Express Air

[Hintermann]

I have a confirmed place on the MSY Seahorse for a 11-day cruise in Raja Ampat in November 2014. The flights are opening-up now and as I have some business in Amsterdam just before the trip, that's where I'll be starting from. I plan to fly on Garuda from Amsterdam via Jakarta to Makassar, booking my luggage through and clearing Indonesian entry formalities in Makassar. Ideally, I would like to stay overnight in Makassar at the cheap & cheerful Kanaka Giana Hotel near the airport and catch the morning flight to Sorong. I can do that part also on Garuda but that flight departs at 03:00 and ideally I could do with a bit more overnight rest. I'll still arrive in Sorong with a day to spare to be on the safe side.

Express Air have ideal flight times on paper and they blend in nicely with my Garuda itinerary both ways. The only problem is that Express Air do not open booking till May or June 2014 for November. If I book my Garuda tickets up to Makassar now when good prices are available, is it safe to wait till June for that final leg? I mean is Express Air a reliable company and not likely to go bust or something?

 

[Zippsy]

a couple of points... Express Air is probably reliable but TII (This IS Indonesia). Who knows what could happen? Also, check your LOB's itinerary. For a fair number of boats, they are expecting you to take one of the many "normal" Makassar to Sorong flights that fly between 3:00am and 8:00am. They will then sail for the South of RA around 10:00am once everyone is on board. It's possible that a 1:30pm arrival throws off the schedule. Maybe it's worth double checking. Also, there are $40/night rooms in the terminal for rent that make for a good shorter night sleep if you can't make it out to a real hotel. Finally, double check in Jakarta to see if your bags end up on the carousel there. Sometimes they do, even if checked through to a connecting flight to Makassar. If they are not, the bags will never really go through customs because the Jakarta to Makassar flight is a domestic flight. They have a weird system there but, then again, TII!

 

[Hintermann]

Thanks. As for arrival, I land in Sorong at least 24 hours ahead of the liveaboard boat's departure time. I'll be staying overnight at the J E Meridien Hotel, which is where the staff have arranged to pick me up from.

As for the luggage, yes I have heard it before. There are 4 hours between the Garuda flights in Jakarta and so I can book it only to CGK and re-checkin for Makassar.

 

[Dim]

A few small points from someone who just flew with Garuda last october/november:
- You clear the Indonesian entry formalities in Jakarta, not in Makassar, as Jakarta is your point of entry.
- From Holland you can book a flight to Makassar via Jakarta as 1 ticket. Your luggage will then go automatically to Makassar and you will not see it in Jakarta. This is the same as when you would have a connecting flight in say Singapore or KL. In the past the luggage would have been collected in Jakarta by the passenger on arrival and checked in again for the flight to Makassar but fortunately since about 6 months this is no longer the case for flights arriving from Amsterdam. In Jakarta you now only have to get your boarding pass for the flight to Makassar.
- When you book a Garuda flight from Amsterdam you get 30kg luggage allowance and this also applies for all other domestic flights on the same e-ticket. Even better: as a diver you can ask for extra free luggage and then you get 23kg's on top of the 30.
- When you book a flight from Amsterdam you get about 50% discount on all other domestic flights from Garuda which are booked on the same e-ticket. Granted, they only give this discount on specific fares (not on the promotions), but the good thing about it is you will also get the luggage allowance of 30+23kg on those flights.

I work for a Dutch travel agency, so I you want to you can PM me for more info.

 

[Andreni]

I had to fly with Express Air in December and had the same concerns as you. Really I was terrified of the idea of flying with them... Even when I went into the airplane I was a bit shocked of how old it looked. But, although the flight was late (around 1 hour) it was very smooth and the staff nice. If you are on the taller side you might consider flying with Garuda as I've never seen smaller leg space. Don't laugh at me but the next time I'm doing this route I will take the Batik flight from Jakarta to Ambon (it's really comfortable), stay there a night in a basic but clean hotel and take the early Wings-flight the next morning (arrives around 9 am). You can book all domestic flights on your own: Cheap Indonesia airline tickets - ticketindonesia.info - Your website for tickets in Indonesia!. Worked perfectly well for our 5-months trip in Indonesia.