Garuda or Virgin or other Bali?

[NDiddy]

If your travelling with your partner, consider switching on family pooling.

Gets at least one of you closer to Gold.

Cheers mavrick9 but just me travelling on this trip. Thanks for the tip though.

 

[NDiddy]

I have been investigating the same route for a trip in October. Out of interest do you know how much your flights ended up being NDiddy? We are looking at departing 19/10/12 on JQ (as that is the only flight that would let me work that day) but returning on the 27th all three airlines depart at similar times. At the moment all the fares are around $800 return, which seems pretty expensive. I know it is a long way out but does anyone know historically what sale fares can be on this route/airlines? Historically how far out does JQ seem to discount fares? We are outside of any school holidays so would have thought we could get something decent. Am I dreaming at $500 return?

Hey travelislife cost of the ticket was $837.02 including taxes. Baggage was another $60 and the cc surcharge was $14 so all up $911.02.

I've seen return fares being advertised for around the $600 mark and you could probably get it cheaper if you went the Air Asia route when they have their sales on but obviously with a stop in KL in both directions.

 

[travelislife]

Yeah I looked at the AirAsia thing but not worth the hassle for a one week holiday, has to be direct flights. $911 is pretty expensive it seems to me on what are 'budget' carriers. It is only a 5 and a half hour to 6 hour flight, Bangkok and Singapore can be had for much cheaper than that for longer flights. I would have thought 3 carriers competing on the one holiday route would create some pretty low fares but it seems not.

 

[dajop]

Yeah I looked at the AirAsia thing but not worth the hassle for a one week holiday, has to be direct flights. $911 is pretty expensive it seems to me on what are 'budget' carriers. It is only a 5 and a half hour to 6 hour flight, Bangkok and Singapore can be had for much cheaper than that for longer flights. I would have thought 3 carriers competing on the one holiday route would create some pretty low fares but it seems not.

Yes $911 seems very expensive for LCCs. I guess that's the price for non-stop flights, but even SQ are only charging $980 return to DPS in Oct.

 

[NDiddy]

Yes $911 seems very expensive for LCCs. I guess that's the price for non-stop flights, but even SQ are only charging $980 return to DPS in Oct.

Agreed - If I were paying for this myself I would have gone via SIN and done a stopover. Keep your eye out though Oct is a ways away and I'd be surprised if there wasn't another sale on for that time period on the LCC's.

 

[smithy]

I go to Bali out of Melbourne once or twice a year.
Normally use Jetstar but on my last trip in December, I decided to go against my three principles of flying which are:
never travel on Garuda,
never do a 6am flight departure, and
never fly on anything built by the Russians.

Anyway the wife and if decided to give Garuda a try after 20 years.
To be honest we were very impressed with Y, it was a wery new aircraft, excellent IFE, good meals/drinks, the flight was not full and we were seated forward just behind business class. We had a 1000am departure from Melbourne which is better than Jetstar 1850 departure. As a bonus, we got 30kg of luggage allowance in economy.
From memory we paid about $200 per person more than a Jetstar flight of the same date.
Would we use Garuda again?.. yes

 

[missafternoondelight]

Hey guys,
I go to Bali about 4 times a year on average, sometimes just for a weekend for beauty treatments and R&R. Incidentally, if SWMBO is that way inclined, I can recommend the BIMC Anti-Aging Clinic for microdermabrasion and minor medical beauty treatments. Very professional, Australian & Singaporean staff / doctors, and about 1/4 of the price for most procedures.

Now, to flights. I go from PER, and have flown on most airlines, and have found all to be okay. My least favourite is JQ because they run A320s from PER, but I have done the A330 to Melbourne before in JQ business. I liked it, thought it was 2 hours late for no reason. Still, if you have no connections it is not such an issue. They give you entry into the Premier Lounge, which is far better than waiting in the coughpy departure lounge. For future reference, it is worth booking the homeward leg separately, as it is cheaper that way. I think it cost me about $900 one way, DPS - MEL, which I thought was fair. Not sure what the prices are now though, that was April 2011.
Usually I go Air Asia because of the price, but wouldn't from MEL.
I would go Garuda again in a heartbeat. Like the service, the seat pitch, and it is no small feat, as mentioned earlier, that they are now allowed back in the EU. They're reliable, too. I also like that when you get on board, you feel like you're already on holiday, as it feels very Indonesian.

Something else I've discovered (I'm getting married there in October, and have guests coming from the east coast so have been looking) is that it is often much cheaper, if you can stand an unofficial connection in PER, to book MEL / SYD - PER return, then PER-DPS, then DPS-PER (from Indo site), OR PER only on the way there, and JQ or GA direct on way home (booked from Indo sites). Obviously must be careful with connection times, but this can save between $200-$500 off a MEL-DPS return, even when using the same airlines (DJ, JQ particularly). Must be due to competition on the PER-DPS route.
You can do QF domestic sectors if preferred that way. Given the number of flights departing PER for DPS, it's quite feasible. If you have friends or relies in PER, and can time in a few hours here, even better.

 

[Peter.Arafura]

The problem with JETSTAR is that they wont let you buy duty free alcohol in bali to bring back
Bali prices are cheaper than australia by abt AUD10 per bottle of good spirit
you can bring 2.25lit back in

if you fly jetstar you have to buy it in australia when you arrive back here

personally i thibnk both virgin and garuda are better than JQ anyway

cheers

 

[The Rok]

I have done both Garuda & Virgin from PER-DPS and I think I preferred Virgin. There was always that feeling in the back of my mind about Garuda regarding safety. Nothing happened, but I was more comfortable on Virgin.