Review of Indonesia AirAsia flight Jakarta Singapore in Economy

Airline Indonesia AirAsia
Flight QZ266
Class Economy
Seat 26E
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 01:45
Take-off 03 Jul 17, 14:00
Arrival at 03 Jul 17, 16:45
QZ   #92 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 34 reviews
anaknegeri
Published on 20th July 2017
Hello friends! Welcome to my report.

Firstly, as usual, please apologize for my bad English, and also bad photo quality as I took all shots by my cellphone.

I've counted and just realized that I've written 16 flight reports on this website. Please keep supporting me to write more reports in the future.

This time I will tell you my experience on a relatively short flight and perhaps one of the busiest international routes in Southeast Asia: Jakarta-Singapore. This route is currently served by both Indonesian carriers (Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Batik Air, Indonesia AirAsia) and Singaporean carriers (Singapore Airlines, Jetstar, Tigerair). Air France also served this route (you can read my experience with it here) for a while until its withdrawal on February 2016, but before that, more foreign carriers like Qatar Airways (our friend manureva744 write his report here in 2007), Qantas, etc. also served this route as their 5th-freedom route. The planes operated for this route are consisting of many types, from the small Airbus A320 to the wide-body Boeing 777-300 and newest Airbus A350-900.

Singapore is probably most favorite place for Indonesian people to travel outside the country (other than Malaysia), with great public transport and high standard of safety. That makes the Jakarta-Singapore v.v route very busy. Ticket prices are relatively cheap, especially if you buy in advance, starting from IDR 300,000 (about USD 22.00) for one-way trip. You can buy even cheaper ticket during promotion events held by airline & ticketing companies. Unfortunately, as we planned to travel on July, a peak season period in Indonesia, the ticket price started from IDR 500,000 (about USD 37.00).

Our main purpose of travelling on this route in July 3rd 2017 was not for leisure, but to visit my cousin (son of my mom's oldest brother) who was on treatment in Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore. He was affected by an unknown disease on his appendix. Well, I can't explain anymore about this, as it's difficult for me to use medical terms in English. The unreliable quality of healthcare in Indonesia made his family decide to bring him to Singapore. My parents had flew with Lion Air to Singapore on July 1st 2017, while I and my sister departed 2 days later, because my sister still had a test to be done as a student of undergraduate program.

This time, as both Lion Air and Indonesia AirAsia (QZ) offered cheapest price on this route, I chose QZ and bought 2 tickets for me and my little sister, which costed IDR 1,280,000 (about USD 96.00). We also had to pay IDR 150,000 for 20kg baggage allowance.

A night before our journey, I did the online check in, and here is the boarding pass.
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July 3rd, 2017. We left our home in southeastern side of Jakarta to the airport by express bus. The traffic seems very friendly.
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Public buses to the airport always enter Terminal 1 first, then to terminal 2 (our departure terminal).
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Here I saw 2 A330 fleets of Lion. They were usually used for charter flights. Last year (2016) the A330s were used for Hajj flights from Nigeria to Saudi.
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Entering terminal 2.
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Arriving in terminal 2, and this is the express bus bringing us here.
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AirAsia group use terminal 2E, since its moving from the demolished old terminal 3. It's only non-Skyteam member in this terminal.
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There was still about 2 hours before boarding. I and my sister had lunch at Solaria, a popular Indonesian restaurant chain (unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this). Actually I wanted to buy meals on our flight, but I could not wait to have lunch at 2.30 p.m.

After the lunch, we proceed to the check in counter to drop our luggage.
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Then we proceed to the immigration and safety check. All checks were done, time to wait at the boarding gate (E4).
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Close to us was a B777-300ER of China Airlines, preparing for departure to Taipei.
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Other sights outside the window.
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We were called for boarding at 1.30 p.m. (20 minutes late from schedule), and we had to reach the plane by bus, without using aerobridge.

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Some sights outside the bus, including a 777-300ER by Eva Air, same route with previous China Airlines.
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Arriving at our plane. Its registration code was PK-AZA, with livery sponsored by TAGG, an online web-based game. The aircraft started operation in November 2012 (according to FR24).
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Final shot before entering the plane.
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Cabin situation. Still fresh and well-maintained.
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We proceed to our seats on 26th row. While boarding, the plane's speaker played an Indonesian song titled "Galih dan Ratna", a song popular in 1980s which is re-performed by young trio of GAC. The song is nice to enjoy.

The boarding process completed at 2.00 p.m. This time the flight was full-loaded; no vacant seats.

Then the aircraft was pushed back and cabin crews started the safety instructions. They were still young, nice to look, and full of smiles.

The plane would take off from the southern runway, a runway close to the domestic terminal. We passed the GMF AeroAsia hangar owned by Garuda Indonesia.
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Here I saw 747s of Garuda and other carriers parked.
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At around 2.15 p.m. (UTC+7) the plane flew to the sky. The take off process was smooth.
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But 5 minutes after that, we entered the bad weather situation, and some shakes happened. I was quite worried and keep praying.
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Thanks God, it was not for a long time. Then we saw the clear sky.
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The seat-belt sign was turned off. As usual, I checked the stuffs inside the seat pocket. But before that, cabin crews distributed Singapore immigration cards for all passengers (except Singaporean citizen). Don't worry, the cards are also available at the airport.
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Safety card.
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3Sixty magazine, Indonesian version.
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"Santan" (Malay / Indonesian: coconut) on-board food menu and shopping catalog on the same book. Very unique.
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Another shot of the cabin, sponsored by TAGG.
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During this flight, we entered 3x bad weather conditions and small-scale turbulences. The weather was not friendly at this time, rains and showers everywhere. I couldn't do anything but keep praying to make me feel safe.

Finally, the aircraft slowly went down, and we could see large sea and islands.
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We even could see Jembatan Barelang, an iconic bridge located in Batam, Indonesian city on the southern side of Singapore. I've visited the bridge 10 years ago.
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The plane touched down in Changi Airport at 3.40 p.m. (UTC+8, an hour ahead of Jakarta).
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And I really loved sights at this great airport. As you know, the Jakarta's airport is still not ready for A380s.
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My favorite European carrier, KLM. It was PH-BVO plane, preparing for departure to Bali (Denpasar).
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A380 of Emirates.
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Batik Air, ready to return to Jakarta. Same type with our AirAsia plane.
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A350 of Finnair, just arrived from Helsinki.
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Our AirAsia plane parked at the apron, and it was time to leave the plane.
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We arrived at Changi's Terminal 1. Before proceeding to immigration counter, we connected our cellphones to the airport's free Wi-fi, so that we can inform our parents who had been waiting at the Gleneagles Hospital.

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Immigration check done. We then moved to the baggage belt.
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Time to leave the airport by MRT train. To reach the MRT train, we had to pass the Terminal 1 departure area, before taking the skytrain / aerotrain to Terminal 2. Here at the departure area we saw an unique thing.
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Check in counters at terminal 1.
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Flight schedule of that day.
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Skytrain.
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Way to the MRT station.
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Finally we left the airport by train to the city centre.
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My father had been waiting for us at the hospital. Then we looked at our cousin in the ward. Thanks God, his health condition was improving.

We stayed in Singapore for 4 days, and return to Jakarta at July 6th through Batam. You can read the report here.

How about my cousin? He and his family left Singapore on July 17th, after about 10 days treatment in the hospital. He is currently still in recovery.
See more

Verdict

Indonesia AirAsia

6.4/10
Cabin8.0
Cabin crew7.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering5.0

Jakarta - CGK

6.4/10
Efficiency7.0
Access6.0
Services6.5
Cleanliness6.0

Singapore - SIN

8.8/10
Efficiency8.5
Access8.5
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0

Conclusion

I was satisfied by the service of Indonesia AirAsia (QZ). Personally, I really like the PK-AZA plane's livery (as I'm also a gamer too), and the LCC is applying nice strategy to have ads or sponsored livery in their fleets, making them more "colorful".

The seat was standard for LCC, with seat pitch enough for average Southeast Asian people. Cabin crews were young, talented, friendly, and full of smiles. No scores for meals and entertainment. If Malaysian AirAsia (AK) can provide the "Rokki" IFE portal accessed by our gadgets through Wi-fi, why can't QZ do the same thing? QZ needs to consider it.

Our departure was 30 minutes late behind the schedule. I hope that the carrier always improve their time punctuality.

The flight entered 3x bad weather, including one happened only 5 minutes after departure. Rains and showers everywhere. Thanks God, we arrived safely in Singapore. I'm really sure that QZ has improved their safety after QZ8501 crash happened in the end of 2014.

Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport is nothing special for me, while Singapore's Changi Airport is always amazing. If my parents were not waiting for me at the hospital, I would spend 5 hours here to spot airplanes and enjoy all free facilities provided by the airport.

Thanks for reading. Any suggestion and feedback are appreciated.

Information on the route Jakarta (CGK) Singapore (SIN)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 34 avis concernant 8 compagnies sur la ligne Jakarta (CGK) → Singapore (SIN).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Singapore Airlines avec 8.7/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 39 minutes.

  More information

1 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 405646 by
    arikevin 9 Comments
    Thanks for sharing your experiences. I hope CGK will cease using the remote gates. Many times I see there empty gates and we still have to be transported using bus to the remote bay or other gates. This happened to Garuda too.

    Anyway, speedy recovery to your cousin. Salam hangat.

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