Don’t fly in same day as your liveaboard (unless you don’t care about time or money )

[cozcharlie]

I’ve typed this post several times, but something has always come up before i actually clicked “Post thread” .

It has been said many times in many posts in many ways , but if at all possible don’t fly in the same day as your liveaboard. Liveaboards generally recommend you arrive at least one day early for a reason. I think 2 out of my last 3 liveaboards have had people miss all or part of the trip (and probably 4 of last 7–happens so often hard to keep track ). My last Raja trip my bags arrived 48 hours late (or more )—thankfully I had a multi-day land buffer. I skipped a day of land-based diving due to missing camera equipment but had everything for liveaboard. My last trip to Triton Bay (out of Kaimana) several people arrived a day late due to cancellation of Sorong-Kaimana flight (boat sent a speedboat to fetch them a day after departure ). My last trip from Alor , 5 people missed the entire 10 day Alor-Ambon trip. Their plane on the once-a-day flight made it all the way to Alor but couldn’t land due to wind. Flights were booked following days so they were out of luck and scrubbed entire trip . Another group with a whole boat charter on a different boat had to re-route entire boat to pick them up from alternate port at who knows what cost.

If none of the things above you bother you , then by all means fly in same day . If you do and something goes wrong please don’t complain here . Also please note that your risk is highest with 1)small airports with one or two flights a day and 2) crossing trips that start and finish in different ports—boat can’t wait around for late passengers if they have hundreds of miles to cover.

As I stated near the beginning, this advice has been stated in many threads. It just seemed like it was worthy of its own thread. I personally don’t care what you do because in general I arrive a few days early and if someone misses the boat that is just more space for me (my last trip we had 7 on a boat meant for 22-24). Also please note that Indonesian airlines are notorious for flight delays and cancellations. Your years of flying experience with airlines in the rest of the world is basically irrelevant. Honestly my personal Indonesian experience isn’t really that bad (mostly fly Garuda) but in general Indonesian airlines have earned their lousy reputation. One of the last Batik flights I took departed 2 hours late but they didn’t even bother to update the airport flight board or the Batik website until a few minutes before a delayed departure from a different gate than scheduled.

PS: Unfortunately I am flying in on a same day puddle jumper for a whole boat charter next month. Given almost everyone is on same flight for last flight segment the boat isn’t going to leave without us—but it still feels like I am tempting fate (I went with flow of the group on scheduling despite my personal preferences). We are all arriving in the region days early so most of the delay risk is just the last short-hop leg. Wasn’t much point in me arriving early if boat wasn’t going to leave port without group leader and rest of the group . If I post a meme of me kicking myself in a few weeks you will know what happened.

 

[Dan]

Before I retired I tried to optimize my vacation days by arriving at destination airport on the same day as the liveaboard embarking. I minimized any potential flight delay by leaving early and choosing a nonstop flight. For example, to go to Raja Ampat, I flew nonstop from Jakarta at 00:30 with Garuda, arriving in Sorong by 06:30. The liveaboard crew picked us up at the Sorong airport and took us to the boat. Luckily I had no hiccups for 10 years.

After I retired I start arriving a day before the liveaboard embarking or adding a resort stay before getting on the liveaboard. These risk mitigations paid off.

Arriving a day before the boat embarkation has help me two years ago when my luggage was left behind in Taipei due to flight delay. I had to stay a day in Jakarta to wait for my luggage to catchup with me before flying to Saumlaki for liveaboard trip to Forgotten Islands, instead of staying in a hotel in Saumlaki before embarking on the boat on the next day.

Similarly, my luggage didn’t arrive in Cebu with me. It was delivered to Evolution dive resort in Malapascua two days later. Had I gone on Infiniti liveaboard first after I arrived in Cebu, it’ll be stuck in Cebu airport for the whole trip while the boat was at sea.

 

[scubadada]

I only arrived the day before a liveaboard one time, Guayaquil, Ecuador, before the Galapagos. Of course, this was also the only time my luggage did not arrive with me. Fortunately, there was another American Airlines flight later in the day and they delivered my luggage to the hotel at 2 AM and I was finally able to go to sleep.

I have never done that again, but have enjoyed many pre-liveaboard days in many interesting places.

 

[cozcharlie]

FYI: I wasn’t trying to ignore the fact that many people are vacation day limited . I get that many people don’t want to waste a vacation day , but the real waste of vacation days is coming all the way to Indonesia (especially from North America ) and missing all or part of the liveaboard you paid for. Even if you have trip insurance , you are not going to get your time and vacation days back. If possible just best to burn another couple of days and plan on getting a day or two of land-based diving or sightseeing in ahead of your liveaboard . If everything goes well you burn extra vacation days in order to get extra diving, if things go poorly you burn a couple of extra days to prevent entire trip from turning into a disaster.

If your liveaboard is starting and finishing in the same port and not covering much distance you might gamble and not have a buffer (thinking of Komodo and Palau as examples of itineraries that stick fairly close to port where a speedboat could get you out to the liveaboard ). If it is an itinerary that is crossing trip to another port or one that covers a lot of distance from same port (Ambon/Banda Sea in Indo , Cocos in Costa Rica, Socorro in Mexico come to mind) you are taking a big risk to save that vacation day or two .

Once again, people can do whatever they like (as noted actually better for me when people miss the boat and I have more space ) . Just kind of sad to see people travel halfway around the world and then miss all or part of liveaboard due to the myriad of possible travel issues. Volcanoes probably cause more travel issues in Indo than anything else. Unfortunately those disruptions can sometimes last days so even a day or two of buffer might not help

 

[TostitoBandito]

For my upcoming trip coming from North America I'm already taking a planned overnight stay in Singapore as a buffer of sorts, and then going straight from there to Sorong via Jakarta, arriving the morning of the liveaboard departure. I didn't see the need to take a second day doing nothing in Sorong, and I'm flying Garuda for domestic so I feel reasonably safe (with backup flights the same night on other airlines just in case).

Flight cancellations can happen anywhere, and unless you are taking a 24+ hour layover after every single flight hop you take it's never really possible to eliminate all risk. And that strategy would burn an absurd amount of vacation days on travel. At some point on every complex overseas trip there's gonna be a flight you've got to make or you're gonna miss things. Get travel insurance, make rational travel itineraries within reason, use reputable airlines, and cross your fingers.

 

[Dan]

For my upcoming trip coming from North America I'm already taking a planned overnight stay in Singapore as a buffer of sorts, and then going straight from there to Sorong via Jakarta, arriving the morning of the liveaboard departure. I didn't see the need to take a second day doing nothing in Sorong, and I'm flying Garuda for domestic so I feel reasonably safe (with backup flights the same night on other airlines just in case).

This route is pretty safe. I’ve done it about 7-8 times in the last 15 years of traveling to Indonesia from Houston. I used to fly with Singapore Airlines from Houston to Singapore with 60-90 minute layover in Moscow (getting off / on the same airplane, so no baggage transfer to worry about), Few years later they moved the layover from Moscow to Manchester until early 2025. Starting next year I have to use domestic airlines (United or JetBlue) to fly either to west coast cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle) or east coast cities (Newark or New York) to fly nonstop to Singapore on Singapore Airlines. These new routes require baggage transfer from domestic flights to international flights. If we get a winter storm, requiring de-icing the airplanes, we could have travel delay.

My alternative Houston-Jakarta route is now on EVA Air with one stop in Taipei in 22 hour travel (19 hour flights + 3 hour layover). That 3 hour layover could still be a problem when the flight coming from Taipei to Houston is arriving late.

Another problem that I encountered was the so-called “miracle flight”. There was a long line of older passengers on wheelchairs getting priority going into the plane. The plane was coming in an hour late to begin with. Then an hour late to get everyone on board. By the time we arrived after 15-hour flight to Taipei, I only had a half hour layover in Taipei. Those people on wheelchairs miraculously were able to walk on their own out of the plane. I had to dash out of the plane to my next flight. Guess what? My luggage was not as fast as me and got left behind in Taipei. The flight from Taipei to Jakarta only flies once a day. So I had to pick up my luggage on the next day, as mentioned in post #2 above.

 

[acidrush]

My last trip from Alor , 5 people missed the entire 10 day Alor-Ambon trip. Their plane on the once-a-day flight made it all the way to Alor but couldn’t land due to wind. Flights were booked following days so they were out of luck and scrubbed entire trip . Another group with a whole boat charter on a different boat had to re-route entire boat to pick them up from alternate port at who knows what cost.

You were on the Blue Manta? LOL! I was one of the 5!

 

[broncobowsher]

2 stories.

Bahamas trip. The group all flew together. We showed up and spent one night and left in the morning. If the flight was bumped, everyone would have been bumped, the boat would have stayed parked at the dock for an extra day. Not a big deal at all

But the Bikini trip. HIGHLY suggested to arrive 2 days prior (flight only every other day). All but 2 people took the advice. The plane broke down on the day we departed. We had a couple empty cabins on the boat.