Review of Lion Mentari Airlines flight Singapore Jakarta in Economy

Flight JT151
Class Economy
Seat 32A
Aircraft Boeing 737-900ER
Flight time 01:45
Take-off 01 Feb 18, 19:50
Arrival at 01 Feb 18, 20:35
JT   #63 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 28 reviews
Eric V P
By 623
Published on 3rd February 2018
Report #22: JT151 - First time being involuntarily bused on SIN

This will be my report on flying Lion Air economy class from Singapore to Jakarta, a short haul international flight within SE Asia. Due to my large number of other works, this is the shortest trip report I've ever made recently but I still work on maintaining a decent size of it.

Background


As I was somehow lucky enough to meet my FYP professor on Thursday but at the same time I tried to stay as much as possible to be in stealth, I decided to fly on Thursday evening and return on Saturday morning. This trip was also an exciting one as I had the opportunity to meet my ex-colleagues in 3 different companies, which is one way to keep in touch.

With those, and also cost (it won't look great when my parents check my bank statement - at least since I use automated immigration gates in CGK and SIN there's no way to prove my trip by passport :p) in mind, the trip also need to be as simple as possible (i.e. just direct flights with the right times), which made me fall for Lion Air's evening flight.

The flight costed S$65 (US$49) one way, but after OTA discount it went down to only S$55 (US$41.7). Not only that, I also got further discount for my stay in Jakarta, which at the same hostel as on my first Jakarta trip costed me S$7 (US$5.2)
photo tix sincgk3

Trip to SIN and check-in


After I went to my campus' career fair and had lunch with some of my friends, I decided to proceed to the airport by electric metro train.

I arrived at the airport 1 hour 40 minutes to the scheduled departure time.
photo 20180201_181439photo 20180201_181444

Entrance to the B2 retail area. I proceeded there as my friend asked me for the famous transparent milk tea.
photo 20180201_181524

After buying the milk tea order, I decided to proceed to the departure area.
photo 20180201_182551

As it was nearing Chinese new year, the check-in row signages were decorated.
photo 20180201_182601

The JT group, which in Singapore means JT, ID (which I used for the return flight), OD, and SL uses the row 1 check-in counters. Unlike in CGK, the counters happened to be pretty quiet.
photo 20180201_182748

As usual, I asked the check-in staff, so here are some that I asked:
- How many persons on board (she mentioned 150 - obviously lying as I got sequence 153, so I'm assuming it's 150 - 160)
- Why waa it so quiet (many others had checked in before, though given the lack of lounge access among others I preferred to arrive a bit later)
- Can I get assigned to emergency exit row seat by the window (most certainly yes, despite JT being a LCC it adopts a no-nonsense-charge model which allows exit row seating free of charge).

This time the boarding pass was actually decent (by JT standard) with thick boarding pass stock
photo 20180201_183058

The departure area was rather quiet, as expected.
photo 20180201_183159

I couldn't figure out what it is, but seemed cute enough.
photo 20180201_183224

As usual, ticket check and immigration were swift and I cleared both of them in 1 1/2 minutes.
photo 20180201_183305

SIN transit area and departure


The most striking difference since I went there must be the new Louis Vuitton store.
photo 20180201_183446

Other than that, the terminal was the same as before.
photo 20180201_183449photo 20180201_183502

As usual, flying from terminal 3 in late afternoon or evening (they're open on 3 PM to 11 PM) isn't complete with the free small glass Singapore Sling at The Long Bar, located in the second floor of the duty-free store. Unlike before, though, they have premixed it beforehand and have it chilled rather than making it from scratch since when I was there everybody else also ordered the Singapore Sling.
photo 20180201_183956photo 20180201_184431

It's not JT if there's no delay (especially in the evening), so as expected the flight got retimed by almost an hour.
photo 20180201_185901

Considering that, I decided to get a seat by the window behind the LV store, which not only feature AC and USB plugs, but also a decent view of the apron, a rare sight in SIN.
photo 20180201_190027

The corporate photo.
photo 20180201_194404

The plane about to bring me to Jakarta was delayed.
photo 20180201_194334

I then proceeded to the gate.
photo 20180201_195649

It's weird that they put me to gate A1 - A8 instead of the usual A16 - A20
photo 20180201_195829photo 20180201_195935

Security was fast and I was let through in 1 minute.
photo 20180201_200032

Signages leading to the gates.
photo 20180201_200259

The gate turned out to be a bus gate, which also marked my first time departing to a plane from a bus gate (the transfer from terminal 2 to terminal 4 was also from gate F51, another bus gate)
photo 20180201_200316

Unlike other gates, this one felt too spartan to my liking.
photo 20180201_200342

I decided to join the boarding queue later on, but even so it still took me 7 minutes.
photo 20180201_200601photo 20180201_201027

The bus gate from the outside.
photo 20180201_201324

SIN used Cobus 3000 buses, which despite the large space still ended up being crowded.
photo 20180201_201344

The ride to the remote stand was excruciatingly long as we went from terminal 3 all the way to the north of terminal 1.
photo 20180201_201849

The plane I was about to ride for the day, a 6 years old PK-LHY.
photo 20180201_202653photo 20180201_202657

One last view of Singapore for the day.
photo 20180201_202921

After a 5 minutes queue at the staircase, I managed to enter the plane.
photo 20180201_203056photo 20180201_203101

On board


Flight: JT151
Plane: PK-LHY
STD/ATD: 19.50/20.45
STA/ATA: 20.35/22.13
Load factor: 71 - 74%Y (153 - 160/215)
Seat type: Standard economy class (emergency exit row window seat)
Details: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/LNI151/history/20180201/1150Z/WSSS/WIII

Two flight attendants welcomed me on board.
photo 20180201_203142

I then walked down the aisle to my seat, but since only the front door was used to board the plane it was a rather chaotic process.
photo 20180201_203153

My seat was behind the actual emergency exit row (row 31), but instead of just offering a good legroom it offered an almost unlimited legroom (except that the door made the left side slightly smaller) and therefore still constitute an emergency exit seat.
photo 20180201_203419

Two downside is that there was no table at my seat - the folding table was disabled, which means I needed to use the middle seat table, and that my seat pocket was inaccessible, necessitating me to use the one at the middle seat as well. Fortunately, though, the seat was empty, providing me with even more space.
photo 20180201_203424

The seatbelt is also unique to the seat, especially that one side is padded (or is it airbag?) while the buckle had an additional support below.
photo 20180201_203520photo 20180201_203542

Safety card and exit row instructions were available.
photo 20180201_222028photo 20180201_223501

Because Indonesia is a religious country, the classic prayer card was also present (I remember they had one even during their MD-82 days)
photo 20180201_221240

Meals and souvenir catalogue was available, but there was completely no service provided during the flight.
photo 20180201_223523photo 20180201_223537

The lack of service rounds means that there isn't even any pre-landing cleaning done, resulting in the sad state of the seat pocket.
photo 20180201_221246

Throughout the flight I discussed with my seatmate, who happened to be an Indonesian investment advisor working in Singapore yet returning home to Jakarta every weekend (made possible by the fierce competition among LCCs on the route, of course), which means that I took very few photos of the outside.

During the cruise, lamps were set to bluish white.
photo 20180201_221954

I took time to go to the toilet, which wasn't that clean either.
photo 20180201_223630photo 20180201_223637

Photo of the cabin, which was especially solemn.
photo 20180201_223815

The sole decent photo of the outside, which I took during the descent.
photo 20180201_225639

Soon after, I arrived at CGK and the plane parked at the E gates.
photo 20180201_222147

What do E gates mean? Bus ride to the arrival immigration.
photo 20180201_222347

Arrival at CGK and post-arrival trip


The bus ride to the D gates was anything but eventful.

After reaching the D gates, I then walked to the arrival immigration. This time, the automated gates were working and despite the massive queue to the manned counters for Indonesian passport holders the automated gates were rather empty so I was let through in 1 minute and most importantly without passport stamp. The automated gates work with all Indonesian passports, newer or older, e-passport or just machine readable passport, so it's surprising that not many people get to use it instead.
photo 20180201_223247photo 20180201_223336

The arrival area wasn't that busy - or was it?
photo 20180201_223749

Not for JT, of course - they used the same carousel for not one but 3 flights at once. At least my bag got through in 17 minutes since I deplaned, which was acceptable.
photo 20180201_223835

CGK terminal 2 customs area - I was let through without any additional check.
photo 20180201_224123

The arrival area was chaotic as usual.
photo 20180201_224131photo 20180201_224204

I took the bus ride to Gambir Stn (Jakarta's first/business class train station), and then took a car to the hostel.
photo 20180202_002047photo 20180202_002144

Bonus: CGK "automatic" people mover


Bonus : Click here display
See more

Verdict

Lion Mentari Airlines

2.5/10
Cabin3.5
Cabin crew3.0
Entertainment/wifi1.5
Meal/catering2.0

Singapore - SIN

7.3/10
Efficiency9.0
Access6.0
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.0

Jakarta - CGK

4.3/10
Efficiency6.0
Access3.0
Services4.0
Cleanliness4.0

Conclusion

While I loved JT for providing free exit row seating, one really gets what he paid for. From the ever-present delay (in evening/late afternoon), unclean cabin, lack of in-flight magazine (JT has one, just that it was missing), to complete lack of service, it almost feels like taking a bus to Jakarta.

Would I fly with them again? Yes, especially on domestic and (in secret) Singapore - Jakarta flights - upgrading to GA alone is usually a massive undertaking and even with my best effort to convince my family it often met with resistance. For a stealth trip like this, Lion is also unavoidable thanks to its usually cheap fare which won't show that much dent in the bank statement.

Some thing done well for the trip:
+ Reasonable fare (S$55 (US$42) one-way)
+ Acceptable check-in waiting and processing time
+ Decent boarding pass stock paper (by Lion standard)
+ Fast immigration at SIN
+ Seating area at SIN
+ Acceptable security at SIN
+ SIN terminal 3's quietness
+ Free exit row seat assignment
+ Working immigration gates and immigration time at CGK
+ Reasonable baggage claim time

Things that can be improved:
- Gate usage at SIN (bus gates instead of the usual A16 - A20)
- Long boarding queue
- Cabin cleanliness
- Lack of in-flight magazine
- Complete lack of service
- Gate usage at CGK (E gates instead of D gates)
- Slow, low frequency, still manual people mover
- Airport train booking cut-off time

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

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 28 avis concernant 9 compagnies sur la ligne Singapore (SIN) → Jakarta (CGK).


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 51 minutes.

  More information

0 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !

Login to post a comment.