Update: I'm working on verifying firsthand, but for now I may hold off before transferring points. I'm verifying to make sure this is actually a 90% off promotion rather than them just saying you pay 90% of the price. If it's the latter, it's very poorly worded on their part. Okay, this is possibly the…
Continue reading: Best Deal Of The Year: 90% Off Garuda Indonesia First Class Award Tickets!!!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hold up, @ Lucky. Should I better direct the miles earned on my F ticket from London to SIN with Garuda to Garuda Miles or Air France Flying Blue? I am based in Australia and Garuda would be a better aligned airline for my region. Thoughts?
Please keep us posted. Does it apply only to flights to originating from Jakarta?
There aren't any catches? You have to call "Garuda['s] Indonesia’s call center." only. That's the first catch.
My guess is their wording is off and it's a 10% discount, so paying 90% of usual cost.
In China (and possibly other Asian countries), it is more common to say "pay 90% of original value", instead of saying "10% off". Might be the case here. Thank you for the head-up anyway.
@lucky you can't seriously believe they mean 90% off. I enjoy reading your blog but you have some very questionable posts. It's clearly a language barrier. You should have found this out BEFORE posting.
Wow!!! This is one of the worst written advertisement I ever seen. The English is so poor that it would raise red flags in my mind.
Even if this deal were legitimate, and I wanted to take advantage, I can't sign up for GarudaMiles because their signup form only lets you Select (not enter) a city in the US after selecting the State, but the City lookup is not retrieving any results. And it's a required field.
Here's the original wording in Bahasa Indonesia: https://garudamiles.com/TopHome-id-ID/berita-dan-penawaran/penawaran-spesial/Best-Deal-of-The-Year/
@Larry There is a blank space to the right of the box for city. I just entered my city in that box and I was able to sign up. Hopefully, this helps.
@Lucky, what do the tickets price at now? you say 90% off but can you post confirmed discounted prices?
Managed to sign up on this site. https://garudamiles.com/TopHome/enroll-now-lite/
Probably won't matter lol.
Damn - I've just transferred Citi Thank You points over - if this turns out to be an error due you think Citi will refund the thank you points given the circumstances?
@ David -- I've been trying to get through and have been having trouble. You were actually able to book? Can you share more about the experience?
Waaayy too risky. If you lose availability while waiting the couple days for those points to transfer, you are hosed and they win. Also agree that you need to find out the details and verify yourself before posting and putting other people's points at risk.
You have to call to get the discounted booking rate. The online rate doesn't have discounts. You should become a member first.
Calling their contact center and they only put you on hold for 3 minutes then kick you off and tell you to call back.
Do they grant access to their F lounge when connecting to a regional flight in business class?
Bahasa Indonesia speaking friend of mine said the original wording in Bahasa does actually say 90% off in the sense that you get 90% off the listed price.
But would you actually have to visit a GA sales office to get it ticketed?
An Indonesian here, as far as i could see from the promo written in indonesian, it is 90% off not 10% off
would this only apply to Garuda metal or can this be applied to partner airlines?
I don't see the box to the right of the state - tried US, UK, and Australia - any further info on how to get past that to registration?
I see that to book you need your original membership card. Does this mean physical card, or will a PDF of it off of the GA website work?
There are several forms on their website including, "Award Order Form" and a "Buy Mileage Form", etc.
You could download, complete and submit them. However, it does not state how quickly the request will be processed.
https://garudamiles.com/footer/download/
Hi Lucky,
Big fan, glad you're coming to Mumbai (I'm here for the holidays). I got through somehow and it is completely legit, space is available for CGK-AMS for 19k miles and approx 200$ tax and surcharge. Let me know if you have any questions!
Best,
Arpan
Does Garuda fly to/from New York?
How can I use Delta miles to take advantage of the Garuda promotion?
@ Arpan -- AWESOME! Did you go ahead and ticket the reservation, or you just inquired about availability? Thanks for sharing your experience!
@arpan what number did you call and could you put it on hold while transferring?
is there a way to search GA award space online?
The KL website only has a "(AF) La Premiere" option - and it doesn't seem to work for GA.
Quick heads up for people trying to use the promotion - After calling couple of times to their Indonesian call centre and getting automatically disconnected after a brief hold, called their dutch number ( thanks to David for the tip ), got through to a English speaking agent and she confirmed the 90% offer and went ahead and created a reservation fro MEL-LHR (via CGK ), and was informed that I can get it ticketed by the Garuda Miles desk earliest by tomorrow, apparently they are extremely busy with a lot of requests !!
Now the big question is should I transfer Thank you points or just go ahead and buy the points outright, decisions, decisions !!
For those of you without Guarda points, you can probably just buy it during booking directly. I think they are categorized as travel since you are buying directly from them.
https://garudamiles.com/TopHome/news-and-offers/special-offers/Best-Deal-of-The-Year-en-US
Not only first class, but other classes too: This promo eligible for flight classes R (First Class), O (Business Class) and X (Economy Class)
Was able to book on 777-200/300 out of AMS. is this the 777-300ER? Itin shows 772 but I can't find a seat map for that
@Dave, Garuda doesn't have a 777-200. That's some carry over from whatever template they're using. The seatmap for the 777-300 is what you'll get
Thanks @gary. I have the ticket on hold. Any tips for Citi transfer times? Looks like it might take up to 2-3 days for a transfer to go through....
Two questions: (1) is there a way to book this without calling an international number? (2) Can anyone confirm whether you need to go in person to one of their U.S. offices to purchase the ticket, as explained here: http://pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.com/2016/12/22/information-bad-news-garuda-indonesia-deal/ ?
The wording on Garuda website in English says it is "Best Deal of The Year!
Get 90% Redemption Discount for GarudaMiles Member"
So take that as it may
Best Deal of the year
booked Denpasar (Bali) - Tokyo in First Class only 9.000 miles!
in the normal situation, the miles not enough to be converted for Jakarta-Denpasar (14.000 miles in normal)
I already asked through twitter in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). They confirmed we only need to pay 10% miles or required miles.
One more thing. Buying miles in rupiah (if you have access to the currency/local credit/debit card) is cheaper. USD 30 is like Rp 420k while paying in rupiah is only Rp 270k
Hi Lucky, I am based in Jakarta and I just issued my flight from CGK to AMS with 38,000miles return for R class (First). And I also booked a Business Class (O Class) to LHR for 18,000miles return. I also thought there is a catch for this but apparently it does not. The only thing is they only releases 1 R class (First) in every flight and 2 in O class (Business). I have my Indonesian credit cards so I have the miles transfered. Also I booked it for someone else and found out that you can actually buy a max of 50,000 miles. But for this you have to go to a Garuda office. People are lining up here in the Garuda office to issue their seats.
Re: having to produce a membership card, Garuda have e-cards.
https://garudamiles.com/TopHome/news-and-offers/garudamiles-info/GarudaMiles-e-Card-is-Officially-Launched-Ready-for-Action
For those who called the Dutch number, how long did it take you to get through? I've been on the line for 40 min and after choosing language it's only static...
Awesome, thanks for sharing this deal!
I booked RT 2 business class tickets AMS-CGK voor 800 EURO each.
Best deal ever 🙂
Anyone actually getting through to Garuda's Indonesian callcentre? I've literally called 23 times, but never gotten through to an agent (all busy).
Any hints or pointers what to do?
Is there any possibility to transfer European AMEX Reward points to Garuda?! Maybe through transferring them to SPG and then to Garuda for instance... I'm getting crazyyy, I want that First Class ticket!!