Is RA worth it?

[aulienated]

Hi Bill,You can try other third party booking website for booking of flights: traveloka.com, tiket.com, or nusatrip.com. Hope it helps!

 

[billt4sf]

Travel agent. Trying to book domestic-only flights in Indonesia with a foreign credit card is a well known problem.

I just booked something using my credit card via One Travel. Did I just get taken?- Bill

 

[WetPup]

I just booked something using my credit card via One Travel. Did I just get taken?- Bill

Can't say one way or the other, but experience says that you generally need to book with a local Indonesian travel agent. There never seems to be an issue if your domestic flights were booked as part of your international ticket, the issue only comes when you're booking domestic only. I'd be getting onto the airline to get a confirmed PNR (passenger name record) as soon as possible so that you know for sure that you're on that flight. Even my travel agent has to contact someone locally in Indo to book my domestic-only flights.

 

[chillyinCanada]

It's been my experience that having my accommodation/lob book my domestic flights for me works very well.

 

[Luko]

Can't say one way or the other, but experience says that you generally need to book with a local Indonesian travel agent. There never seems to be an issue if your domestic flights were booked as part of your international ticket, the issue only comes when you're booking domestic only. I'd be getting onto the airline to get a confirmed PNR (passenger name record) as soon as possible so that you know for sure that you're on that flight. Even my travel agent has to contact someone locally in Indo to book my domestic-only flights.

I've been booking domestic airline tickets online for the past 6 years with AirAsia.com, LionAir, Garuda, Batavia (when they were still operating) never encountered any significant problem (other than being unable to get Lionair loyalty card).
On the contrary we could handle by ourselves any modification and cancelation on premises/at the airport which would have been more difficult to deal with if we had been through a travel agent.

Of course Travel agents and other intermediates will show you Apocalypse and tell you will certanly burn in hell if you do so, but if you can speak broken english (more easily understood in Indonesia than any "put-your-US state-here" accent) you will always find a solution to get you to your destination place.
The only companies you have to go through local agents are TransNusa, SusiAir or regional alikes that do not sell online. Then you can ask Nusatrip or your resort to book them for you.

With the major airlines, I don't see the point going though middlemen, really... especially when I read on this same board a few years ago, some selfcalled travel agents and liveaboard agents not even knowing about Garuda luggage policy (unfortunately void after aug12th2015, sigh! ). It would have hurt me to pay them bookings fees.
Sorry but after 15 years traveling in Indonesia, I am not an Apocalypse believer. I simply learnt to be a little flexible and safe with transfer delays.

 

[WetPup]

It depends entirely on which country your credit card originates from. The booking engines will accept cards from about a dozen countries. Obviously yours is one of them. Spend a bit of time browsing the FlyerTalk forums - this isn't just travel agents trying to scare people, it's actually a genuine problem for the majority of travellers.

 

[billt4sf]

Can't say one way or the other, but experience says that you generally need to book with a local Indonesian travel agent. There never seems to be an issue if your domestic flights were booked as part of your international ticket, the issue only comes when you're booking domestic only. I'd be getting onto the airline to get a confirmed PNR (passenger name record) as soon as possible so that you know for sure that you're on that flight. Even my travel agent has to contact someone locally in Indo to book my domestic-only flights.

I was able to confirm the booking on Garuda's site. Thanks for the suggestion!- Bill

 

[dirtfarmer]

I was trying to book tickets thru the Garuda website earlier this year and despite having my credit card company watching the transactions and approving them, the transactions would never get cleared by Garuda. After 2 separate times I gave up. The liveaboard broker that I usually use put me in contact with their Indonesian travel agent who promptly booked my tickets. ( I tried to book my own tickets originally instead of the liveaboard broker as their commission was definitely not a fair price.)Then when doing the bank transfer to the travel agent an intermediary bank took a fee so the wire ended up short and I had to send another wire. Good thing my bank likes me and waived all the wire fees. Luckily now I have the # of a good Indonesian travel agent, now if I can just figure out the intermediary bank fee's I can book tickets easily, and without huge commissions.
Someday it would be nice to just book via the websites from the U.S.