Dear Garuda Indonesia, please don’t . sue me. Today we are going to check out the full Garuda experience and find out why my desire to fly them has been less than enthusiastic, so let’s get into it, welcome to Bali. If you’d like to know the exact fare that I paid , for my flight or my next five videos in queue, please check out the description , below and if you’re new here, hi there and welcome to the , channel, my name is Kevin. I’m of the opinion that the world needs a , bit more honest travel content these days, so I make airline trip reports, high end , hotel reviews and cruise ship tours as well, all without invitation. I always film without the company’s knowledge and self-fund my trips to be sure I get a true experience and give you nothing more than my personal honest unbiased opinion. So let me say off the bat, yes, it’s a dramatic opening and yes it’s referencing something that happened four years ago- which I’ll explain- but history has a habit of repeating itself at Garuda, so it’s not exactly a baseless concern. We’ll get into all of that, but first, . let’s actually get into the airport. Word to the wise, Bali is at times a maze of , traffic. If you are coming to the airport from just about anywhere north of it, make sure you , plan plenty of time. If you're coming from Canggu, I’ll pray for you. I’ve had 20 mile drives take over two hours, multiple times. Anyway, here we are at the slightly underwhelming entrance to the domestic terminal, underwhelming specifically considering how , beautiful the international terminal entrance is. Today is just a short repositioning flight. I . have a Cathay Pacific flight leaving from Jakarta tonight on a separate ticket, so I chose Garuda to get me to Jakarta since in 2022, Garuda was the world’s most punctual airline with almost 96% of all flights arriving on time or early. That’s quite a feat. Oh and also, this specific flight, out of the 9 or so daily flights they have, was meant to be operated by a 777. Score. Check in was quick in that I , got to the counter right away, but it was a bit confusing since I seemed to have . more knowledge about the aircraft operating the flight than the flight attendant did., So, it was supposed to be a 777, that got changed a few weeks out to a 737, it happens, I don’t hold that against an airline. When the aircraft was changed, I was reassigned an aisle seat. On the website, I changed that back to a window seat. Then the day before departure, , our aircraft was changed to a Citilink A320, Citilink being their Low Cost subsidiary. I had a standard window seat but Citilink has a brutal 28” of pitch. I tried to get an exit row, no . dice. The morning of our flight, it was changed back to a Garuda 737, fantastic. Except I was , assigned one of two window seats on board that didn’t actually have a window. So at check in, I was trying to get literally any other window seat, but since the agent didn’t understand or . perhaps didn’t care that I wanted a window at my window seat, it was all a bit of . a faff- but in the end we got it done. So, as we walk through the terminal and do a bit of plane spotting, let’s talk about wonderful Garuda Indonesia. The predecessor of their predecessor was Royal Dutch Indies Airways, formed in 1928. That changed , to KLM Interinsulair Air Services in 1947 and that was nationalized in 1949, with the government rebranding the airline as Garuda Indonesia. Garuda, referencing the half bird, half man . deity which served Vishnu in the Hindu tradition. Super fast forward to 1990 and they had . an impressive fleet of 747s, A300s, DC10s, MD11s and 737s, fling to the likes of . Honolulu, LA, Cairo, Johannesburg, Paris, Rome, London, Frankfurt… you get the picture., After two aircraft incidents in 1997 combined with the Asian Financial Crisis, they

saw a drastic reduction in performance. Over the coming years, September 11, the Bali . Bombings, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the SARS outbreak really did them in- leading to a drop in standards which had the EU ban all Indonesian Aircraft from 2007 until 2009, following what was thought to be a preventable plane crash. Side note, this Concordia Lounge, holy crap do not waste your time. It was like walking into a steam room and the place wreaked of old cooking oil. When the ban was lifted, the internal Quantum . Leap program was launched to overhaul the airlines image, create a new livery and uniforms, , double the size of the fleet and add 50% more destinations and holy crap for quite a few years in the 2010s, it really seemed to be working. Around the time when Youtube and trip reports . were first beginning to become an actual thing, Garuda was by that point well known for two , things. First, one of the best crews on earth and second, truly one of the more spectacular First Class products at the time. I remember watching trip reports back then, with the creator . talking about how you could call Garuda in advance of your flight and literally request ANY meal , and it would be made available for you on board. That’s a level of service I’ve never . heard of any other airline doing. So, things were going pretty . good, until they weren’t. Later in the 2010s there was reporting of a drop in standards and this all culminated in 2019 when Youtube content creator Rius Vernandes shared a video clip on Instagram from his recent flight from Sydney to Denpasar in Business Class. , There were no printed menus and so he was handed a hand written menu, so you can see here.. You know, it’s a pretty innocent thing. For both the airline and the creator. Shit happens, maybe , the menus weren’t loaded by accident, maybe it wasn’t indicative of a wider problem. The menu , was written in English, so clearly it was meant to be shared with passengers. So, anyway, he posted this menu and received an apology from Garuda. But then they got defensive and questioned how this passenger actually got their hands on this menu. Then, Garuda sued him and his girlfriend who . appeared in the original video, for defamation. They also did whatever the Indonesian equivalent . of trying to press charges is. Defamation in Indonesia by the way has a punishment of . up to four years in prison. Fun times. Very soon after, internal memos from Garuda were , released detailing the instruction for cabin crew to completely ban the usage of all photography , on board including photography and videography… essentially including selfies and to “use language . that is assertive in conveying the passenger ban.” Even in the memo written in Bahasa, the . specific English word “assertive” was used. Anywho, this set the internet on fire and they very quickly backtracked and eventually dropped the lawsuit. Can we take note for a moment of how , many staff are working at this gate? There are nine staff here, plus a couple in the jetbridge. For a 737 flight. And, not one of them cared to give a reason as to why our take off time already passed and we hadn’t even boarded yet. At 3:55, we did begin boarding which was with the , 12 gate and jet bridge staff done very quickly. Within 10 minutes, the door was closed., As for today’s flight stats we ended up taking off over 90 minutes late for our 90 minute flight , to Jakarta, landing 66 minutes behind schedule. So as if the lawsuit stuff wasn’t enough, . in the same year the CEO of the airline was arrested for smuggling a Harley Davidson into , the country in one of their A330neo deliveries… and there’s an entire separate . prostitution scandal which is a rabbit hole I am not going to go down, . but allegedly… A L L E G E D L Y, allegedly the former Vice President of Cabin , Attendants was the primary Pimp. Lovely. By the way, there’s the windowless , seat I was meant to have. In 2021 the airline almost collapsed with $9.8 Billion in debt and in 2022 they filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy

protection in the US. There’s also a scandal currently going on about allegedly illegal purchases of CRJs and ART aircraft. I mean, it just doesn’t end.. But this trip report will, so let’s move the hell on.. Ok, breathe. So here we are. I’ve always thought brown and turquoise was an interesting choice for on board colors and that opinion stands. The seats, not being new slim line versions are actually really comfortable and well padded with an adjustable headrest and a decent amount of legroom. And some snazzy technological controls. Each seat had a pair of headphones in the pocket and mints were passed out. The safety video began, which had a few . cringy ironic moments like this one and then we pushed back but then we stopped. We stopped and we stayed there. We didn’t move. The aux power unit was already disconnected . so there was no AC. Keep in mind, the aircraft was very warm as we stepped on. After while, air . did begin to flow from the individual air vent, but it was so hot that I had to close the , vent as it started to make me nauseous. Around 55 minutes passed, with zero explanation , and the temperature just keep rising until literally the forearms of myself and the guy . next to me were literally sticking together. Then suddenly on we went, as if nothing ever , happened. I remember specifically the air finally started to cool off as we crossed Java.. We lined up for a take off to the due west. The spool up, take off and , airport stats are coming up next. Our route took us up to the north of Java where , we remained for the remainder of the flight. Oh I almost forgot to mention, Garuda flies to . 51 destinations with their 73 aircraft on hand, many of which you’ll see when we land . in Jakarta seem to be in storage still. They also have a further 46 on order- I suspect that may change in the coming years. I wasn’t really sure what to , expect service wise today, for a moment I did actually wonder if that mint was the extent of the service. Before we have what is now dinner, let’s take a look at the on board entertainment. It, well, it left a little bit to be desired. I’m not sure if this was just the assortment for domestic flights or not- I hope it was. Meal choices were chicken or fish . and it was a thoroughly tasty meal. Served alongside some pickled vegetables, , rice and a prepackaged snack mix. There was also a standard selection . of drink choices on offer. As we approached Jakarta I breathed a sigh of relief, truly ready to get off of this plane. Interesting fact, hard to believe I know considering the content I create, but I’m actually a fair bit claustrophobic, which is exacerbated . by heat. So, I literally wanted to run off of this plane. That’s also why you likely won’t see many ultra long haul economy flights on this channel. Enjoy the landing and arrival airport stats with . a pretty clear view of Jakarta in the distance. So. Where do I begin. Honestly, if we take away , the unexplained delay, it wasn’t a bad flight. As I’ve said in reviews in the past, I normally don’t hold delays of an hour or less against an airline if it’s a one off. But today, it was the extreme , temperatures on board and the complete lack of explanation that influenced this score more than . anything. Otherwise, it’s a fairly comfortable product and a tasty meal. If Garuda could just . get their act together, they may be able to compete on the world stage again in the future. But whether or not that’s possible, is to be seen. Now, I’m going to wait five hours for this , next bird to arrive. I really do hope you enjoyed this trip report today. If you did, , please be sure to click that thumbs up button and subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of my upcoming content. I’ll see you next time at the wonderful Alila Seminyak in Bali. . Oh and thanks for watching until the end..

GARUDA INDONESIA 737 Economy Class 🇮🇩【Trip Report: Bali to Jakarta】Hot, Hot, HOT 🔥