Not very often but once in a while I have a new transfer / layover city to sort out. I did some initial searches to get a few details but wanted to ask for some additional thoughts.

We have a really crappy 9 hr lay over arriving at ~5pm from North American and leaving for Indonesia at ~2am. Normally with that much time I would go into the city but given the time of day and the onward flight my initial thought is get a 24 hour transit visa and a room at the Pullman Hotel at the airport and try to catch some sleep.

If we did that how much time should we allow for getting back through immigration and to the gate. The outbound flight is on Garuda (but as a China Southern code share)?

I am going to assume that are bags are going to be checked all the way through so we should not have to deal with them. But if experience shows otherwise let me know.

Any other ideas or considerations??

A side question - the ticket is a miles ticket (thus the crappy layover). There is an earlier Garuda flight. Any thoughts on how China Southern/Garuda is on letting people get on a earlier flight? There is one at 7pm which would be easier all the way around. we would have take it but way more miles.