ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 12768 times:
Reason For Trip:
Another week gone since my Surabaya trip, and another short one of 24 hours, now its to Semarang to accompany a business associate. As we booked our flights pretty late, good deals in Y were already gone, so this time its business class for me back and fourth.
10 December 2007
Jakarta (CGK) – Semarang (SRG)
As its a late afternoon flight, it meant I could at least spend the day in the office getting work out of the way.
Business Class Check-in
Busy late afternoon in Jakarta
I arrived at the airport around 30 mins before my flight was due to depart, but guess what, when I arrived at the check in, I was informed that the flight will be delayed by around 1 hour due to ‘operational’ reasons as usual with Garuda. They really need to get sufficient aircraft or not this will be a common occurrence. Meaning, theres not much I can do but just kill time relaxing in the lounge.
GA Lounge
View from the Lounge, another one of GA’s B733
In Flight
My 1st time on board PK-HNV which is one of the older B733 in GA’s fleet, with its first flight in 1991, it was previously used by Malev of Hungary before being transferred to Garuda Citilink in 2004, and now in normal Garuda service.
Cabin and food pics
Flying over Jakarta
It’s a full load in both J and Y. It was a quick and short flight but they still managed to serve some snacks. Service was polite and efficient as usual.
PK-GHV on arrival at Semarang
Service: 8/10
Food: 3/10
Aircraft: 4/10
Hotel Stay
10 Dec 2007 -11 Dec 2007
Room: Deluxe King
In Semarang, we stayed at the Novotel which was only a few months old, it has a good downtown location and it is primarily a business hotel. I forgot to take picks of the room and hotel, but I managed to get some off the hotel website.
The hotel
Lobby
Room
Pool
Room: 6/10
Service: 5/10
Location: 8/10
11 December 2007
Semarang (SRG) – Jakarta (CGK)
Pre Flight
My entire day in Semarang as spent going to meetings after meetings. Our local partners managed to drop us off at the airport with 20mins to spare, but I was not too worried as the weather was getting really bad and so I expected delays. True enough after check in the agent told me that as the weather was so bad, our inbound flight had to divert to Surabaya and so a new ETD is still not known.
Primitive Check in area in Semarang
Great! Being a small airport, all my time was spent waiting at the GA lounge looking at tv monitors which kept pushing the ETD back by 30 mins!
Small and boring GA lounge in Semarang
Now its almost 1900 and the next flight was already inbound from Jakarta. I went back to the check in desk and asked them if I could change to the 1900 flight instead, but to my relief they told me that the flight will indeed be handed over to my flight and the passengers on the 1900 flight had to wait till god knows when! Tough, but…..1st come, 1st served right?
In Flight
Another full flight on PK-GZI which was an ex-Aeroflot machine. Strangely, the pilots did not make a single announcement, but I guess with the weather so bad and lightning and rain all over the sky, I guess the pilots really earned their wages on this flight.
About to board PK-GZI on a wet and stormy night!
However, in flight, I heard really strange vibrations from the right wing and told the f/a. She told me that they did experience problems and vibrations on the wing on the inbound flight to Semarang, but after checking their systems, the pilots could not find anything wrong with it, so they decided to operate the turnaround and check the problem out back in Jakarta. Very reassuring indeed! Snacks and sandwiches were still served, but I decided not to eat or drink as the turbulence was bad all the way back in Jakarta. How glad I was when my feet was back on terra firma!
Thanks for reading this short report. My next trip will be on Friday 21 Dec and will be a long one to Los Angeles on the Thai A345 nonstop in J.
Ronerone From Jordan, joined Aug 2004, 1541 posts, RR: 54 Reply 1, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 12516 times:
Great TR, as always Mr. A345
It was rather shocking that GA decided to do the turnaround even though they knew about the wing vibrations prior! I would have been freaking out i think haha.
Can't wait for your A345 report. Hopefully, it will be ever so long and detailed
Regards,
Roni
A Stop Away From One-Stop, Is Non-Stop : Airbus A340-500
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 8263 posts, RR: 56 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 22 hours ago) and read 12249 times:
Nice report as always, thanks.
Interesting to note delays on both sectors, though most worrying is the vibration from the wing, I'd have felt happier if they cancelled the flight and hangered the plane for a closer insection.
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4652 posts, RR: 27 Reply 3, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 7 hours ago) and read 11845 times:
Selamat Sore Pak,
Glad to be back and reading one of your numerous reports again. Looks like another run-on-the-mill domestic flight with GA. Although I must say that the food looks terrible! Looks no different from the crap that I got on KLM's WBC SIN-CGK.
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 4, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week ago) and read 11666 times:
Quoting Ronerone (Reply 1): t was rather shocking that GA decided to do the turnaround even though they knew about the wing vibrations prior! I would have been freaking out i think haha.
Well...at least they could have told me after we landed and not inflight eheheheh
Quoting BA319-131 (Reply 2): I'd have felt happier if they cancelled the flight and hangered the plane for a closer insection.
Well...this is GA afterall, and they are actually the safest of all Indonesian airlines!
Quoting Ryanair!!! (Reply 3): Glad to be back and reading one of your numerous reports again
Ahh Mr Soh...where have u been? ehehehhe nice to finally hear from you again, don't know if you managed to read my CHina and Japan TR's yet ? Keep in touch ya!
B747forever From United States of America, joined exactly 6 years ago today! , 16574 posts, RR: 11 Reply 5, posted (5 years 5 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 11544 times:
Nice TR.
The pics are really good.
Really scary about the wing, and the bad weather didnt make that better.
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 6, posted (5 years 5 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 11305 times:
Quoting B747forever (Reply 5): Really scary about the wing, and the bad weather didnt make that better.
Hi Again! Thanks for reading my TR as usual, well most importantly is that I got back to Jakarta in once piece eheheh...but usually any turbulence and weather I can take, but somehow being on any Indonesian airline always makes me nervous
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4652 posts, RR: 27 Reply 7, posted (5 years 5 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 11153 times:
Quoting ThaiA345 (Reply 4): Ahh Mr Soh...where have u been? ehehehhe nice to finally hear from you again, don't know if you managed to read my CHina and Japan TR's yet ? Keep in touch ya!
Hi there... Yes I have read them but not thoroughly. I spent the whole of last week in Vietnam (Hanoi and Saigon) and prior to that was a mad rush to finish my work to hand over before my absence. I will post a very detailed 3-part report as soon as I find the time to sit down and type them out. I bought a 2-Gig SD card specially for this trip and I took almost a thousand photographs!
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
ThaiA345 From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, RR: 17 Reply 8, posted (5 years 5 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 11030 times:
Quoting Ryanair!!! (Reply 7): I bought a 2-Gig SD card specially for this trip and I took almost a thousand photographs!
Hey 2 gig card..thats what I also did b4 my China and Japan trip SO I expect the best again out of your next TR yah ! I am planning to visit Vietnam sometime next year...so hopefully you will be my source of reccomendations
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From Indonesia, joined Oct 2006, 814 posts, 
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