“Good morning, Mr. Wira,” said someone at Soekarno Hatta terminal 3, when I got off the Toyota Alphard — a car that if you drive, you will definitely be mistaken for a driver.
A moment. Greeted at the Airport? Alphard? What is this? Since when did you become Syahrini’s friend, mz?
Uhm. Not really. I really want to fly. Incidentally, I had the opportunity to try Garuda Indonesia’s First Class service. From Jakarta to London.
Well, one of these First class services is pick up from our house to the airport. As long as the house is still in Jabodetabek, yes. My house happens to be in South Tangerang. And coincidentally, the alphard still fits make this into the alley of my house.
To be honest, I prefer that the one that picks up is the Mercy E-class. Because apart from that I prefer sedans, this alphard is famous for being soft but unsteady in suspension. So make the passengers drunk.
I used to ride Alphard, a regional official from Bandung to Tasikmalaya. I got drunk too. Maybe not suitable for expensive cars.
“I used to use Mercy, mas, but because the luggage wasn’t big enough, I replaced it with Alphard,” said the alphard driver who picked me up.
However, because the trip from home to the airport is only 35 minutes, I don’t really blame it.
First class services also include personal assistants at the airport. The man who greeted me earlier was my personal assistant. He immediately took my suitcase and took me to this check counter for First class customers.
Oh yes, if you don’t know, Garuda Indonesia cabins have three classes. The first is economy class, then business class, and the top is first class aka First Class.
There’s nothing left for me to do but sit back and start vlogging my trip to London this time. You can watch at the bottom of the article.
First Class Lounge Terminal 3
After checking in, I straight to the lounge. Not a lounge that is usually used by business class or gold/platinum members. But it is a special lounge for first class passengers.
The lounge is not big. But since I was alone that morning, it felt really big. Naturally, first class seats are only 8 people. Only about 40 minutes before the flight, there were several first class passengers who were present in the lounge.
Many chairs in the lounge are private with partitions, of course for the sake of privacy. For food and drinks there is no buffet available. Everything has to ask the waiter provided for the ala carte menu.
It’s so quiet, I plan to just be a populist by moving to the business class lounge. But since there are some jobs that I haven’t had time to do, so I choose to be alone and just work here while waiting for my flight with this GA86 code.
Garuda First Class Cabin & Seating
Garuda’s first class cabin has eight seats. With a 1-2-1 configuration. So it’s only two lines.
Of the 8 seats available, at that time there were 6 pax that filled the seats. It’s not bad, considering it’s said that direct flights from Jakarta to London are often empty.
Even when I returned from London to Jakarta, only one first class seat was empty. Is this a sign that this route is not closing?
I chose seat 1A at the very front. The first passenger behind the pilot. As in the photo, there are three windows specially dedicated to me. THREE!
So you don’t have to ask what the legroom is like. Even if three people were put in here it would still fit haha!
The seat is very wide, because it can be made a bed that is flat 180 degrees. The table interior material seems to be quite heavy and thick wood.
The choice of brown seats and the interior is very classy. Although it seems flat if we pay attention. The IFE monitor has an orange outer color which in my opinion doesn’t really match the whole cabin.
Maybe this flat atmosphere can be improved if there are a few decorations such as orchids like in first class emirates or business class thai airways?
Before take off, I had enough time to relax and enjoy a welcome drink. Of course this is because I was the first to enter compared to the other 200 people.
We can choose a welcome drink in the form of juice, champagne, or just plain water.
First Class Food and Drink
The dish after take off is caviar. These notoriously expensive sturgeon roe are served with small pancakes, crème fraîche and prawn crackers.
“Indonesian touch,” the flight attendant smiled at me, when I asked why there were prawn crackers here.
This caviar tastes like sea urchin, uni in Japanese, or sea urchin in Indonesian. It tastes like salmon essence. Has a pleasant and fresh smell of the sea. Not fishy at all. And surprisingly, it goes well with crackers.
Food is of course served with fine dining. The on board chef came to me and offered the menus that were available that day. I chose spring rolls for the first lunch appetizer menu. Rib eye steak for main course. And a variety of deserts.
In addition to the main meal, there is also a menu in between fuel. A menu that you can order at any time during the flight. The menu includes satay, meatballs, pieces of fruit, cheese cake and various other snacks.
In addition to the 3 course menu, there is also a cheese course. Serving various kinds of cheese, such as Cashel Blue cheese and Farmhouse Brie, I skipped because I was too full.
As for drinks, apart from a variety of wines and champagnes that I didn’t try, there are dozens of other menu items including tea and coffee of various types.
There are no less than ten types of tea if I remember correctly. From Japanese green tea to darjeeling tea available.
Especially coffee. From espresso based coffee such as cappuccino, latte, long black, to single origin manual brew coffee are available. For the choice of coffee beans, there are Sumatran and Toraja lintong. Oops, I’m confused!
Amenities
This Hermes branded body lotion and face lotion really shows its class. I really like the smell of this eau d’orange verte. The aroma of this mixture of various kinds of citrus and herbs is really calming.
Sleeping on the Plane
The seats in first class can be fully flat beds 180 degrees. After the chair is reclined, the flight attendant will prepare an additional mattress to make the bed even more soft.
Don’t forget the large pillows and bolster pillows! Really Indonesian. I didn’t sleep for long because I was struggling to prepare in case of jet lag.
But indeed this sleeping position makes the trip feel very different. 14 hours from Jakarta to London but I don’t feel tired at all.
I’m afraid I’ll be in trouble when I go to economy class again!
Arriving at Heathrow, London, I was picked up again by an assistant who took me to immigration via the fast lane. Our baggage has also been separated next to the conveyor belt, although there is no special arrival lounge like at Soekarno Hatta Airport.
Overall this was a very pleasant experience. I’m very lucky to be able to taste this route with first class. Because reportedly since October 2018 this route will be abolished. Update: this route still exists but there is no first class. So if you want to ride Garuda first class, the route is to stay Jakarta – Bali – Tokyo.
If you want to go first class and don’t want to spend up to tens of millions of rupiah, become a member of Garuda Miles and continue to collect the miles points. Garuda often promos with garuda miles, even up to 90%!
This is a video of my experience taking first class on YouTube.
Thank You!
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Create by ipadguides in category of Travel Story