Dear Friends,
I just wanted to share some (reasonably-legitimately acquired!
) tips that may be helpful to anyone attempting our favourite TP runs from AUH to CGK… This post is quite long, but the TP thread seemed the most appropriate place to put it. If anyone thinks otherwise, just let me know.
1) Online check-in on Sri Lankan
As has been discussed, Srilankan like to check credit cards before you travel, so this can be problematic. There is a solution, however. If you pay with a visa or mastercard which use securecode in the payment approval process (the little window that comes up from your bank and asks you to enter some personal data to approve the transaction), you don’t have to have the credit card check. However, the booking doesn’t always get marked as pre-approved automatically, so you also need to follow up by emailing your booking to
[email protected] to ask them to mark it OK for online check-in. Then the third step, to be safe, is not to use the app to check-in – just use the website (and the full version of the website at that, not the mobile version). Doing all three of these has never failed me – and you get a nice pdf boarding pass emailed to you.
2) Back to backs in Abu Dhabi
If you have checked in already, this will actually work reasonably problem free (unless something unhelpful like a coaching arrival happens – I’ve not had one at AUH, and the place is reasonably efficient, so I’d say there was still a reasonable chance). Even from the furthest away pier in AUH T1, it was only 5 minutes to go thro transfer security and get to a gate (or spend a couple of minutes or even have a shower in the Plaza Premium Lounge which UL uses – to your left as you come down the stairs from transfer security). They don’t check boarding passes at security, and they have the facility to print them at the gate.
3) Transit thro Colombo without a printed boarding card
Weirdly, while they seem happy enough to take a virtual boarding pass (eg on your phone) at the gate (they just scribble your details down on a piece of paper to reconcile it), they won’t in the lounge. So if you want to use the lounge and don’t have a printed boarding pass, you’ll need to pop to the transfer desks beforehand. Expect to be completely ignored here by the agent you’re standing in front of for a good few minutes, while she watches her colleagues argue with another passenger. I don’t say this to be mean – it’s just that it’s happened to me every single time I’ve needed to go to that desk….
4) Arrival in Jakarta’s newish Terminal 3
My oh my this is a big building! Your top tip if you arrive at one of the furthest away gates on the spur that comes off the end of the main building (gates 1-4 for departures) is to take a ride on the free electric golf carts that wait where the spur turns the corner into the main building. This will save you a good few minutes in reaching immigration or transfers!
5) Back to backs or other transfers at Jakarta
IF you have a printed boarding card (doesn’t need to be airport issued – it just needs to be on physical paper, say if you’ve had the pdf emailed to you), then you can go to international transfers, on your right just before you turn the corner to reach immigration. Only the Garuda desks are ever staffed here (hence the need to have the paper boarding card in advance). Go to the guard at the desk with your passport and boarding pass – he’ll look at it like he’s never seen one before, and take a photo of both with his phone (which I presume/hope is officially issued) and then you’re good to go up the escalator, through a small security check (where again, they’ll be amazed to see you) and you’re into the cavernous departure hall. With the use of the golf buggy, I reckon I’ve done aircraft to lounge in under 10 minutes even when arriving at one of the furthest-away gates (the Plaza Premium lounge which both MH and UL use is in the same location in departures as the buggy pickup was on the arrivals level, where the main terminal turns the corner to the spur serving gates 1-4).
6) Back to back or regular transit in Jakarta WITHOUT a printed boarding card
Now here’s where it gets entertaining – even though the gates at Jakarta will accept phone boarding passes, the guard at the bottom of the escalator (and probably the staff at transit security) won’t. Though you can certainly try to argue your case, not that it got me very far... (As an aside here, I’ll mention that the desk at the bottom of the escalators isn’t always staffed. If the bloke goes for a walk around, you could get up the escalator unchallenged if you’re bold. But I don’t know if you’d have any more luck persuading the people at transit security to accept your phone boarding pass. Note I’m not recommending this…) But there is an official alternative. You can transit landside, WITHOUT needing to get a visa. If you just go to the immigration desks (the ones marked FOREIGNER, and as a further tip, to avoid having to queue, try going to the two rightmost Foreigner desks, which are used by arrivals facilitation services expediting paying customers thro) and show them your onward booking, or phone boarding pass, tell them you’re in transit but that there’s no-one to issue your boarding pass, they will let you through, stamping your passport with a “Visa Exemption” stamp. You then go thro baggage claim and customs, and up the escalators to departures as quickly as possible. This probably works more easily with some passports than others though!. If you’re attempting a back-to-back on UL’s 1 hour turnaround, it’s quite possible the check in desks will be closed and unable to print you a boarding pass, so you’d need to then negotiate/argue your way thro security with the phone version (tho as I say, the gate is quite happy to take the phone boarding pass). But at least you can try. If on a regular transit, you can at this point easily get your onward boarding card printed…
[Right - I just asked UL's check-in team at CGK when they close their landside desks. They say if you aren't already checked in, the latest is STD - 60 minutes. BUT if you have checked in online, they say, the desks are open to print boarding cards until 10 minutes before departure!!! Take that with a pinch of salt. I find it quite hard to believe, personally - I've been past their counters at STD-20, and they've been deserted. And whilst it's possible to get from desk to gate if security isn't busy in 10 minutes, I still think that'd be too late. But even if they can print a boarding card 40 minutes before departure, that would make the landside back-to-back route almost foolproof as well... Maybe the first person to try this and succeed (or fail) can confirm the truth of when the desks really close.]
7) Espresso Martinis
Perhaps most importantly of all, since Srilankan carry kahlua on board, you can get them to make you an ersatz espresso martini if you like - ice, some of their brewed coffee, kahlua and vodka. It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad…
So in summary, if you plan properly and check-in and print boarding cards in advance (and find out which lounges along the way will let you print - recall that even lounges that don’t have printing facilities in them can often print you a boarding pass document at the front desk if you talk to them nicely and email them the document), then there’s nothing to stop you doing easy transits, or even back-to-backs at both ends of this popular run… And also note that the sector lengths are short enough that Srilankan return crew both the Gulf and Jakarta flights – so it won’t hurt to tell the crew to expect you back if you’re doing a back-to-back. As a further interesting issue, I've noticed that the Jakarta and Abu Dhabi services often use the same aircraft. I don't know whether this is a formal fixed link in UL's aircraft planning, but it may give you a bit of additional reassurance if you have a delayed arrival. Enjoy!