Qatar Airways out of DPS?

[Boeta]

Hi All,

Long time reader... first time poster and all I can say is thanks to all for your insightful opinions I've been reading.

I have an opportunity to catch a return flight on Qatar Airways in J to Madrid, which Im pretty excited about.

The kicker is I have to make my own way to DPS (Bali), for me this isn't an expensive exercise from PER. My question is, has anyone done this transit through Bali before? What are the considerations I should take?

Or if you could simply give me your thoughts Qatar Airways in J

Cheers, Boeta

 

[SighMN]

Hi All,

Long time reader... first time poster and all I can say is thanks to all for your insightful opinions I've been reading.

I have an opportunity to catch a return flight on Qatar Airways in J to Madrid, which Im pretty excited about.

The kicker is I have to make my own way to DPS (Bali), for me this isn't an expensive exercise from PER. My question is, has anyone done this transit through Bali before? What are the considerations I should take?

Or if you could simply give me your thoughts Qatar Airways in J

Cheers, Boeta

I've never flown to or from Bali (sorry but I view it as kind of a tourist hellhole), but Qatar Airways is inconsistent in terms of service delivery. Amazingly they really do well with economy passengers so I've been told and read on sites like Skytraxx (and usually people log onto that site just to complain so it is generally negatively biased.) Their business/first class product can be amazing, or sometimes disappointing. The seats are comfortable and turn into a fully flat bed, but you have to crawl over other people if you are at a window seat (and most ffers tend to like window seats in business/first.). The crawling over people and their MEL only route to Australia is what made me try Etihad going to Europe as their business class has staggered seats allowing for a small passage between the aisle and window seats without having to crawl over people. The Qatar product when the flight attendants are good are amazing, but I did have one flight where in business class it was kind of a nightmare (worse than anything I've had in United, they were just incompetent and uninterested as opposed just to uninterested). You will be mostly in their 777-200LR or 777-300ER aircraft which doesn't have a first class which is usually a plus as sometimes resources get diverted to first class. Overall you'll like Qatar in J, especially if you have a companion travelling with you as you will just have to worry about crawling over each if you don't choose the middle 2 seats.

Also the loads on the DPS to DOH sector looks pretty empty in J for October and November, so that is always a good thing!

 

[Boeta]

Overall you'll like Qatar in J, especially if you have a companion travelling with you as you will just have to worry about crawling over each if you don't choose the middle 2 seats.

Thanks SighMN, appreciate the feedback

Bali concerns me also, thus wanting to try and find out if anyone had done the same route before :-|

 

[richie9x]

I have never done INT to INT at DPS. But have been through the airport a few times on domestic and international flights.

As far as I can recall there is no international transit facility at DPS. You will have to collect your bags and clear customs. Also depending on your nationality you will likely also need to get a visa. If you are Australian then you can get a visa on arrival. I think you can get a 30 day for about US$20. Then take your bags and check in again. And you'll have to a pay a departure tax (I believe you have to use local currency). On the return trip you'll have to do the same. Except if it is within 30 days your visa should still be valid. I would say all this would probably be worth it if it is what you had to do to fly business.

There is a small fishing village called Jimbaran just to the south of the airport with some great seafood restaurants . It is a bit less touristy than the rest of Bali. Worth a visit if you have a big gap between flights.

By Indonesian standards DPS is pretty good. Although I would not like to spend more than a few hours there as not much to do. You could also consider a quick holiday in Bali along the way.

 

[mannej]

Visa on Arrival is $25 US.

I always thought QR used their 330's out of DPS, but I may be wrong.

One consideration I would take is leaving ample time between arriving and departing. Being on two separate tickets, you do not have protection if things go pear shaped out of PER.

 

[Boeta]

Visa on Arrival is $25 US. One consideration I would take is leaving ample time between arriving and departing. Being on two separate tickets, you do not have protection if things go pear shaped out of PER.

Thats a very good point an one I'm certainly going to be sure I follow.

I'm planning to be away for 5 weeks, so 2 lots of VOA and departure tax seems a bit of a waste. But as richie9x pointed out, it'll be worth it to get almost all the way to Europe in J.

The booking indicated it would be a 77W from DPS to DOH with a stop in SIN, so it will be the better hard product as well.

Thanks again for your help guys!

 

[mannej]

77W is the 777-300ER, I don't know if there is any difference between QR's fleet in terms of hard product.

The $50US may seem steep, but from memory India charges similar amounts on transit visa's, but for what you are saving, it's worth it.

 

[Austman]

Don't forget the departure tax of IDR 150,000 that you will also have to pay as well as the VOA fee if you leave the airport. Apparently there were international-to-international transit facilities at DPS - and no taxes were collected. (But perhaps this is not the case any more?) You'd have to make sure your luggage is checked through but.

 

[mannej]

Don't forget the departure tax of IDR 150,000 that you will also have to pay as well as the VOA fee if you leave the airport. Apparently there are international-to-international transit facilities at DPS - and there are no taxes collected. You'd have to make sure your luggage is checked through but.

That would limit your choice of carriers out of PER. I don't imagine JQ/3K or QZ to interline, not sure about Virgin but Garuda may be the go, but you would have to check that with them before you booked your fare.

 

[Austman]

There seems to be mixed advice around about if international-international transits still exist at DPS. But they used to exist at least!! Here's a photo:

 

[Zulaiha]

I have never done INT to INT at DPS. But have been through the airport a few times on domestic and international flights.

As far as I can recall there is no international transit facility at DPS. You will have to collect your bags and clear customs. Also depending on your nationality you will likely also need to get a visa. If you are Australian then you can get a visa on arrival. I think you can get a 30 day for about US$20. Then take your bags and check in again. And you'll have to a pay a departure tax (I believe you have to use local currency). On the return trip you'll have to do the same. Except if it is within 30 days your visa should still be valid. I would say all this would probably be worth it if it is what you had to do to fly business.

There is a small fishing village called Jimbaran just to the south of the airport with some great seafood restaurants . It is a bit less touristy than the rest of Bali. Worth a visit if you have a big gap between flights.

By Indonesian standards DPS is pretty good. Although I would not like to spend more than a few hours there as not much to do. You could also consider a quick holiday in Bali along the way.

Visa on arrival is a single entry to Indonesia, so wrong if you can use it in the return journey.
Visa is USD25 unfortunately they scrapped the up to 7 days visit visa which was only USD10.

I don't believe you have to get out of an International airport to just transiting, but I can be wrong, so do not quote me on this as I had never transiting in Denpasar.

Sorry can't remember on how much the airport tax for international tax (despite just been back from Indonesia few weeks ago ), but it is true that the airport tax is paid in Rupiah (somehow I was thinking of IDR150,000).

 

[Boeta]

...they scrapped the up to 7 days visit visa which was only USD10.

Thats a pain! Would have been ideal

That would limit your choice of carriers out of PER. I don't imagine JQ/3K or QZ to interline, not sure about Virgin but Garuda may be the go, but you would have to check that with them before you booked your fare.

I will certainly ask, but I dont like my chances though. Thanks

 

[SighMN]

I forgot to mention that after your trials transiting in DPS, you'll have a really nice time at DOH as Qatar has a premium terminal like Lufthansa in Frankfurt. Its quite a nice space from my memory and really makes the experience of flying business/first class feel exclusive.

Here is someone on a lonely planet forum in 2010 describing the nightmare that is DPS transit. (Note they say the minimum international connection is 60 minutes, but using the KPS MCT tool it says 120 minutes. Based on the forum I would even give yourself a lot more time than that.

[URL]http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1901940

Q[/URL]uote from a poster on that forum:

Thanks for the update, what a frustrating process! I imagine that as at 1st May it is now even worse with the new biometric procedures. The press has been reporting it is taking over 4 hours to clear immigration. Now, in addition to the voa queues there is another queue for photos and fingerprints, and only a single line. Personally I think DPS needs to be avoided if possible.

This is sounding bad!

 

[Austman]

Thanks for the update, what a frustrating process! I imagine that as at 1st May it is now even worse with the new biometric procedures. The press has been reporting it is taking over 4 hours to clear immigration. Now, in addition to the voa queues there is another queue for photos and fingerprints, and only a single line. Personally I think DPS needs to be avoided if possible.

That was 2010. They quickly dropped the biometrics.