Flying with Sriwijaya Air to Raja Ampat

[Mike Veitch]

i took the Sriwijaya flight yesterday from Sorong to Makassar and yes, it was at 10:45 even though online it says 11:45 but on the ticket now says 10:45, relatively on time as well!

 

[matts1w]

So much for pristine ...

Someone who would know told me part of the hold up had to do with the road leading to the airport. Seems the contractor negotiated rights to harvest any of the giant hardwood trees that had to come down to make room for the road. Consequently the pavement makes all sorts of twists and turns to gather up tree after tree. Again, this is only rumor...but if you have lived in Indonesia for a while....well.....ini biasa saja.

 

[jwillh9181]

I flew from Jakarta to Sorong, we flew out of the wrong gate in Jakarta, was late on the second leg into Sorong. And then they changed their schedule while I was on the boat. I will never fly Sriwijaya again. Food was so bad looking I didn't even taste it.

 

[Zippsy]

FWIW, I didn't mind the food. It wouldn't win any Michelin stars but it was okay. I've had worse on United and Singapore Airlines at times.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Lesson for LOB folks especially--work w/ a good Indonesian ticketing agency. You typically don't pay more and the better outfits will keep you posted for flight time changes, cancellations etc--often a way of life on many domestic Indonesian runs. On my last LOB trip to Raja Ampat I was notified before we departed Sorong harbor that Garuda had cancelled a return flight. The agent took care of re-booking us on Lion Air for the cancelled leg, problem solved. Had I waited until I got to the airport to discover the cancellation it would have been a whole different story.

We worked with Melysa at come2indonesia.com Home but I know there are many other good outfits to use (and unfortunately some not so good...). I'm pretty gung-ho about booking all my own trips but in some areas of the planet it sure pays to have local help! // ww

 

[charlier]

We always book our own air tickets, except for internal flight within Indonesia. We have use Melysa for a few flights - they are really helpful. For example, a return flight from LBJ was delayed 4 hours. The airline did not notify us, but Melysa rearranged our flights and texted us and the LOB cruise director about the flight schedule change. Here, local knowledge saved us time.

 

[Hintermann]

Sorry that it happened to the OP. Most reports about Sriwijaya Air are generally good, especially in comparison with Merpati Nusantara. But I don't like the middle of the night flight and for my forthcoming trip in November 2014, will fly out of Makassar on Express Air. They are considered reliable and have flight times at more civilised times.

 

[anakkuta]

I don't even know how to react after read all this post.

 

[sOt0nGx]

Wow sounds like the only reason they not make it to 1 of the worse few airlines through survey is that they are categorized as "Others".

The bottle neck is travel and all they need is a direct flight provided by Air Asia or Lion Air to make it accessible and cheaper.
Do it already!

 

[Allison Finch]

The schedules don't bother me NEAR as much as the hundreds of dollars, each way, in overweight due to camera gear. ARRGH!