Budget Travel - How good is Lion Air?

Doing some research on domestic Indonesian flights and came across Lion Air.
Does anybody have experience with them? Esp concerning seat pitch/inflight comfort, reliability, luggage allowance. TIA.

I took Lion Air in March 2010 from Solo to Mataram, with a quick s30 minute stopover in Jakarta. It was my devised way of getting to the Gili Islands as
quickly as possible.

1- I could not book on line. I called overseas to a Singapore call center
and managed to reserve my flight at a fixed price adverised provided
I pay in person as soon as I arrived in Kuala Lumpur

2-The agent in Kuala Lmpur culd not take credit card payment,but gave me a paper to present to the agent in Yogyakarta INDONESIA,where I finally got
my ticket and paid in cash.

3-Plane departure 1 hour late in Solo, leaving me 15 minutes to catch my connecting flight in Jakarta

4- arrival in Mataram but my luggage never gets there. After days waiting,
it is presumed lost for good,and I am told by administrationto give up hope, No compensation,,nothing

5-get a text in Bali 8 days later that they might have found my backpack.
They eventuall send it to Bali Airport ,for pickup,where certain items are missing Iam thrilled nonetheless,since the presumed loss and necessity to start buying new clothes depressed me and wrecked my stay in the Gillis

GOOD THING I KEPT MY VALUABLES(MONEY ,PASSPORT,CELL PHONE ETC) ON ME AND NEVER PACKED THEM WITH MY LUGGAGE

Thanks for the reply, jsohmer! Quite an experience.
How would you rate their equipment, seats?
Website says they're flying 737-900, which look rather new.

To paraphrase, "other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

GOOD THING I KEPT MY VALUABLES(MONEY ,PASSPORT,CELL PHONE ETC) ON ME AND NEVER PACKED THEM WITH MY LUGGAGE

Um, I thought that was commonsense and everyone did that.

EmailKid

equipment and seats - nothing special- nothing terrible-did remember that the flight hostesses did speak a bit of English.


To Emailkid- Are you kidding? Still alot of naive travellers,or foolish people
making those mistakes, EVEN WHEN FOREWARNED

Thanks for the reply, jsohmer! Quite an experience.
How would you rate their equipment, seats? CGK.
Website says they're flying 737-900, which look rather new.

Planes are all brand new now (I 'think' they got rid of all the old MD-80's) but look kind of dingy for being new. Seats are very plain looking, seat pitch is tight but tolerable for short flights. English skill of the crew is often a little dubious. It's Indonesia, i don't check luggage on this carrier or any other.

In all, for a cheap short flight they are fine. Nothing to rave about but I have flown MANY MANY times worse in Indonesia. Most likely you won't die.

I havent got their web site to accept my credit card anytime recently. Once it did a few years back but never since.

They have glossy "prayer cards" in the seat back pockets with prayers in like 4 different languages and 6 different religions asking the relevant gods to please ensure the plane reaches its destination without crashing or anything. This has to be one of the awesomest things I have ever found in a seat back pocket. It says please do not remove from the plane but I HAD to keep one.

BTW. At CGK domestic they have a lounge adjacent to check-in outside security. On an economy ticket I bought into the lounge for 50,000 Rupia. Real price with a receipt given and everything, not a bribe-in. No booze but they had snacks and stuff and it beats sitting with the masses in CGK.

To Emailkid- Are you kidding? Still alot of naive travellers,or foolish people making those mistakes, EVEN WHEN FOREWARNED

I was mostly referring to the sophisticated FT travelers, especially those here in Budget Travel ;)

No booze

Then what's the point :confused:

and it beats sitting with the masses in CGK.

Oh @:-)

EmailKid

Doing some research on domestic Indonesian flights and came across Lion Air.
Does anybody have experience with them? Esp concerning seat pitch/inflight comfort, reliability, luggage allowance. TIA.

Lion air famous for delay. So better stick with Garuda. Oh wait, this is budget forum, no? :)

To Emailkid- Are you kidding? Still alot of naive travellers,or foolish people making those mistakes, EVEN WHEN FOREWARNED

I'd suggest anyone travelling to, from, or in Indonesia carry everything with them.

the Gili's without cloths sounds like my trip :D

Lion air famous for delay. So better stick with Garuda. Oh wait, this is budget forum, no? :)

Garuda and Merpati aren't exactly tops either. It's Indonesia.

Garuda and Merpati aren't exactly tops either. It's Indonesia.

Would it surprise you if I rate GA equal if not higher than SQ ?

When was your last GA flight ?

1- I could not book on line. I called overseas to a Singapore call center
and managed to reserve my flight at a fixed price adverised provided
I pay in person as soon as I arrived in Kuala Lumpur


Should work over the Internet -> Way not ? You will have only the problem, that you must pay 24 hours before, otherwise you cannot pay with credit card (which is not from Indonesia)




3-Plane departure 1 hour late in Solo, leaving me 15 minutes to catch my connecting flight in Jakarta


Could also happen with any other airline. Normaly Lion air is mostly on time !



4- arrival in Mataram but my luggage never gets there. After days waiting,
it is presumed lost for good,and I am told by administrationto give up hope, No compensation,,nothing



It has normaly nothing to do with the airline -> Is is the handling stuff which loose your luggage!




5-get a text in Bali 8 days later that they might have found my backpack.
They eventuall send it to Bali Airport ,for pickup,where certain items are missing Iam thrilled nonetheless,since the presumed loss and necessity to start buying new clothes depressed me and wrecked my stay in the Gillis



Some answer as before -> Handling stuff not the air line


I would say: Lion Air is not really a bad airline. The planes are nearly all new. I would prefere Lion air in Indonesia!

Thanks all for the replies. Seems to come down to Lion (JT) or Garuda (GA).
Farewise GA is about 20 - 25% higher than JT on some the itineraries checked.
Not sure if GA is any better in case of lost luggage. JT sems to have a large fleet (172 per website) of fairly new 737-900s. We'll see.

Thanks all for the replies. Seems to come down to Lion (JT) or Garuda (GA).
Farewise GA is about 20 - 25% higher than JT on some the itineraries checked.
Not sure if GA is any better in case of lost luggage. JT sems to have a large fleet (172 per website) of fairly new 737-900s. We'll see.

Air travel in Indonesia is inherently imperfect. But usually it works out ok in the end. If you demand first world standards you may disappointed no mater what you do. If you are properly attitude adjusted in advance you can't go wrong. For fussy types, I'd stick to Garuda. But it's worth noting even they have had a horrific crash more recently than Lion. Walking across a street in Jakarta is still more dangerous than even the worst Indonesian airline though.

BTW, if you want safety concerns about Lion :D. They have had several "tail strikes" on their brand new 737-900's. Nothing serious has come of any of them but they seem to have set a trend for that foible with the very "long" 737-900. I have also personally noted EXTREMELY long and fast takeoff rolls on Lion out of CGK. The only plausible explanation I could come up with is the planes must have been loaded to the hilt with cargo.

I just don't worry about such stuff and it all works out. Enjoy Indonesia. :D It's all good.

If the price difference isn't too important, I'd go Garuda. The legroom is better, the service is better, and you get food and drinks.

Lion Air's new planes are pretty tight for anybody of average (westerner) height.

http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/806444/Lion_Air_worst_in_delayed_flights.html report on Lion Air here

http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/806444/Lion_Air_worst_in_delayed_flights.html report on Lion Air here

Although, to be fair to Lion Air, if you look at the numbers for the rest of the Indonesian domestic carriers, they pretty much all suck. Lion's on-time is just a few percent worse that the rest of a REALLY bad field. bottom line, domestic air travel in Indonesia requires some patience and adaptability from time to time and their is NO truly reliable option although, Garuda remains the best bet of a weak field for fussy folks. Air travel in Indonesia is inherently imperfect.

Flew with their low cost subsidiary Wings from SUB to DPS. Flight was great, extremely smooth take off in some appalling weather in SUB

I've flown with Lion Air, and Wings Air, in Indonesia (Denpasar - Sulawesi - Binongko - Timor - Denpasar iirc) and they are OK. Better than average safety record, mostly newer Boeing 787-900s, ATR-72s. As a 6'4" / 193 cm guy, I was cramped - but they got us there and back (and our dive gear). (My sister took them Menado - Sorong, Ambon - Ujung Pandang and on to Denpasar - again, they transported the dive crew and gear OK.) Yep, Indonesia air travel is not like developed world travel with fancy Cat I - II - III airports...

Would it surprise you if I rate GA equal if not higher than SQ ?

Would it surprise me? No. Would I disagree? Yes.