We travelled from Amankila on Bali’s East coast along Bali’s only dual carriageway road, to the capital Denpasar, and although the speeds were much better than in the rest of the island it still took us 1h45m.  This was my first time flying with Garuda, Indonesia’s national airline, and I was looking forward to judging if I thought it justified its Skytrax 5 star ranking.  I purchased my ticket for 22,500 Flyings Blue frequent flier miles and €10 tax, as Garuda is in the Skyteam alliance.  Checking in at Denpasar airport (DPS) for flight GA253 to Yogyakarta (JOG) was easy and efficient, thanks to Garuda’s Premium check in area, opposite the usual check in desks. Comfy seats are provided, but we didn’t have any queue or wait to contend with.  After check in we went through security in search of Garuda’s domestic Business class lounge.

And it was a search, because there was no signage at all!  We eventually found it (thanks to Mr A asking some airport workers in Bahasa Malay) near to Gate 2, which coincidentally turned out to be our departure gate.

The 2-storied lounge was rather austere, with not very comfortable seating. Both floors had a mediocre buffet food offering, but downstairs there was a live noodle station (top right in the photo above). I chose not to eat anything.  Only non alcoholic drinks are offered!

We sat upstairs, where the windows allowed me to watch the planes landing and departing, and that’s where we saw a laughable ‘first class’ section, cordoned off to give a real sense of exclusivity!

As we sipped our Sprites we giggled at the ‘Lounge Etiquette’ signs.  Although amusing to read, it was nice to see Garuda trying to manage unsuitable behaviour by its pax.

The lounge also has a small outside terrace, where smoking is permitted, and which has a view of the airport’s original arrival entrance. Overall I score this lounge 3/10

We boarded B737-800 PK-GMQ via an airbridge, at 14:35 and the doors closed 5 minutes ahead of schedule at 14:45. Pushback came at 14:49 and we took off from runway 09 at 15:04, after a choice of water, apple or orange juice was offered. No alcohol is served on board!

The business class section has 12 seats in a 2-2 configuration over 3 rows with a 40″ pitch.  Seats have power points, but they otherwise look dated, in old fashioned maroon coloured fabric covers. But they were comfortable enough for this 2 hour flight.  There was an overhead and an armrest mounted IFE screen, but only the moving map and some adverts were shown.

The food offering was quite odd, and disappointing: 3 pieces of melon and 1 grape on one plate, plus a vegetable spring roll and a chocolate brownie on another plate, together.  The spring roll was OK, but the brownie was sickly.  With no alcohol on offer I had an apple juice.   2/10 for the catering.

The best bits of the flight were flying over several volcanoes, and the FAs who were pretty and smiling.

JOG is quite a small and overcrowded airport. Aircraft taxi along the runway to its threshold and do a U-turn before taking off. For that reason we had to circle overhead for 30 minutes before getting permission to land. So what should have been an early arrival became a frustrating delay: we landed downwind on runway 09 at 15:37. With just 5 planes on the ground, the apron was overcrowded and we didn’t park on our stand until 15:50, some 20 minutes later than scheduled!  We were told that JOG will get a new airport in 2020 to relieve the congestion.

Bearing in mind this was just a domestic service I give Garuda domestic business class a score of 6/10.  Granted, there was a lounge to use pre-departure, check in was smooth, the FAs were very pleasant and the seating was better than intra-European business classes, BUT the lounge was poor quality, onboard catering was poor, and the lack of alcohol was not consistent with a standard business class product.  So I think Garuda is rather fortunate to have been awarded 5 stars. I’d give it 4.