2018 – Part 07 – Garuda Indonesia Business Class CGK-SYD

Garuda Indonesia Business Class Flight Jakarta to Sydney (CGK-SYD)

We took the first jetway and entered the plane through L1. As we approached our assigned seats I realized we had the crew rest seats. These seats had a curtain behind the window seat and a track for the curtain attached to the overhead luggage compartment.

Our flight attendant greeted us instantly and I was impressed (I’m not happy I missed her name and of purser, read on to find out why). She addressed us individually, crouched to our seated eye-level and talked to us quietly so that other passengers wouldn’t hear us. Class act, and this was within the first 5 minutes of being onboard.

GA712
Jakarta to Sydney (CGK-SYD)
Scheduled Departure: 23:50
Scheduled Arrival: 09:30+1
Seats: 8H & K 

After pre-departure beverages and a review of the menu we ordered our breakfast to be served prior to arrival and requested to be woken up to ensure we’d have food to start our day in Sydney.  The amenity kit waiting for us at our seats contained the usual suspects:

The food & beverage menu:

The Captain did his welcome message, stating a planned 6.5 hour flight time. Shortly afterwards our plane was pushed back from the gate and we departed for the runway.

Seats

The Garuda A330 has angle lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration. Unlike KLM where the seats are angled to the windows these faced straight ahead.  Below are some pictures of the seats:

That allowed us to face each other easily and talk without either of us having to strain our necks.

The take off was smooth and our climb from Jakarta airport had us turn and fly over the airport as we headed east to Australia.

Once the seatbelt sign was turned off we switched seats so that Amber would not have to climb over me to use the washroom

throughout the night and tried to get to sleep, and it worked. I got two hours of sleep immediately. When I awoke the plane was about to pass over Broome and started flying over Australia. I opened the window shade and saw stars! Being above the clouds provided an even clearer view of the Southern Cross constellation, and the Milky Way. It was magnificent!

After another few hours of sleep and we woke up just as breakfast service began. Our flight attendant gave us warm towels, and quickly delivered our breakfast. Wow!

I don’t think you’ve had a proper breakfast until you’ve been on Garuda. The meal was excellent. We had made to order eggs that were made perfectly, and everything else was very tasty.

View from the Window

With the sun up over Australia the landscape was crying out for pictures as it changed significantly as we went from the middle of the country to its eastern shores.

Before long our decent into Sydney began. Even though our flight landed 10 minutes early we then proceeded to sit on a taxiway for over 70 minutes as the original assigned gate was not available. The upside was all the planespotting I got to do from the window seat. 

Finally a gate was assigned, and we departed onto the jetway and off to immigration, baggage claim, and biosecurity. With all of that completed we walked into the arrivals hall and outside into what was a gorgeous “fall” day.