Part 1: Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur by KLM (KL 810), Boeing 777-300ER
May 11th, 2017. After meeting my client at Central Jakarta, I went to Gambir Railway Station to catch a bus to Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
The traffic was very friendly, without any jam.
Passing Ancol, a leisure area containing beach, water park, theme park, concert hall, and many other facilities. It's one of favorite destinations for Jakartans to spent their weekend, along with Ragunan Zoo, Puncak Area, Taman Safari (zoo), and shopping malls.
High-rise buildings in Pluit, an area occupied mainly by high-class society.
An A330 of Garuda caught by my cellphone camera before entering Cengkareng toll plaza.
Entering airport area.
Terminal 1, dedicated only for domestic flights.
Reaching terminal 2, our departure terminal. There were aircrafts of Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Singapore Airlines waiting to take off.
Say thanks and goodbye to Damri Bus for their service to bring me to the airport. This is one of their newest fleets, with Mercedes-Benz chassis (OH1526) and body assembled by Morodadi Prima in Malang, East Java.
Our flight would start from Terminal 2E, used exclusively by Skyteam members + AirAsia (after moving from the old terminal 3 which had been demolished). Garuda Indonesia moved recently to the new terminal 3.
Saudia's check-in counter, filled with bags of "umrah" pilgrims to Mecca and Medina.
KLM check-in counter with quite long queue. Actually I had done the online check-in, so I just needed to print my boarding pass here.
My boarding pass. Very simple.
From the check-in counters, I proceed to immigration check. After that, there was security check before entering departure gates.
On the way to our gate, I saw a 787 of Japan Airlines.
Flight schedule of the day.
Our gate, E7. The gate was still not opened when I reached there (about 90 minutes before boarding).
Some minutes later, we were allowed to enter the gate. Before entering it, there was another security check, perhaps because the flight would fly to Europe.
At around 5.05 p.m. the aircraft landed after flying from Amsterdam through Kuala Lumpur. Its registration code was PH-BVF, the same aircraft bringing me back to Jakarta on February 2017 (you can read the report
here). It's 6 years old, having been operated since January 2011.
There was still 1 hour and 15 minutes before boarding, so I decided to open my laptop to do my business as usual.
More passengers had arrived on the gate.
At around 6.10 p.m. the boarding process started. The senior cabin crews waited for us after the plane's door and greeted us very friendly.
Then I proceed directly to my seat.
While waiting the boarding process completed, we had been allowed to explore the IFE system, and the headphones were distributed.
My flash drive could also be inserted and read on the IFE.
Then the entry doors were closed. I was alone, 2 seats beside me were empty. Behind me was a group of ladies going for a company gathering in Kuala Lumpur. Across the aisle was a group of Catholic sisters on their way to Amsterdam. I guessed the "white" people, either Europeans and Americans, dominated the passenger composition on this flight, but there were also lots of Indonesian. Not too many Malaysians were seen.
The safety instructions video was shown through the IFE system, with unique animation created from a kind of painted ceramic.
Scheduled to depart at 6.45 p.m., the aircraft actually departed at 6.55 p.m. from the south runway of Soekarno-Hatta Airport which was closer to the domestic terminal. The take-off process was very smooth, without any turbulence.
About 5 minutes after that, the seat belt sign was turned off.
Here is the cabin situation.
Lavatory.
Return to our seat, these are the items inside the pocket.
"Sky High" shopping collection. I had bought the 747 miniature on my previous flight.
"Holland Herald" magazine.
Onboard wi-fi service was available, but I still don't know how to connect and surf the internet, as it's not too important for the 1.5 hour flight.
Then the cabin crews started to serve meals. I expected to get a meal set like
my flight last year), but unfortunately we only got an "pie aloo ghobi", similar with my experience on KUL-CGK sector. Why was it downgrading?
After finishing my supper, I continued to explore the IFE.
Flight & destination info.
*Can you see the "Perabumulih" (more correctly "Prabumulih" without "e")? It's a small city in South Sumatra where I spent 3 years of my high school.
At around 9.30 p.m. (Malaysia Time), the aircraft slowly went down and prepared for landing.
What city is this? I guessed this is an area near KLIA.
The aircraft landed smoothly at 9.45 p.m.
Time to leave the PH-BVF aircraft. Here are final shots of it.
Arriving at the satellite terminal.
The sign at KLIA also showed the codeshare numbers, like this one with Delta (a Skyteam member together with KLM).
Passengers who would continue their journey to Amsterdam had made a quite long queue before the gate.
How about me? I finished here, so I proceed to the main terminal. Actually the fastest option to reach the main terminal was by aerotrain, but there was a problem with the aerotrain that made us have to wait around 20 minutes. The other option was by bus. Airport personnel showed me and other passengers the place to hop airport bus to the main terminal.
The bus was packed by Chinese tourists. They arrived from Beijing by Air China.
Outside view was interesting. I met once again with KLM PH-BVF aircraft bringing me here.
Arriving at the main terminal. Here I met the next "nightmare", a verrrrrrryyyyy long queue for immigration check. I spent almost an hour here. I could not do anything but wait patiently.
The flight landed at 9.45 p.m., but with the aerotrain problem and long queue at immigration counter, I reached the baggage claim zone at 11.00 p.m.
