Review of Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Surabaya in Business

Garuda Indonesia has always been a primary choice for me when traveling domestically in Indonesia, including this one. This trip was a part of my leisure vacation to Semarang and Jakarta on May 2016. I got promo business fare, plus I will get A330-200 widebody aircraft serving this Jakarta-Surabaya route, so the temptation was just so hard to resist.
After spending two days exploring Jakarta sights, museums, fancy restaurants and its concrete jungle, now’s the time to get back to Surabaya where I work. It only took not more than an hour to get me from my hotel at fancy downtown Kuningan area to Soekarno-Hatta airport since the traffic was so light, probably because most of the Jakartans also went outside the city in long weekend. Normally, it would take around two hours in heavy traffic just to get to the airport.
I went to special check-in counter for First/Business Class passenger, and as usual, all procedures were handled by a nice staff who took your ticket and ID and let you be seated on a comfy couch. And you’ll be getting the BP in just couple of minutes. Very efficient and GA provides the same high level of service even to its domestic routes.
I then headed to Garuda Indonesia Domestic Lounge to have some nibbles. The lounge is located right after lots of duty-free shops, together with other lounges in CGK.
Lounge entrance:

My light lunch and seating area:

I still had an hour before boarding, so I decided to take some shower just to freshen up before flight. GA lounge is also equipped with many facilities and one of them is a shower room, each in male and female restroom.

One of the attendants helped me to prepare all amenities for showering, including towels, soaps, shampoo, tooth brush and comb. I remember that this particular comb is of the same type as what GA gives onboard as amenity kit for their international business class passengers.

The room itself is clean and sleek with vanity mirror on one side and shower cubicle on the other side. Water pressure is good with hot and cold water both run well.

After showering, I moved back to the seating area, lounging and watching people. I guess this is also one of my hobbies, observing people.

Then, I was thinking of having some light massage. So I went to the massage room and have this little buddy pampering me for a while.

Certainly it’s not what you would expect for a decent massage, but that machine does the thing perfectly, so no complain here. After all, having such a perk in domestic lounge is more than enough.
It’s time to get on board. I was literally surprised to find out that the seat in business cabin belongs to the complete flatbed type that Garuda has in its fleet. It’s not the latest Diamond Seat in their A333 and A332s which they use on their Australian route, but this is one of the most sophisticated business class seats they have for domestic routes besides the ones in their B777-300ER fleets serving Jakarta and Bali routes.

Once seated and while waiting for boarding to finish, one FA came to me offering this hot towel on a wooden tray and also welcome drink. They had choices of apple juice, orange juice, or water. I picked only water this time.

I once again observed the seat. It is equipped with universal power port, USB port, headphone jack, remote control for the AVOD, and adjustable headlamp. A nice red pillow is put in each seat. A magazine rack is located under monitor screen and contained safety instruction card, Garuda in-flight magazine Colours, in-flight shopping magazine, entertainment guide magazine, and a sick bag.

Once airborne and seatbelt sign was off, the FAs sprung out to action because this was just a mere one hour plus flight so they had to make it a little rush. No menu card for domestic flight and as I remembered, we had two options of main, fried rice or fried noodle. I chose the chicken fried rice. It came in one tray along with cut fresh fruits, a pandan pudding and choices of breads. The portion was quite small but not much to complain about since it tasted great and I already had some light snack in the lounge. I still think that the menu is quite extensive for short hop domestic flight.

A cup of tea and coke for the drink. Actually, GA also has beer on offer for domestic business class, but I’d stay with tea and coke this time.

It’s time to try on that flatbed seat. It comes completely flat and very comfortable as well. I believe GA also uses this aircraft to its Far East destinations and I’m surely certain this bed comes handy to have a good nap then.

The flight went smooth during cruising but encountered several turbulence during descent and approaching destination airport due to some very thick clouds and rainy weather. But I still had a good time enjoying the rough ride with me lying and strapping on a flat seat.

The flight arrived 15 minutes behind schedule because the pilot had to make some turnaround until the weather was clear. It was a smooth landing. Once again, I had a very nice flight experience with Garuda Indonesia.
Bonus pictures:
Some shots of Jakarta, mostly skyscrapers and city sight.

View outside of my hotel:

These were taken on a rooftop bar called Skye Bar on 56th floor.