Garuda Indonesia suspends its London Heathrow service

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Patrick says:

  25 Aug25 August 05:21

  I did the challenge and got platinum premier.

  Might be a system issue, because as you “earned” platinum in the old system, you should get platinum premier now…

• @mkcol says:

  25 Aug25 August 05:39

  I’d love LHR-DPS direct *fingers crossed*

• Tom C says:

  25 Aug25 August 06:33

  Garuda F is a world class product – right up there with the best. Sad to see this, as they’re a good routing option when going out to Asia and beyond, often at half the price of Singapore Airlines.

  • Michael C says:

    25 Aug25 August 06:41

    Yeh, I was looking at prices of 1200 GBP just last week for LHR-KUL or BKK via Jakarta.
    That extra AMS change takes the shine off as the timings in Jakarta weren’t great either.
    However…DPS would be fantastic!!!

    • Laineyling says:

      25 Aug25 August 10:28

      What dates were to looking at for this price please? I am interested in a trip to Asia and am flexible with dates and routings.

      Best regards

    • Lady London says:

      25 Aug25 August 12:37

      I suppose it would be relatively easy to take the new Eurostar route to Amsterdam. At least on the way to Amsterdam you don’t have the messy stop in Brussels that takes the time on the way back.

      I’ve only flown once on Garuda, that was a long time ago and in Y and the food was brilliant.

  • vlcnc says:

    25 Aug25 August 10:49

    Yes sad to see this go as an option – was hoping to try it at some point!

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  25 Aug25 August 06:50

  You absolutely can book premium cabins in the Virgin flight+hotel packages. You get upsold after you’ve chosen a hotel. I did a quick check and the code works in itineraries that include travel in Premium and Upper.

  Interestingly, you get free transfers if you book with Virgin Holidays but not when you book flight+hotel with Virgin Atlantic (although it only wanted a tenner in my test itinerary).

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  25 Aug25 August 06:59

  Amex should have advised you that you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you’re unhappy with the outcome of your complaint.

• Sam G says:

  25 Aug25 August 07:23

  I started a long thread on Flyertalk about the Garuda closure as the inventory has been closed for a couple of months now

  The rumour is the route will operate via DPS as a summer seasonal, which makes sense as this is the main tourist season for Bali. My understanding is the Heathrow slots aren’t particularly desirable so may not be an issue to get each summer, though this is putting it firmly into tourist category so operating out of Gatwick wouldn’t be the end of the world anyway. They would also almost certainly reconfigure the aircraft into two class config.

  @Rob – do you have any insider info on when this is going to be officially announced? As the flights are still active in the GDS (just zero’d out )and my booking is still intact. I’m headed to Singapore so will probably just get a refund and go with Norwegian rather than a two stop flight and 06.40am start !!

  • Michael C says:

    25 Aug25 August 08:04

    Sam, have you any experience on Premium with Norwegian to SIN?! Would be interested to hear how it compares to BA.

    • Sam G says:

      25 Aug25 August 09:47

      I’ve done Scoot to Berlin which is a very similar seat and I’ve done BA WT+ over the Atlantic and from Asia more times than I care to remember.

      BA

      BA seat is slightly more spacious and
      I personally prefer cloth to “leather”,
      Entertainment better,
      Food better.

      Norwegian

      From what I’ve read the new 7 row seating config on Norwegian is a little tight when everyone reclines,
      The food service is economy style (looks nice enough though and you can buy extra from the BoB
      TV doesn’t have much choice.
      No interline partners if something goes wrong, need good insurance and a credit card
      Includes priority security, lounge and boarding – BA you won’t get this if you don’t have status
      Big pro on this occasion for me – one way pricing !

      But from a pure product overall not really much in it and I wouldn’t pay much of a premium for BA WT+. vs Norwegian & personally I just don’t find the entire WT+ proposition over the BA upper deck A380 exit row worth the cost.

      Worth bearing in mind you can easily pick up an ex-EU in Business Class (BA AMS-LHR-BKK-SIN-LHR-AMS for example) for the same kind of 1500 quid price if you can spare the time

      • BJ says:

        25 Aug25 August 16:20

        You can pick up exUK seats to seAsia in business class for £1500 return no trouble at all, no need to go exEU.

      • Michael C says:

        25 Aug25 August 17:23

        Great info Sam, cheers!

  • Rob says:

    25 Aug25 August 09:07

    No, no fresh info

• TGLoyalty says:

  25 Aug25 August 07:38

  The reason you saw nothing in the terms is becuase the link is targeted. It’s not meant to be an offer available to everyone.

  Did you make it clear to the first agent that you got the link from the Internet and not a targeted email?

• Ian M says:

  25 Aug25 August 08:10

  SPG Amex double points offer update….

  For anyone that missed my post yesterday afternoon..

  I spoke to the woman dealing with my complaint yesterday. She had listened back to the original call when I was offered double points for 3 months. She accepted my complaint. She said she will go through all my August purchases and issue all the missing points. She will also ensure all future purchases up to the end of my 3 month offer period are issued correctly.

  Finally, after 3+ hours on the phone and an hour on their useless chat service I have a successful outcome. Really shouldn’t have been so hard though!

  • Doug M says:

    25 Aug25 August 10:06

    I hope you’re spending enough to make all that time worthwhile. It’s enormously frustrating when stuff is not ‘as sold’ – but sometimes the effort to fix it is just too great.

    • Ian M says:

      25 Aug25 August 10:47

      I’m spend a lot! That’s why I was not going to give this up without a serious fight

      • Will says:

        25 Aug25 August 11:14

        I’m in the same position, my call was worded “1 additional starpoint per £, so you’ll earn 2 starpoints instead of 1 per £ spent”.
        Better prepare myself for a very long session on the phone.

      • Ian M says:

        25 Aug25 August 20:20

        Have you got a formal complaint in progress Will? 1 Starpoint is 3 new points. They can’t argue with that.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.