2021 introduction to a 2017 report
Hello, Flight-report community, and welcome to the continuation of this series covering my adventure from Toronto to Bali with Delta and Garuda.
Those of you who've read the first part will likely recall that I mentioned this report will be a mix of that which was reported live as it happened, and that which I will have to cobble together from memory some three and a half years later.
This report, unfortunately, is in that latter category. So my apologies, because the narrative will not be in my usual style for the most part.
Or, if you find my usual style too wordy, then congratulations. Maybe this is the flight-report for you!
Either way, let's dive in, shall we?
the rundown
Flight routing
- 1DL5431 - Domestic First - Toronto -> Detroit - Bombardier CRJ-900
- 2
- 3
- 4GA412 - Business - Jakarta -> Denpasar - Airbus A330-200
- 5GA425 - Business - Denpasar -> Jakarta - Airbus A330-300
- 6GA86 - First - Jakarta -> Singapore - Boeing 777-300ER
- 7GA86 - First - Singapore -> London - Boeing 777-300ER
- 8DL17 - Business - London -> Detroit - Boeing 767-300ER
- 9DL6300 - Domestic First - Detroit -> Toronto - Bombardier CRJ-900
when last we saw our humble flight-reporter…
… he was being accompanied by Afi from Garuda Indonesia's ground services in CGK from his arrival from London, through to the domestic departures area of the airport.
Afi made the process very easy, helping me to the front of the priority security line, and then guiding me through to Garuda's Domestic Lounge, where he set me up in my own private area. I don't know if I'm the only passenger connecting from international F, but i'm the only one in this particular room.



Here, Afi hands me off to a lounge agent, who's joined by a waiter. They ask what I'd like to drink, and I know booze is not available in Garuda domestic lounges – plus, I don't feel the need to drink right now – so I just request some sparkling water.
This leads to some conversation between the agent and the waiter, and then the agent offers apologies, but says that sparkling water is not available in the domestic lounge.
That's fine with me, so I just request some flat water. And the waiter promptly delivers it, along with some fruit.

Left alone, I explore the lounge a little. It's a reasonable size for a domestic primary hub lounge of the flag carrier of a nation that's as dependent on aviation as Indonesia. It's simply but tastefully appointed, and given that the whole terminal still has that new terminal smell at this point, everything looks very new.



The buffet is fairly large, although not overly impressive










I don't recall eating, but apparently I did.

WiFi in the lounge was decent enough, as I recall.

A while later, the waiter reappears, with the agent. The agent apologizes once again for not having sparkling water on-hand but offers up this bottle. Apparently, the waiter either went to the International Lounge or to the supplies closet to finding this. It's served cold, so I presume the former.
Either way, an impressive gesture for them to go to that trouble when I was fine with just plain water. I offer sincere thanks and the impression this gesture has on me to the agent, and hopefully to the waiter as well.

Having savoured the best damned specially-delivered sparkling water I've ever had, it's about time to head down to my flight, and sure enough, Afi appears to collect me for my flight down to Denpasar.
He helps me navigate past through this mob, and board at my convenience.

the flight-report
A look at the 332 that will take me across to Bali tonight.

Flight: GA412
From: Jakarta (CGK)
To: Denpasar (DPS)
Date: 9/6/2017
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300
Registration: PK-GHC
Seat: 8A
ATD (STD): 20:23 (20:00)
ATA ( STA): 22:45 (22:55)
Afi helps me to my seat and stows my bag overhead, and hands me off to the service lead on board, a female flight attendant I'd guess in her mid-40s. She offers a friendly greeting, and it's obvious that I've been marked for special attention, either by the flight manifest or by the fact that I've been escorted to the plane by a First Class agent.
The seats on this particular A330 are nothing special, but plenty good enough for this kind of a short flight over to Bali.








Service begins with water and a hot towel.

Headphones are decidedly meh.

IFE is decent for an "older" business class seat.


The blanket is attractive and comfortable, and in the Garuda "red means business class" design language.

Taxiiing out and taking off into the night.




A pretty standard forward lav.



This was a pretty short flight, so the meal service was quickly brought to me – I forget if a menu, or even a choice, was offered.
I recall the meal being just okay, but nothing special. The salad/slaw was the best thing, as I recall it.




Drinks to accompany meal and afterwards. There's no alcohol on GA domestic flights, but the Coke and the coffee were okay.


If memory serves, I napped a little bit for the rest of the flight, and soon enough, we were landing in Bali.

And the flight ends as we pull into the domestic terminal next to our plane's stablemate.

arrival services at DPS
To my surprise, I was greeted by another black-uniformed agent from Garuda's First Class ground services upon arrival in Denpasar. He greeted me, took my carry-on, and guided me through the terminal to departures.
I had arranged a transfer from the AirBNB owner whose place I was staying at in Bali, but communication was a bit rough since it wasn't the owner himself who arranged the drive, but it was only the owner to whom I had contact information.
Ground services took over, got the owner's contact info from me, and called him to figure out where my ride was.
It took some time to figure it out, but eventually, they ascertained that the driver was at international arrivals, having missed that my most-recent flight was from Jakarta. A pair of ground services agents stuck with me until the driver had arrived, and helped me load my luggage into the car.
All in all, I was very impressed with Garuda's ground services. I know Denpasar is a very important domestic hub for them, but it's not the home of their relatively limited F service, so I was surprised to get F-class ground services upon arrival here.
The ride to my AirBNB was memorable in its own right. The driver, a friend of the AirBNB owner, was a character and a half, and seemed to split his time amongst doing pickups for AirBNBs and other personal connections, driving rideshare, and running Carpool Karaoke. I declined to be recorded singing in his car, but he shared a few YouTube videos of his clients from around the world singing in the backseat of his car.
And when he found out I was Canadian? The next thing I heard from the car's sound system was the opening notes of Tom Sawyer. Turns out he's a massive Rush fan, so I heard allllll about that.
All in all, it was a very memorable ride, and a lot of fun, even though I was quite tired.
Thanks for joining me for this flight, and I hope you'll check things out when I pick up the flight on the way home.
Cheers!