Having "Layers Cake" of SQ's Spacebed and GA's A332 J with a Cherry of SQT BBQ party

[Dent@SUB]

That's surprising because GA gave me a Fast Track coupon when I flew C with them from Singapore last month. Maybe the ground agent in Sydney forgot about it. If it is not yet implemented for the SYD route, then maybe it is now the right timing for Garuda to start.

The improvement on the service on-board so far has been very impressive. So, it only makes sense if the same improvement is extended to the ground as well.

They did give a fast track pass for SIN pax to CGK???
Hmm.... All of J pax from SYD didn't get any.... all of us must queued at the regular line.

It also not being mentioned on the reply email from them when I sent them a compliment and suggestion email.
(Yes... they did reply my email in 24 hours time.... Nice touch from the customer service department... )


Here's a copy of their response letter (sorry, it's on Bahasa Indonesia..)
I sent the letter on 23 Aug evening, and they replied it on 24 Aug morning... Nice!
It's more like a formal letter, but they did pin point the subject I mentioned on my email....




RE: Form Support Web Tuesday, August 24, 2010 9:32 AM
From: "customer" <customer@garuda-indonesia.com>
To: xxxxx

Kepada Yth ;
Bapak xxxxx

Tanggapan saran

Dengan hormat,

Terima kasih atas e-mail yang Bapak sampaikan.

Merupakan kebanggaan kami bahwa perbaikan kondisi Garuda Indonesia yang terus berjalan ini merupakan bagian dari peran Bapak sebagai salah satu Attentive Customer yang dengan aktif menyampaikan berbagai masukan, saran dan ide-ide inovatif demi perbaikan pelayanan Garuda Indonesia.

Terkait masukan Bapak yang positif khususnya perihal penambahan meal serta pelayanan khusus pada saat kedatangan, akan kami teruskan ke unit terkait untuk evaluasi dan peningkatan pelayanan.

Sekali lagi terima kasih atas perhatian serta waktu yang telah disediakan, semoga Bapak akan tetap menjadi pelanggan setia dan kami tetap menunggu saran dan ide-ide inovatif demi peningkatan pelayanan Garuda Indonesia.

Hormat kami,

Team Customer Relations

[LionCity]

Good to see Garuda has improved so much and we as consumers will have more choices in the air.

Thanks Dent@SUB for showing in shoes of the customer the improvements that Garuda have made. Better than the news reports we read about.

[UMD]

Full screen? What full screen?



Off course I watched the movies in the full screen mode, but not the 16:9 mode....

Can we really do the 16:9 mode (wide screen mode)???


And I'm agree that GA really catch up for what they were lack off before with a serious effort to make a lot of nice improvements.....

Oops... Sorry to confuse you. I missed out on this question regarding the wide screen mode. The answer is yes. To convert to wide screen, you just touch the screen to make the control bar appear. There is a wide screen view option on the right hand side.

[Dent@SUB]

Oops... Sorry to confuse you. I missed out on this question regarding the wide screen mode. The answer is yes. To convert to wide screen, you just touch the screen to make the control bar appear. There is a wide screen view option on the right hand side.

Aaahhhh..... that function....

Now I remembered it...

I saw that function when I touched the screen to pause the movie...

Nice..... Now we can have wide screen movie on board...

Good job GA...

[Dent@SUB]

Chapter 6: CGK-SUB





The Lounge...


I went upstairs to the T2F to check in my GA324 flight to SUB.

Check in at the dedicated counter was a breeze. Soon I was already on my way to GA's dedicated lounge for their frequent flier member.


It was Emerald Sky Lounge (Domestic one) aka CitiBank Lounge...


The lounge it self quite busy at that late afternoon.

Food choices were good, non-alkoholic drinks option were quite decent.

View from the lounge also great, tarmac's view...



The entrance...














Food & beverages area....















Sitting area....

[Dent@SUB]

I went to the gate 40 minutes before STD...
It's gonna be a full flight for this flight...

Views around the gate.....










Views from the gate's windows.....

[Dent@SUB]

The Flight: GA324....



Boarding was 20 minutes late....

We were greeted by senior purser at the door, and by another one at the entrance of Y cabin. And this Y FA also offered us some news paper....


Some shoots of the Y cabin....









The mandatory leg's shoot ala SQFGtm.....






The IFE with air map....

[Dent@SUB]

Some shoots while we were taxiing and taking off....
Once again I was lucky to be on the right side to take the picture of CGK airport, and it was beautiful from up there......

[Dent@SUB]

The air map's shoots soon after we were airborne...



















The air map was a little bit different from the one on my previous SUB-CGK sector.
I remembered what the senior purser has told my on board the previous SYD-CGK flight.
There's 2 type of B738 that GA have. The regular B738 and B738NG.
And almost all of the regular B738's have been retrofitted with the B738NG interior but the IFE was using different system. If I'm not mistaken, the NG using Panasonic and the regular B738 using Thales... (I'm stand to be corrected)....
She also told me that we can determine the NG or regular one by the registration letters...
PK-GD... or PK-GE... will be the regular B738...
PK-GM... or PK-GN... wil be the B738NG...

[sqdazz]

i dont quite get why you keep referring to 738 and 738NG because all B737-800's are 'Next Generation' 737s.... The term NG refers to Boeing 737 series 600/700/800. Perhaps it just refers to the interior configuration?

[Dent@SUB]

i dont quite get why you keep referring to 738 and 738NG because all B737-800's are 'Next Generation' 737s.... The term NG refers to Boeing 737 series 600/700/800. Perhaps it just refers to the interior configuration?

GA names their new batch of B738 with NG suffix...
And call the old batch of their B738 just with B738.
Dunno why they call them like that.
It also always be stated on the welcome announcement: "Welcome to our B737-800NG......." or just " Welcome to our B737-800 series......"
Maybe just to differentiate the interior and the system... maybe... (I'm stand to be corrected...)
But now they are going to have them all the standard interior.... dunno what will they called later...

[Dent@SUB]

On this flight, the IFE's language choices just English and Bahasa Indonesia.

And the head set just a regular head set, not a noise canceling one.
But it's still nice to have one on this short flight (and it's Y after all)....










As usual, in Y we got a "snack box" for this flight.
It's consisted of bread, Kit Kat, and Nata de Coco & Palm Fruit in Heavy Syrup as the dessert....











I love the little detail of wing of Garuda on the plastic cup...







Another soft landing for us in SUB.
Kuddos for the pilot...


My luggage still had its Excecutive Class tag from my SYD flight, so it's came first on the conveyor belt.
GA very consistent about the business class' luggage.
All J pax's luggage came first, and then a separator sign for the Y luggage came out, after that Y pax's luggage came out....
Nice arrangement from GA (that's what the thing should be done with their premium pax... )

[Dent@SUB]

Epilogue



This trip gave me various valuable experiences.

Meeting new friends from SQTalk was a priceless experience.

It cherries my trip.


And having almost 2 similar flights of SQ and GA gave me an opportunity to compare them head to head.
It's just like having a "layers cake" of SQ and GA, both are "delicious", quite a balance "taste".


Indeed SQ has a very nice hard and soft product. I can't denied it.
But, it's not a new issue. It's what SQ is famous for: The airlines that even other airlines talk about....

In the other hand, GA until just recently was famous for it's "unsafe, service is not recognize, cheap airlines" tittles. And GA even was banned to fly to Europe....
It was surprised me that now GA has improved a lot, really a lot....

May be GA still not in the top notch like SQ, but I believe with a little more consistency, ground improvement and hard working from the crew and management, GA will be on the same class with SQ, even maybe can surpass her.

GA just like a rough diamond that just need little polishing to shine.
She already has her priceless crews (that's the core of this business), good hard ware, and a willing to improved management.

Thanks to the current GA's CEO with his Quantum Leap Program.
It's already begin showed its result.

Keep on moving with the consistency and improvement...


Well done Garuda....







End of the looonnnggggg story....
No more to come....
So feel free to feel relieve.....

[UMD]

PK-GD... or PK-GE... will be the regular B738...
PK-GM... or PK-GN... wil be the B738NG...

There is no PK-GD* for now.

All the PK - GE* series are those leased 2nd hand and were originally delivered to other airlines (Air Berlin, Air Europe, Ryan Air and so on). Garuda has 14 of these 738 types which I believe still feature the old interior. I don't think GA is planning to upgrade the interiors in these series as GA will return them once more of the 738 are coming. However, I stand to be corrected for this one. By the way, do you remember the registration of the 738 that took you from and back to SUB?

All the PK-GM* and GF* series are those directly delivered to Garuda from Boeing. These are the ones with the new interior. 20 of them (15 in the GM* and 5 in the GF*) have been delivered so far and 3 more (PK-GFH, GFG, and GMQ) to arrive in September. Garuda should have a total of 30 of these new aircraft by the end of 2010 with 20 more or so to come in 2011.

Since we are on GA new aircraft, 2 more A332 will also come in again this year. One is supposed to come anytime soon in September and 1 to come by the end of 2010. These 2 are different from the 6 A332 that GA signed at
Farnborough this year. Those will only come starting 2012. Garuda has just started a daily CGK-NRT as of 2 days agao and this additional aircraft is really needed. GA will also increase CGK-SYD to daily starting Dec. 20th for the entire Northern Winter season using A332.

The delivery of the first GA's B777-300ER is now scheduled sometimes in Q2 of 2011. GA will introduce F class on its B777-300ER with only 4 suite type seats on the front cabin.

[Dent@SUB]

There is no PK-GD* for now.

All the PK - GE* series are those leased 2nd hand and were originally delivered to other airlines (Air Berlin, Air Europe, Ryan Air and so on). Garuda has 14 of these 738 types which I believe still feature the old interior. I don't think GA is planning to upgrade the interiors in these series as GA will return them once more of the 738 are coming. However, I stand to be corrected for this one. By the way, do you remember the registration of the 738 that took you from and back to SUB?
All the PK-GM* and GF* series are those directly delivered to Garuda from Boeing. These are the ones with the new interior. 20 of them (15 in the GM* and 5 in the GF*) have been delivered so far and 3 more (PK-GFH, GFG, and GMQ) to arrive in September. Garuda should have a total of 30 of these new aircraft by the end of 2010 with 20 more or so to come in 2011.

Thanks for the correction, UMD
My poor gray cells must be overloaded with the rego of the aircraft....
The purser onboard SYD-CGK told me about the upgrade of "old" B738.
I must be mixed up with some "newer" B738s that GA have..

I think you're right. I doesn't make sense for GA to upgrade "the soon to be returned to the owner" B738s...

Maybe this is why they differentiate the new received B738 with NG suffix to the "old" B738 they have.

I'm sorry, I forgot to take the aircraft rego...

Since we are on GA new aircraft, 2 more A332 will also come in again this year. One is supposed to come anytime soon in September and 1 to come by the end of 2010. These 2 are different from the 6 A332 that GA signed at Farnborough this year. Those will only come starting 2012. Garuda has just started a daily CGK-NRT as of 2 days agao and this additional aircraft is really needed. GA will also increase CGK-SYD to daily starting Dec. 20th for the entire Northern Winter season using A332.

The delivery of the first GA's B777-300ER is now scheduled sometimes in Q2 of 2011. GA will introduce F class on its B777-300ER with only 4 suite type seats on the front cabin.

Now it's time to pile up my GFF mileages for the F seat...