, he takes the time to recommend from the menu, arrange table service and drinks, and seems to be a genuinely nice person. A great ambassador for the airline I think.
After our sojourn in the lounge, we headed off to the gate in time for boarding which had just commenced. We had a good view of our home for the next 8 hrs from the departure gate. Inside we were directed to our seats and promptly offered the welcome on board drinks. At this point, I'll handover to the pics from here but suffice to say, the quality of the service and the overall flight was as good as most south east Asian carriers, which is to say better than most carriers worldwide. The cabin appeared clean and looking new and the food was most acceptable. I've head a few complaints about the IFE but for flight time, the programmes on offer were more than enough to keep us occupied. No complaints from us. All in all, I would have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Garuda as a good value for money alternative - as long as you are happy to accept the connecting flight in Jakarta. The Biz class cabin was split into 2 cabins with the second cabin being completely empty and the the first cabin occupied by ourselves and another 1/2 dozen passengers. Anyway...over to the pictures.
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