Which is the best airline to fly from Australia to Bali?

[AFF Editor]

This article contains an overview of all the airlines flying from Australia to Denpasar in 2023:

Overview of Airlines Flying from Australia to Bali in 2023

Bali is one of the most popular holiday destinations for Australians, with well over a million Aussies flying there every year.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

There are currently 179 weekly return flights available from Australia to Bali, from 7 different airports (soon to be 8) and on 7 different airlines.

Which airline is your preferred choice, and why?

 

[Daver6]

I'm still amazed that there is no full service airline between PER and DPS. Pre-Covid Garuda flew this sector. Would be a perfect opportunity for VA to take it up now.

 

[Forg]

Surely Jetstar in Y is the best way to get the feel of Bali?!

 

[jase05]

We regularly visited Bali pre Covid and GA was our pick but we are going back in July this year for a friends 50th and got guilted into all travelling together from ADL with 10 others. JQ is on my banned list so we agreed to travel with them on the condition that it was VA and that I don’t care where the others sit but we are going in J. They all booked in Y in the end
A day flight in VA J is ok but no way we will do it for a night flight so we will head elsewhere afterwards and get a full service airline home

 

[Stealthflyer]

The best airline to fly with in 2023 is the one I could get J reward flights for: VA. It’s a bit ridiculous that there’s no international lounge access though, particularly as I’ve been getting international lounge access with Va’s partner airlines as a Y passenger. I wonder if VA will announce a third party lounge arrangement once the rolling status extensions end later this month. I hope so. It’d be nice to take my travelling partner into an international lounge pre-departure, particularly as we have to endure a domestic transit in SYD. The horror.

 

[luxury-lizard]

I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Having flown several of the options I think it comes down to aircraft… I think a ‘full service’ wide body beats a B737. That being said the meal and drink offerings on GA pre covid were pretty basic. I would almost have preferred buy on board.

Economy on a 737 would have to be QF hands down. VA’s economy X second.

Agree with you luxury-lizard… I’m in the same boat… trying to decide between SQ J or VA J. Maybe VA J for the day trip up, and SQ back? The layover ex SYD on the date I wanted was 10ths in SIN. So maybe not worth it.

But with weekly flying in VA J i’m not sure I want to see the inside of a VA cabin for 6 hours! It’s very hard to get comfortable

 

[Mattg]

I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

If deciding between SQ and VA, I'd personally think of it as choosing Business Class with a longer travel time or a direct flight in Premium Economy. That's probably a more accurate comparison (especially if the return flight on VA involves an overnight sector).

If using VA, they do at least have a daytime DPS-MEL option.

 

[jase05]

I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

We have taken the VA J option ADL-DPS. It wasn’t our preferred option but lounge access in ADL and being a day flight we can bear it. On the way back though we have a few options to consider. I’m leaning slightly towards MH but VN are offering not bad prices ex CGK and there is always an option to take up the PR bargains ex KUL where we can get a return ticket cheaper than most one way fares

 

[Daver6]

Having flown several of the options I think it comes down to aircraft… I think a ‘full service’ wide body beats a B737. That being said the meal and drink offerings on GA pre covid were pretty basic. I would almost have preferred buy on board.

I've only flown GA once between PER and DPS in Y. I thought the Y meal was decent enough for Y. On par with QF international Y meal. I might be mistaken, but I also think an amenity kit was provided for what was essentially a 4 hour day flight.

 

[knagelli]

I will be keen to try the VA service between ME:L - DPS possible if I could score the J reward seats as Bali has been on cards for sometime but COVID had other plans.

 

[travelislife]

VA J is cough for sectors of this length, and they haven’t even tried to provide a better service, i.e. blanket, pillow, etc., 2 x meals. As per another poster above, needs to be considered premium economy in any comparisons being done.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I've only flown GA once between PER and DPS in Y. I thought the Y meal was decent enough for Y. On par with QF international Y meal. I might be mistaken, but I also think an amenity kit was provided for what was essentially a 4 hour day flight.

We flew them in Feb 2020.. before covid was a ‘thing’ (just!)

The meal was pretty basic. Alcohol was limited to red and white wine, and beer. Soft drinks were limited to coke and orange juice (tang) IIRC. The meal service back was a vegetable sausage roll type thingy on departure and a muffin for breakfast.

Still, wide body and more legroom for standard economy was better than the competitors.

No hint of an amenity kit, sadly.

 

[mel1]

VA J is cough for sectors of this length, and they haven’t even tried to provide a better service, i.e. blanket, pillow, etc., 2 x meals. As per another poster above, needs to be considered premium economy in any comparisons being done.

We flew VA business Syd- Denpasar in Jan. When I asked for a pillow the crew member told me they don’t have any, “We are a budget airline”. Thank goodness I never need to go to Bali again anyway.

 

[seafarer]

I very much enjoyed my GA J class pre Covid flight SYD-DPS. 2-2-2 config but an empty seat next to me made it feel more spacious. Food and drink decent enough. Friendly flight attendants, pleasant return trip. Would happily fly with them again.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

GA Schedule OZ-Indo:

The GA flts we took pre Covid were fabulous compared to other offerings - if stars allign will definitely be taking them again to / fro Bali in September

 

[Major]

I have booked BNE-DPS in June on VA. I used my free upgrades to book 2 J seats for this daytime flight. There is no way I will fly the return overnight flight so have managed to grab a couple of SQ redemptions in J for daytime flights DPS-SIN and SIN-BNE a couple of days later.
Not happy about no pre departure lounge access on VA and I also agree their J offering is really PE at best.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Well I snagged SYD-SIN-DPS (great connections) on SQ using AC points. Now looking for return (end Sept) - the only award J seats I can find is on CX via HKG with an overnighter in HKG (using AA points) - not sure it's worth the "effort" so now considering VA J (overnight) paid - paid GA does not seem with the $$.

 

[Forg]

The other positive of Garuda is that you can entertain yourself for hours making the sounds of an oldey-timey car horn … “garuuda - garuuuuda” …

But to answer the original question, there is no more bogan an airline than Jetstar. So that is the sole airline one should use, getting to Bali. It’s the vibe.

 

[Budbrian]

I'm still amazed that there is no full service airline between PER and DPS. Pre-Covid Garuda flew this sector. Would be a perfect opportunity for VA to take it up now.

I messaged Virgin thru their Facebook..told them it’s open slather PER DPS route at the moment…they replied not interested…amazing they can do flights to places that aren’t so frequented (political) yet here ex PER we only have Jetstar and Batik Air.Jetstar airfares are sky high

must add, I booked SQ VIA Singapore…much cheaper than Jetstar, mid Aug.