12 December GA86
The flight was nearly empty (90 pax) because this route is stupid as even at low prices Indonesians simply can't fly to London on a whim due to visa regulations and there certainly aren't many foreigners in Medan, though the full routing was DPS-KNO-LHR, and most passengers were ex-DPS
Check-in at Medan was not ideal as I don't think there are any other Garuda international flights, and the check-in kiosk did not allow check-in for international flights, so I was mixed in with the domestic passengers. It was about a 10 minute wait.
Immigration etc was very quick, so really no more than 10 minutes from check-in to gate.
I think this was the extent of the passengers boarding at KNO, because this really is a stupid idea for a route, if ideal for me
This was the rear part of the economy cabin on this A332, as most passengers were in the front part.
this a332 is I guess quite old with low Res IFE.
I had selected a bulkhead seat but this was a poor choice:
due to the immovable armrests. Also a lot of people circulated around this area (someone did sit there after take off) to gain access to the toilets
The row behind was better with 4 seats to myself and the legroom seemed ok to me at 6'. Actually 2-4-2 doesn't seem too bad on this plane.
I had broken my headphones in Indonesia so had to make do with Garuda's. Three of the four pairs on my row were broken. They were typical $1 headphones as you'd expect. The economy amenity kit had ear plugs, socks and a cheap eye mask. It was cold as you'd hope on a flight to London in December.
We were offered a stone-cold towel after take off, but I did not partake.
The lunch was served about an hour after take off and was not too great, a choice of sweet sour fish or 'opor ayam' (chicken) with young jackfruit and tempeh. The chicken you could certainly find better on the streets of Medan and the jackfruit and tempeh were a little sweet.
The salad of smoked chicken was nasty smoke flavour and God knows what kind of chicken they use for that stuff, they really need salmon here or just do boiled egg or vegetables with vinaigrette.
The mango mousse had no discernible mango flavour and kinda chemically. It was slightly more edible than the salad though.
The bread roll was soft and warm with soft Anchor butter, quite nice in fact.
I was not sure whether to blame the catering on Medan being a bit of a dump or if it was loaded in Bali
Merlot wine was served in a paper cup the first barely half a glass full but the second less mean. It was drinkable enough for sure, especially after being in Indonesia for a while. I assume Garuda don't pay the usual 100% import duty plus tax this so no reason to be mean with the pours.
IFE was very low Res screen, with no WiFi. kinda like a download from 2005. Also there was the worst selection of movies I have seen on a plane for many years. Not so much that they were all terrible, but there were about half-a-dozen Indonesian movies (generally unwatchable, even though I speak the language), and about six new blockbusters. So if you'd already seen Detective Pikachu and Angel has Fallen you'd probably struggle to find. I think the very primitive IFE will put people off.
Since the flight took off at 11:30 Indonesian time and arrived 18:15 (though it was around 15 minutes late), the second meal was dinner, and an opportunity for two more tiny pours of Merlot. The dinner was much the same story as lunch, kinda bland Indonesian food or a Western option and a nasty-artificial-tasting jelly like thing.
The cabin crew were quite ok, I did try to sleep some of the flight so not fully aware of the whole thing (it was a VERY long duration because of headwinds, of 14 hours), but they did come around with a granola bar and some nuts, to which I was told 'why not both', and indeed I took both.
I live in the KNO area and near LHR so the flight is perfect for me, but I can't see Garuda flying to too long. The day before the flight it was still on sale for around 9.5 million rupiah return (around £520), which is a silly price really near Christmas, and considering that with the domestic cartel that has grown up for domestic flights, you could easily pay more than that for a return domestic flight from one end of Indonesia to the other. But no complaints from my side on the pricing!
I should probably have flown the day earlier, for personal reasons, but that would have been KNO-AMS-LHR (also ex-DPS), but the 12th was the first KNO-LHR direct after a suspension in service (not sure why). But anyway, there's something to be said for direct flights, even if cheapos like me are not a lucrative market.
KNO-LHR is hardly a popular route but you can probably fly on SQ with a short stopover, and with MH or MH/BA with maybe a longer stopover and often baggage mishandling (IME), also Jetstar & BA. GA's food was pretty bad (Air Asia manage to load tasty meals from minor airports for a fee of around 10 MYR), but not a deal breaker, but the IFE was worse to the extent that you'd definitely want to bring a laptop and a bunch of movies or something. 5* airline? In Economy? I think not.....