Overview of Airlines Flying from Australia to Bali in 2024

Denpasar, Bali
Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Guillaume Marques on Unsplash.

Bali is one of the most popular holiday destinations for Australians, with well over a million Aussies flying there in a typical year. So it’s no surprise that there are tons of flights available to Denpasar from eight different airports across Australia.

Routes served from Australia to Denpasar (Bali)
Routes served from Australia to Denpasar (Bali).

In fact, there are currently 221 weekly return flights on eight different airlines from cities across Australia to Bali’s Denpasar Airport. That’s 42 more weekly flights than this time last year, and 47 more weekly flights than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The streets of Bali have been a lot emptier than usual during the pandemic
The streets of Bali were a lot emptier than usual during the pandemic – but the island’s tourism industry has now well and truly recovered! Photo: Jetstar.

From June 2024, there will even be a ninth Australian city with direct flights to Bali. Batik Air will launch 3x weekly Canberra-Denpasar flights from 14 June.

This article contains an overview of the airlines flying from Australia to Bali. Find out which aircraft are used, what type of service each airline offers and how to book flights to Bali using frequent flyer points!

Australia to Bali on Jetstar

Jetstar's new Airbus A321neo LR
Jetstar’s new Airbus A321neo LR. Photo: Jetstar.

With 82 return flights to Denpasar’s Ngurah Rai International Airport every week, Jetstar has by far the most flights between Australia and Bali of any airline.

Perth, Darwin and Cairns are served by narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft with Economy-only seating. Most flights from Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney use new A321neo jets, which are also configured only with Economy seats.

Jetstar Airbus A321neo LR economy class cabin
Jetstar’s Airbus A321neo LR cabin. Photo: Jetstar.

Limited Jetstar flights from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Denpasar are on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners which feature a small Business Class cabin. However, Jetstar’s Business Class seats are just large recliner seats (and not lie-flat beds). Jetstar is preparing to phase out its use of Boeing 787s on Bali routes later this year, which will result in fewer Business Class seats being available.

Jetstar 787 takes off
Jetstar Boeing 787-8. Photo: Jetstar.

As a low-cost carrier, Jetstar often has some of the cheapest flights to Bali. But Jetstar’s base fares only include the seat – baggage, meals, drinks, in-flight entertainment and even seat selection will all cost you extra. You can add a bundle for extra inclusions, including Qantas points & status credits.

Jetstar’s schedules on some routes are also not ideal, with many redeye (overnight) flights.

If you happen to have a Qantas Club membership or hold Qantas Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status, you can enjoy Qantas lounge access when flying Jetstar internationally from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or Darwin. There is no Qantas lounge access available for Jetstar passengers in Bali.

The Qantas international Business Lounge at Melbourne Airport
The Qantas International Business Lounge at Melbourne Airport. Photo: Matt Graham.

Booking Jetstar with points:

You can redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points and Emirates Skywards miles to book Classic Flight Reward seats on Jetstar. As an example, it would cost 19,200 Qantas points + taxes & carrier charges for a round-trip Jetstar flight from Darwin to Bali.

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Australia to Bali on Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia Boeing 737-800 pushes back at SYD T1
Virgin Australia flies Boeing 737-800s to Bali. Photo: Virgin Australia.

Virgin Australia currently flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Gold Coast to Bali. However, Virgin’s pre-COVID Port Hedland-Denpasar route has not returned.

All flights are on Boeing 737-800 aircraft with eight domestic-style recliner Business Class seats. In-flight entertainment is available to all passengers for free to stream on their own devices.

Virgin Australia's Boeing 737-800 cabin
Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737-800 cabin. Photo: Virgin Australia.

If you’re in Economy Class, meals are not included in the fare, but food and drinks are available for purchase. Tea, coffee and water are available for free. You might also wish to pack your own snacks as only a limited number of meals for purchase are loaded onto each flight.

In Business Class, meals and drinks are included.

If you’re in Business Class or have Velocity status, beware that Virgin Australia is not currently offering international lounge access. However, passengers who are normally eligible can access the Virgin Australia domestic lounges in Adelaide, Gold Coast or Melbourne prior to departure from those airports.

Booking Virgin Australia with points:

You can redeem Velocity Frequent Flyer points to book reward seats on Virgin Australia. Subject to reward seat availability, you could also book a seat using points with partner airline frequent flyer programs, including Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, United MileagePlus miles and Air Canada Aeroplan points.

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Australia to Bali on Qantas

Qantas Boeing 737-800 at Melbourne Airport
Qantas Boeing 737-800 at Melbourne Airport. Photo: Matt Graham.

Qantas flies daily from both Sydney and Melbourne to Bali.

If you have a choice, it’s much better to fly from Sydney to Bali because Qantas uses a wide-body Airbus A330 on this route with lie-flat Business Class and a more spacious Economy Class cabin. On the Melbourne-Bali route, Qantas uses narrow-body Boeing 737-800 jets featuring recliner Business seats and a more cramped experience in Economy.

Unlike Virgin Australia, Qantas offers full service, including a complimentary checked baggage allowance, meals, drinks (including alcohol) and seat-back in-flight entertainment for all passengers.

If you’re in Business Class, have a Qantas Club membership or hold Qantas Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status, you can also access the lounge before your flight.

Booking Qantas with points:

You can redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points or miles with any Oneworld or partner frequent flyer program to book Qantas flights. Perhaps of interest is that Melbourne-Denpasar is a sweet spot when redeeming Cathay Asia Miles at just 15,000 Asia Miles one-way in Economy or 33,000 Asia Miles one-way in Business, plus taxes & carrier charges (if you’re lucky enough to find reward availability).

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Australia to Bali on Garuda Indonesia

Sydney, Australia - October 9, 2013: Garuda Indonesia Airlines Airbus A330 airliner taking off from Sydney Airport.
Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330. Photo: Adobe Stock.

Before the pandemic, Garuda Indonesia offered daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to Denpasar. This has now been scaled back to just four weekly flights from Melbourne to Bali and five from Sydney.

That said, Garuda offers a comfortable bed in Business Class between Australia and Indonesia on its Airbus A330-300 aircraft. This is one of the best ways to fly from Australia to Bali in 2024! As a full-service airline, Garuda also includes meals, entertainment and baggage in Economy Class.

Booking Garuda Indonesia with points:

You can redeem points with any SkyTeam frequent flyer program to book a seat on Garuda Indonesia, such as Virgin Atlantic Points, Delta SkyMiles, Flying Blue miles or GarudaMiles. Or, just keep an eye out for a good sale fare.

Australia to Bali on Batik Air & Batik Air Malaysia

A Batik Air Indonesia Boeing 737-800 with Garuda Indonesia plane in background at CGK
A Batik Air Indonesia Boeing 737-800. Photo: Matt Graham.

Indonesia’s Batik Air (with “ID” flight numbers) offers Boeing 737 flights from Perth, Sydney and Canberra to Bali, with Economy and (recliner) Business Class available.

Batik Air Indonesia Boeing 737-800 Business Class seats
Batik Air Indonesia Boeing 737-800 Business Class seats. Photo: Matt Graham.

Batik Air Malaysia (with “OD” flight numbers) also operates its own flights from Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Bali. This is technically a different airline and used to be called Malindo Air. These flights all continue onwards from Denpasar to Kuala Lumpur, with the Australia-Indonesia legs sold as fifth-freedom flights. Batik Air Malaysia does not generally offer Business Class to/from Australia.

Malindo Air 737 economy cabin
Batik Air Boeing 737 Economy cabin. Photo: Matt Graham.

Batik Air does not partner with any frequent flyer programs of particular interest to Australians.

Australia to Bali on Indonesia AirAsia

AirAsia Airbus A320neo
AirAsia Airbus A320neo. Photo: AirAsia.

Indonesia AirAsia is an ultra-low-cost carrier flying 25 times per week from Perth to Bali using all-Economy Airbus A320s. Like Jetstar, Indonesia AirAsia has very low base fares, and all extras are available for purchase.

AirAsia A320neo Economy Class
AirAsia Airbus A320 Economy Class cabin. Photo: AirAsia.

In addition to Bali, Indonesia AirAsia flew from Perth to the Indonesian island of Lombok in 2019. However, this route has not returned since the pandemic.

Booking AirAsia flights with points:

You can redeem airasia rewards points (formerly BIG Loyalty points) for AirAsia flights. It is possible to transfer points from CommBank Awards into airasia rewards, although we wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing this. The airfares are usually cheap enough that you’re probably better off saving your points for another reward!

Citilink A320
Photo: Adobe Stock.

Citilink, a low-cost carrier owned by Garuda Indonesia, flies daily from Perth to Denpasar. These services are on Airbus A320s with Economy Class only.

There is no practical way to book Citilink flights using frequent flyer points earned in Australia, but the airfares are usually fairly cheap to begin with.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Community Comments

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I'm still amazed that there is no full service airline between PER and DPS. Pre-Covid Garuda flew this sector. Would be a perfect opportunity for VA to take it up now.

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Surely Jetstar in Y is the best way to get the feel of Bali?!

Reply 22 Likes

We regularly visited Bali pre Covid and GA was our pick but we are going back in July this year for a friends 50th and got guilted into all travelling together from ADL with 10 others. JQ is on my banned list so we agreed to travel with them on the condition that it was VA and that I don’t care where the others sit but we are going in J. They all booked in Y in the end
A day flight in VA J is ok but no way we will do it for a night flight so we will head elsewhere afterwards and get a full service airline home

Reply 4 Likes

The best airline to fly with in 2023 is the one I could get J reward flights for: VA. It’s a bit ridiculous that there’s no international lounge access though, particularly as I’ve been getting international lounge access with Va’s partner airlines as a Y passenger. I wonder if VA will announce a third party lounge arrangement once the rolling status extensions end later this month. I hope so. It’d be nice to take my travelling partner into an international lounge pre-departure, particularly as we have to endure a domestic transit in SYD. The horror.

Reply Like

I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

Reply 1 Like

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Having flown several of the options I think it comes down to aircraft… I think a ‘full service’ wide body beats a B737. That being said the meal and drink offerings on GA pre covid were pretty basic. I would almost have preferred buy on board.

Economy on a 737 would have to be QF hands down. VA’s economy X second.

Agree with you luxury-lizard… I’m in the same boat… trying to decide between SQ J or VA J. Maybe VA J for the day trip up, and SQ back? The layover ex SYD on the date I wanted was 10ths in SIN. So maybe not worth it.

But with weekly flying in VA J i’m not sure I want to see the inside of a VA cabin for 6 hours! It’s very hard to get comfortable :(

Reply Like

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I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

If deciding between SQ and VA, I'd personally think of it as choosing Business Class with a longer travel time or a direct flight in Premium Economy. That's probably a more accurate comparison (especially if the return flight on VA involves an overnight sector).

If using VA, they do at least have a daytime DPS-MEL option.

Reply 1 Like

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I'm also looking for flights to/from Bali in late September and have found all the options described in the article. On looking for award fights found with AC points I can get SYD (or ADL)-SIN-DPS for 45K points flying SQ - just can't decide if it's worth the additional travel times when a paid J fare on VA is between $1100-1400 depending on day/routing (many flights seem to be 1-stop in MEL or ADL or OOL). Similar situation on the return - still undecided - may just go for the paid J VA flights (QF is double the price for similar seating). We have no interest in various LCC's. The lack of a lounge when flying VA is not a big issue - we can use the AmEx lounge.

We have taken the VA J option ADL-DPS. It wasn’t our preferred option but lounge access in ADL and being a day flight we can bear it. On the way back though we have a few options to consider. I’m leaning slightly towards MH but VN are offering not bad prices ex CGK and there is always an option to take up the PR bargains ex KUL where we can get a return ticket cheaper than most one way fares

Reply Like

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Having flown several of the options I think it comes down to aircraft… I think a ‘full service’ wide body beats a B737. That being said the meal and drink offerings on GA pre covid were pretty basic. I would almost have preferred buy on board.

I've only flown GA once between PER and DPS in Y. I thought the Y meal was decent enough for Y. On par with QF international Y meal. I might be mistaken, but I also think an amenity kit was provided for what was essentially a 4 hour day flight.

Reply Like

I will be keen to try the VA service between ME:L - DPS possible if I could score the J reward seats as Bali has been on cards for sometime but COVID had other plans.

Reply Like