Date: January 2016

Destination: Sydney to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia return

Aircraft: Airbus A330-300

Flying Time: Sydney-Denpasar 6hrs| Denpasar-Sydney 5hrs 30mins

We surprised our daughters on this trip, telling them we were going to Sydney rather than Bali.  It wasn’t until we dropped our hire car off in Sydney that we told them. They were very excited when they found out we were off to Bali and handed them their passports.  We caught the T-Bus from the domestic airport to the international airport where we checked in with our carry-on luggage only.  As we booked our flights through a travel agent, you can’t select your seats until up to 24 hours before you fly.  Because the flight was full and we hadn’t checked in on line already we had to make do with four seats together in the middle towards the back of the plane.  Travel Visas for Bali were no longer available for purchase from the Sydney Airport but we could buy them from the Airport in Bali.  Our flight was due to leave at 10 am and left pretty much on time.  There was a bottle of water on each of our seats and a cushion and blanket.

Unfortunately, one of our blankets had food on it and the others didn’t smell like they had been washed.  I’m beginning to think it normal practice to re-bag blankets without washing them which is unfortunate.  I would happily pay extra to have a clean blanket.  Our plane this time was an A330-300 instead of an A330-200.  So this aircraft could fit more people on board but as a result not take on as much fuel and consequently not fly as far.  Shortly after take-off refresher towelettes were handed out followed by a small packet of mixed nuts and a choice of drinks from the drinks trolley.

Personal TV screens were 9 inches which is a bit on the small side compared with some airlines. Although the choice of movies and TV shows wasn’t huge, I felt there was plenty enough to keep you busy during the six hour flight.  I watched a couple of movies including Everest which I really enjoyed, although it was sad.  About two hours into the flight, menus were handed out and the four of us had all chosen the Indonesian lunch of Indonesian Beef Kalio with steamed jasmine rice, sauteed kaila, carrots and tofu.  Unfortunately, by the time the cabin crew reached us, we were informed they had run out so we were left with the Western meal of Three cheese tri colour tortelini with alfredo sauce.  This didn’t bother me too much and I quite enjoyed it but my husband and daughter who don’t like mushrooms weren’t terribly impressed.  The meal came with a potato and caramelized onion salad, a roll with butter, cheese and crackers, and chocolate and cherry slice.  Tea and coffee were served with a choice of cold drinks.

Shortly before we commenced our descent we were handed Mango Weiss Bars.  The landing was gentle and once off the plane, we purchased our travel visa’s before catching a taxi to the Ayung Resort.  With carry on only, we didn’t have to wait for our luggage to be loaded onto the carousel which was a real bonus.

The morning we were due to fly back, we checked in online and selected window seats with the two girls sitting in front of us.  The late night flight coming home was delayed by about half an hour but the pilot was able to make this time up on the flight back to Sydney.  After take-off we were handed a hot cheese and spinach wrap which was very tasty with nice soft wrap bread.  It warmed me up along with the hot chocolate I had with it.

I decided to watch “The Intern” before listening to a bit of music and getting some sleep.  I awoke to the pilot making an announcement and cabin crew serving breakfast.  This time we were in luck as we all managed to get our Indonesian choice of Fried chicken with sweet soy sauce with fried rice and sauteed caisim (bok choy).  This came served with a trio of melon, yoghurt and a croissant with jam and butter.  The food tasted good.

Pros:

Flights were punctual

Food tasty

Cabin crew were friendly

Towelettes handed out on the way there

Garuda now displays airline tracking

Sealed packets of toothbrushes and toothpaste were available in the bathrooms

Cons:

Blankets not clean

A larger percentage of meals should be Indonesian to avoid running out

Honey would be best served with the croissants rather than jam

The ability to select your seat on line earlier would be an advantage

some magazines were tatty and out of date

the air temperature on board made it feel cold

In Summary: Garuda are still a good airline to fly with.  The aircraft felt relatively new and modern with good service and tasty food.  The airline also appeared to be very punctual.  Despite this however,  I couldn’t help but feel the experience was not as good as last time and that Garuda needed to pay attention to a few things if it wanted to hold onto its salubrious five star Skytrax rating.