Garuda Indonesia

I travelled to Perth Australia on the 17th December and returned to the UK on the 11th January. This was the best flight I have been on in many years the staff were excellent so helpful and even helped me with my hand luggage where many other flights will not do this. I would recommend them to anyone.

Flew LGW-DPS via AMS and CGK on Boxing Day. Delayed 2 hours on way out and also with the stopover at AMS it becomes a very long journey. Plane a pretty new 777-300ER in a 3x3x3 config in economy and it does mean that it feels quite spacious. Lovely crew if somewhat limited on their language skills. The IFE was good for the live TV where we were able to watch live Premier League and also live cricket. Arrived at CGK 2 hours late which meant connecting flight was delayed but they upgraded plane to same one as we arrived on to accommodate the 150 people who had meant to be on earlier flight. All in all a long journey but we knew it would be. Would I travel with them again - yes.

We arrived to Bali from Ireland without any problems and we were excited for our final flight to Brisbane. A half an hour before we were to board our 11.15 flight we were informed that it was cancelled and we would not be flying until 7 am. Told it was due to bad weather. Some passengers were offered a hotel however passengers in transit had to stay in the lounge. At 5.30 the next morning we made our way to our gate where we waited until 7.30 before being informed that our flight was again cancelled. Again transit passengers had to remain in the airport while other passengers were brought to a hotel. During this time we were asked for our passports so that they could be stamped but when they were returned we were informed that we weren't allowed to leave the airport. Eventually we were told we could go to a hotel to freshen up and we would be brought back to the airport at 5 o clock that evening. 5 came and we were informed that we were delayed an hour and would be picked up at 6. Once we arrived at the airport we were soon told that our flight was again cancelled and we were given lots of different excuses. Some people decided to board other flights to Brisbane via Melbourne and Sydney. We returned to the hotel in the hope of getting on a flight the next morning but as we expected it was cancelled again. At long last we eventually got a new boarding pass and awaited our flight. All passengers waiting for the flight were very unsatisfied with the service and the treatment we received some of us were delayed 52 hours and we did not even receive one simple apology.

We were 2 pax flying CGK-DPS 17 Jan 2015 and DPS-JKT 18 Jan 2015. First leg of the trip was smooth and flawless scheduled on time both for take off and landing had a big wide aircraft (for domestic trip 1.5h journey). No complaints at all. Return flight was almost flawless only minor issue we were delayed 20 mins for boarding (flight Bali to Jakarta runs almost every half hour delays on previous flight might cause continuos effect on the rest) and another an hour inside the aircraft because two passengers was never found in the airport so their baggage needed to be unloaded. Other than that everything went very well. I am GA frequent flyer and up to now am still very pleased with their service.

CGK to PDG. I flew this route on 28th of December 2014. The check-in was smooth and nothing special to mention here. The plane on this route was a 738 with a two class configuration. Seats were comfortable and spacious. Food was quickly served after the fasten seatbelt signs had been switched off. As it was an early morning flight a continental breakfast was served. The taste was good as well as quality and quantity. Especially compared to the flights within Europe. IFE screen showing movies as well as music and TV shows available. The touch screen was a bit slow but overall very good entertainment for such a short flight. In general an excellent experience and I am looking forward to many more flights.

I have been well travelled around the globe on many airlines and I must say this was the best experience so far. Melbourne - Denpasar 5th January Business class. The crew were professional but very social also. The food was excellent. Lots of food and of very high standard. A good quality amenity kit was given out. Flight was slightly delayed (1.5 hours) and meal vouchers were given out at the airport. Airlines like Qantas should benchmark against Garuda. Only few negatives the AVOD didn't have much variety (Emirates still the best).

Garuda Indonesia was not my first choice to travel from Europe to Southeast Asia since it just started its LGW- CGK leg in September 2014 and I really did not know what to expect from this brand new routing. Fortunately everything turned out to be really great. LGW-AMS-CGK was a very long road to travel but the entertainment system that Garuda has made the journey bearable. The food was fine but the portion was a bit small for me. We landed in Jakarta about 45 minutes later than scheduled so that we missed our connecting flight to BKK. The ground staff in Jakarta took care everything for us and got us to the next available flight to BKK and even gave us vouchers for one of the airport lounges so that we could get freshened up before boarding. All in all the crew was brilliant and either on the ground or in the air the service was much better than I had expected. I travel at least once a year to Asia especially to Bali and I think Garuda Indonesia would be the best airline to go if I lived in London.

When I set out to book our family holiday to Australia Garuda come up as the quickest most direct route. They were also very competitive on their pricing and having read some reviews I thought we had a great deal. Anyway I bought 4 tickets flying from Gatwick airport via Jakarta to Sydney with an initial stopover time in Jakarta of 1 and a half hours meaning our total flight time was going to be around 22 hours. Below are the bullet points of what happened since the time we booked our flight these are the ones I can add. I will definitely not be using Garuda again. Flight time changed 6 times. Actual outbound flight became Gatwick to Amsterdam (had to get off the plane and sit in gate for 1 and a half hours) Amsterdam to Jakarta (now a 10 hour stop over) Jakarta to Sydney. Total flight time increased by 10 hours. Inbound flight took the same form. Sydney to Jakarta Jakarta to Amsterdam Amsterdam to UK. 10 hour stopover in Jakarta and another hour and a half in Amsterdam. So added over 10 hours to the journey. Total time lost for both flights = 20+ hours. Most airlines let you check in 24 hours before –Garuda is 12 hours. Our flight was at 1.10pm on the Saturday so we had to check in at 1.10am (set the alarm). Logged in and they basically gave only 18 seats to choose from out of 150+ seats. What is the point? We ended up having to keep the seats they already had allocated to us as there weren't 4 other seats together so it was a complete waste of time getting up and checking in. On talking to others at the airport they couldn't even login at all! The return leg was better from a flight perspective as we knew what we were in for however we could not even check in online this time. There was no online check in facility available although they didn't say this on the website. We stayed up until 11.30pm to be told we couldn't check in online but had to do this at the airport. Got to the airport 3 hours before the flight and still had to wait over an hour in a check in line. Back to the dark ages of how travel used to be! To sum it up completely messed around with our booking poor check in and website no Garuda officials to be found anywhere in Jakarta. Serious lack of communication around the initial stopover and absolutely nothing regarding non delivery of cases.

MEL-CGK on 29 Dec. Have been flying this route on regular basis and as usual the standard of Garuda has always been excellent throughout. First time using online check-in system which also working conveniently although for some reason unable to generate and print the boarding pass. The only downside this time was the uncomfortable feeling boarding into a rather hot cabin because the air conditioning was turned off whilst aircraft was parked in tarmac.

KOE-DPS and DPS-CGK GA443 and GA417 27 December and 29 December GA443 flight using Bombardier CRJ1000 the flight was on-time. The check in was smooth the staff was polite. Overall this is a very pleasant experience. GA417 using Boeing 777-300ER I could hardly fault Garuda at all. Near-impeccable service attentive and polite cabin crew decent food and comfortable seats. But GA417 flight was delayed from 17:55 to 19:40 and 19:40 to 20:40 I'm only disappointed with the long delay but Garuda had already told the delay one day before and the second change was told 2-3 hours before departure.