In March of this year Garuda Indonesia joined the SkyTeam alliance. In the past Garuda Indonesia had a pretty bad reputation and a not-so-great safety record, but they’ve really been putting a lot of effort into improving lately.
What interests me most about Garuda Indonesia are their newly delivered 777-300ER aircraft, which feature a spectacular first and business class product that I’d really like to try.
Based on the trip report I’ve read of Garuda Indonesia’s first class, it actually looks like a really competitive product.
Garuda Indonesia’s new 777-300ER first class
Garuda Indonesia’s new 777-300ER executive class
The rest of their fleet doesn’t look quite as good, and up until now the 777-300ER has only been flown on select routes to/from Jakarta.
However, Garuda Indonesia has just announced that they’ll be starting 777-300ER service between Bali and Tokyo Narita. Bali is my favorite relaxation spot in the world, and this will hands down be the best first class product available to/from Bali.
The 777-300ER flight, which replaces the previous A330 frequency, will operate daily as follows:
GA880 Bali to Tokyo departing 12:30AM arriving 8:50AM
GA881 Tokyo to Bali departing 11:00AM arriving 5:25PM
The service begins August 4, 2014, though the service switches back to an A330 from September 12 through September 30, 2014.
This is awesome news! Now that Garuda Indonesia is in SkyTeam you can redeem Delta SkyMiles for this route, and Delta doesn’t even impose fuel surcharges for Garuda Indonesia redemptions. It also adds another option for a one stop routing from the US to Bali, given the number of Delta flights into Tokyo Narita.
The downside is that you can’t redeem Delta SkyMiles for international first class, so you’ll get business class at most, which still looks like a great product.
In theory you should be able to redeem Korean Air SkyPass miles for first class travel on Garuda Indonesia, though last time I called they still weren’t able to actually book Garuda Indonesia first class award space.
Bottom line
This new service is exciting regardless of which cabin you’re flying in, as Garuda Indonesia’s 777-300ER product is competitive across cabins. And it’s especially useful for SkyTeam flyers, since there really isn’t any service to Bali right now that’s competitive with this.
Now if only I could figure out how to economically redeem miles for Garuda Indonesia first class…
Nevermind, I was wrong. Star Alliance is the only one showing up with any available for the 9/7-9/20 timeframe I'm looking at. No wonder I can't find anything searching on Qantas or BA.
Thanks Lucky. I have been searching for first class awards to Bali, with little luck, for the past couple weeks. Do you happen to have any ideas or tricks up your sleeve? Or do I just have to wait until we get closer to September, and keep on checking?
@ David -- Through which program/on which airline?
Looks like oneworld has the most route possibilities.
Hi Lucky,
Any update on this booking the first class via awards? I am trying to book my honeymoon in September!
Thanks!
@ David -- Unfortunately aside from through Garuda's own program, I don't know of any way to book first class awards on them.
@ X - I searched for mid-August dates on ANA site for Garuda's flight NRT-DPS and it shows '-' (meaning, N/A) for First class. The other classes did say RQ. Perhaps something hasn't been updated yet.
@hkairlinenews
I've never seen any airline that would accept cash upgrades on award tickets. Probably because it's impossible to calculate the fare difference since you don't pay for award tickets
Can't you fly CGK NRT/ICN(they also fly 77W to ICN) instead ? Cuz they just opened their spectacular F Lounge in CGK. I'm curious if it would compete with AF in CDG
@ metatron -- I'd love to, but no good way to redeem miles for first class on them (outside of their own program), as far as I can tell.
Pay miles for business and use cash to upgrade to first? IDK if you can do this but it's definitely more economic...
If you have enough miles in you AMC account you should be able to RQ it . Their system normally will get back the results (either OK or NO)in a minute after you complete the waitlist process .
If you have enough miles in you AMC account you should RQ
Interesting how their new F and J cabin looks EXACTLY the same as the current EY hard product offering...
I hope KE gets the capability to book F ASAP...
ANA Mileage Club just added GA as a partner and award seats can be booked online using ANA miles. Unfortunately F is not available .
@ X -- Sadly space only shows as "RQ" (request), so doesn't seem like it's a place to actually search award space.
I am trying to book that portion from NRT-DPS for an upcoming Asia trip in October in cash since I have no Delta miles. It's $2000 one way for economy YIKES!!! I will have to either book Malaysia Airlines or AirAsia since they are the cheapest alternatives right now.
I redeemed flying blue points on HND to Bali. I know it is A330 aircraft but I really wanted to try Garuda. It did not show online availability on airfrance.us however when I called the agent confirmed it right away. She priced at 50,000 miles plus 122 euros in taxes! Haneda is closer to the city .....