Ron88888888 From United States of America, joined Mar 2012, 7 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1824 times:
Garuda has been advertising their new fleet a lot in the past year or so, with TV commercials here in Asia featuring their new A330s, particularly their new business class. One feature that gets mentioned is Immigration On Board. The concept is that an immigration officer on board processes your documents, so upon arrival in CGK or DPS, you can disembark and proceed directly to baggage claim, skipping the potentially long lines at immigration.
Their website says this is offered on certain long-haul flights, but does not say which.
Has anyone experienced this service? Does it deliver?
As a concept, this seems like a great idea -- one officer can process a whole plane on a long haul flight, thereby saving time hundreds of hours waiting in immigration. One counter argument though... is that often you have to wait so long for your bags at CGK anyways, the benefits might be in the margins.
This makes me think of US Customs and Immigration pre-clearance in Canadian airports for flights into the US. Brilliant concept, since after checking into a flight, people like me arrive early enough to have more than an hour to kill anyways before boarding.
TWA772LR From United States of America, joined Nov 2011, 762 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1622 times:
I love the idea, but on intl flights that are operated by small planes, like RJ's and turboprops, where would the customs officer sit? Would they use a jumpseat or use a regular seat? I can see this being effective on TATL and TPAC flights and flights from USA to deep South America. A plane with 1 or 2 customs agents to process passengers and 1 or 2 Air Marshals to assist the customs guys on the ground. Sounds like a good idea to me!
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deepunderground From Indonesia, joined Dec 2012, 37 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1617 times:
Sounds interesting. I wouldn't benefit much since I live here in Indonesia and hold a KITAS which allows me to use the "citizen/visa" line instead of the visa on arrival lines in Bali Immigration, and usually there isn't much of a line.
Sorry, I haven't experienced it yet so I have no input there. I typically only fly on Garuda domestically.
deepunderground From Indonesia, joined Dec 2012, 37 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1591 times:
Quoting TWA772LR (Reply 1): I love the idea, but on intl flights that are operated by small planes, like RJ's and turboprops, where would the customs officer sit? Would they use a jumpseat or use a regular seat? I can see this being effective on TATL and TPAC flights and flights from USA to deep South America. A plane with 1 or 2 customs agents to process passengers and 1 or 2 Air Marshals to assist the customs guys on the ground. Sounds like a good idea to me!
Easy, Garuda Indonesia doesn't operate any small aircraft. Hell, they only own two RJs and they are 96 seat CRJ1000's.
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22077 posts, RR: 51 Reply 4, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 1549 times:
Been going for a couple years now. They launched it on the Tokyo route to help with tourism to Bali.
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dirktraveller From Singapore, joined Jan 2011, 207 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1417 times:
From what I heard, the Immigration on board applies for flights from NRT/HND, ICN, SYD, AMS to DPS and CGK. The immigration on board program has been going on for couple of years, and personally I liked the idea because sometimes immigration in CGK and DPS could be a big mess.
Personally, I have never experienced the immigration onboard, because most of my GA flights are just SIN-CGK hops. But from what I heard from the purser serving the J class on my recent flight, he said that although the immigration on board service was good, the purser told me that the feedback they received from passengers is that the service has kept the cabin lights active for a longer period of time, which passengers found it uncomfortable to rest, especially on red-eye flights.
Therefore, I heard that the GA management is re-considering this service, although they're still ongoing in several of their long-haul flights.
But certainly, this is just information based on informal conversations on board one of my GA flights, and would like to see how the service continues.
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 6):
How do they factor in paying the visa fee for visa on arrival? Or are those opting for this not eligible for the onboard service?
Website says fee paid at airport of departure at some point before boarding. I would imagine they could easily just fold this into to check in counter service.
Quoting dirktraveller (Reply 5): From what I heard, the Immigration on board applies for flights from NRT/HND, ICN, SYD, AMS to DPS and CGK. The immigration on board program has been going on for couple of years, and personally I liked the idea because sometimes immigration in CGK and DPS could be a big mess.
Personally, I have never experienced the immigration onboard, because most of my GA flights are just SIN-CGK hops. But from what I heard from the purser serving the J class on my recent flight, he said that although the immigration on board service was good, the purser told me that the feedback they received from passengers is that the service has kept the cabin lights active for a longer period of time, which passengers found it uncomfortable to rest, especially on red-eye flights.
Therefore, I heard that the GA management is re-considering this service, although they're still ongoing in several of their long-haul flights.
But certainly, this is just information based on informal conversations on board one of my GA flights, and would like to see how the service continues.
Thanks for the info. Regarding cabin lights: I would imagine this could be handled with some creative thinking. Assume cabin is dark, immigration officer goes one-by-one to passengers requesting service since the list of passengers is predetermined by prepayment. Then passenger turns on in seat light on to identify themselves and hand over papers. Officer could go back to galley area behind curtain to finish work, then hand back the documents.
legacyins From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 1843 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 1201 times:
Is this service open to all passengers? I thought it was available only to passengers flying in J and F?
QFVHOQA From Australia, joined Mar 2012, 130 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 1146 times:
I've heard about this service. IIRC it's only for J pax. Seems like a bit of a waste considering the immigration officer will have to deadhead from CGK or DPS to the destination, with nothing to do until the return flight to CGK or DPS. I suppose its a benefit of being a government owned carrier.
dirktraveller From Singapore, joined Jan 2011, 207 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1035 times:
Hi everyone,
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 6): How do they factor in paying the visa fee for visa on arrival? Or are those opting for this not eligible for the onboard service?
Quoting Ron88888888 (Reply 7): Website says fee paid at airport of departure at some point before boarding. I would imagine they could easily just fold this into to check in counter service.
From what I know, there is a designated counter beside the normal check-in counter to handle payments for Indonesian Visa on Arrival. At least this is the procedure when I passed one of the GA counter in SYD.
Quoting Ron88888888 (Reply 7): Regarding cabin lights: I would imagine this could be handled with some creative thinking. Assume cabin is dark, immigration officer goes one-by-one to passengers requesting service since the list of passengers is predetermined by prepayment. Then passenger turns on in seat light on to identify themselves and hand over papers. Officer could go back to galley area behind curtain to finish work, then hand back the documents.
Yes, I am sure that there is a way to get around the cabin lights issue. However this may be troublesome for the immigrations officer to work it that way on a fully loaded A330. Because from what I known, the service was for both J and Y class.
Saw this video when the service was first introduced, maybe useful to those who are wondering about the Immigration on board service, thanks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIWJ5MSWeSc
henkita217 From Australia, joined Apr 2007, 289 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (3 months 3 weeks 3 days 1 hour ago) and read 589 times:
Just saw this thread.
I love this service. It's a revelation. This service saves your time and hassle ie. in queuing in such long line in a non-air conditioned surroundings etc. I also like the fact that you don't have to deal with the immigration officer sitting behind the desk in the airport - some of those guys are....! You are given this TAG and you just walk through.. Such a breeze!
If anything, I actually remember buying the Visa On Arrival in Sydney Airport terminal. The GA staff issues them there as well. You pay in Australian Dollar. Nothing to worry about for the rest of the journey.
Garuda is doing everything right at the moment. Two thumbs up to them.
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