At the end of the aerobridge just before the door 1L, the First Class assistant handed me officially to the purser.
“Welcome aboard, Mr. UMD!” greeted the purser in dark blue Kebaya. “2K is on the other side.”
“Welcome aboard, Mr. UMD! Let me show you to your seat” said Lia, the F Maitre D’Cabin in Lavender Kebaya to me.
“Welcome aboard!” greeted the onboard chef, Dani, from the galley as we walked past the galley.
The butler who had helped me with my carry-on luggage also helped me store it in the compartment above 2F. There are 4 overhead compartments on Garuda’s B77W First class cabin and all 4 of them are located above the 4 middle seats. There is no overhead compartment above the aisle seats.
“Welcome aboard, Mr. UMD!” Santri who donned the orange Kebaya greeted me as we were approaching my seat. It was Santri who would be performing all the in-flight services later that evening to Narita, Tokyo.
“Thank you for flying First Class tonight, Mr. UMD!” said the F Maitre
D’Cabin to me as soon as I was fully settled on my seat. “My name is Lia and I will be over seeing the service in the First Class section tonight. Together with me, there is Santri our senior crew member, Dani Eliasa, our onboard chef, and our purser working in this cabin tonight. First of all, let me explain some functions of this seat for you. “
“Here is your control panel monitor. All the seat functions can be controlled here,” as Lia pointed out to the little touch screen monitor on the side panel of the seat.
“Thank you. I think I should be fine with the seat and all its functions. Don’t worry,” I replied.
“We have the menu and the drink list as well as some reading materials for you here,” Lia showed me the row of nicely organized folders and magazines decked out on the side panel of the seat. “And here is your amenity kit,” she pointed out to the black color right next to the menu folder.
“In this cabinet here, you will have your headset and also 2 bottles of mineral water. You will find an electrical outlet in another smaller cabinet to the front should you need to charge your electronic device,” said Lia as she was explaining the best she could about the new suite. “There is also another bottle of mineral water in that cabinet, too.”
I thanked Lia for explaining the seat to me and she told me to let her know without hesitation should I have any question.
Santri was then walking towards me from the galley.
“Hello, Mr. UMD. How are you? My name is Santri and I will be serving you tonight,” Santri introduced herself to me and she also handed me a hot towel on a special towel tray.
“What do you want to drink, Mr. UMD?” asked Santri. “We have juices, beverages, and Champagne.”
“I would like the Champagne, thank you.”
“Which one? Billecart-Salmon or Laurent-Perrier”
“Billecart-Salmon, please.”
“Sure. I will be right back,” replied Santri to me and quickly she went back to the galley.
Soon enough, she was back with a tray that contains a bottle of Billecart-Salmon, a champagne flute, and a small plate of macadamia nuts. She then placed the napkin coaster on the side panel of my seat, the champagne flute on top of it, and poured the bubbly out to the flute.
“Do you want to taste it first, Mr. UMD?”, she paused a quarter way through pouring.
“I am OK. I am sure it will be fine.” I assured her before she continued pouring until the flute was quite filled up. A plate of Macadamia nuts was then placed next to the glass of bubbly champagne.
“Enjoy, Mr. UMD.”
As I was enjoying my glass of Champagne and the nuts and at the same time trying to reflect of all the right things that had happened so far since I had stepped onboard, Santri reappeared again next to me and this time she actually lowered herself and kneel down next to my seat.
“Mr. UMD. Do you want to change your shoes out with slippers to make
your feet more comfortable? “
u“Sure”
She then gladly laid a red cloth the size of a foot mat on the floor in front of my seat and then put a pair of nicely padded slippers for me. As I took off my shoes, she quickly put my shoes into a nicely cream colored GA shoe bags and stored them inside the wardrobe cabinet on the front side of my suite partition.
‘WOW’… that’s what registered in my mind at that moment. What an experience! Garuda is really trying to treat its First Class passengers as royalties here. I expected to be handed a pair of slippers only but I didn’t expect the crew to help out in the process and to have such a ‘First’ class treatment for passengers and their shoes. Kudos to you, Garuda! Does anyone know if the Queen of England has someone to change her shoes for her?