Flight Details
Batik Air ID6061
Jakarta Soekarno Hatta Airport / Terminal 2
Departure: 08:55
Denpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Bali
Arrival: 11:45
Flight time: 1h50m
Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-900ER

Mini Introduction
Having flown Batik Air several years back and had an underwhelming experience, I've decided to take the plunge and fly them again. The airline belongs to the infamous Lion Group, whose namesake airline is Indonesia's largest airline and also amongst the biggest LCCs in SEA. Batik has been known to provide very reasonable fares in both Business and Economy Classes, and has grown very quickly since its inception in 2014 - now flying 76 planes. Whereas flag carrier Garuda Indonesia at the time was charging ~£90 for a one way in Y and £500 in J, Batik had limited seats in J at just over ~£100 (wow), and regular fares at ~£200 (still rather reasonable). Furthermore, they had a great offer that includes a testing arrangement with the ticket, which just sweetened the deal.

Pre-departure (testing)
On domestic flights, Bali requires an Antigen or RT-PCR testing 48 hours before boarding. Both Lion and Batik have partnered with several laboratories all over the country to provide testing for their passengers. A day before our flight, we headed over to the Lion Group Tower at 8am to get our tests done. Upon arrival we showed our e-ticket and the reservation agents printed a test voucher that we'll use for the testing. From there we headed down to the basement parking lot where they've set up a makeshift testing clinic. There were already a groups of people queuing, but the process was very straightforward and systematic, and the whole process lasted only 40 minutes until receiving our printed results (compared to some private hospitals that take 4-5 hours). Impressed!

That evening I received a text message from Batik offering a seemingly complimentary personal assistant (lol) to take care of the departure admin. I didn't take up on the offer. Still quite impressed, more points!

Departure
Upon arrival at Jakarta Airport Terminal 2, there are queue lines in place before entering the check-in area that serves as a validation point for our test results. It was a straightforward process. We then headed to the check-in area, passing through a quick luggage security check as common in Indonesia. Surprisingly the terminal was very crowded, and there were snaking lines for the Economy class check-in for Batik. We were directed to an empty desk that handles check-in to Bali and Lombok, although upon the agent's inspection of our ticket, we were then brought to the Business Class check-in that had a short line. Nevertheless we were brought to the front of that line in true DYWKIA style , and they explained that the people queued up were handled as an overflow of the Economy line (it was still rather embarrassing, though I appreciated their good intent!).

Lounge
After a quick check-in, we were brought to the Batik Air Lounge.

Lounge Entrance

On our previous experience with Batik, they didn't have a lounge. I was rather impressed that they had one now. After quickly showing our boarding passes to the friendly receptionists, we were quickly admitted. The lounge still seemed rather new, the furniture has had some wear and tear but was in no way shabby. Not a big fan of the design of the cushions and decorations but I guess it follows the trend of Batik (South East Asian patterned cloth). The space was rather small compared to the size of the airline, but there was quite a lot of seating.

Lounge Seating

More Lounge Seating

Refreshments wise, they had a small buffet near the entrance that had a selection of Indonesian-esque food and some home fries to cater to more 'western tastes' . The Indonesian food included some Indonesian fritters and fried pastry like things as well as the typical Indonesian spread of fried rice and fried noodles. It didn't look very appealing as is the case in most Indonesian lounges and the fact that it was served as a buffet made it even less so. They also had a selection of unbranded ice cream and the normal coffee and tea selection.


Washroom

There was a small washroom near the entrance, and it was modern, well kept and very clean. Every now and then an agent came by and manually announced boarding for flights. I then noticed they didn't actually have loud speakers. Overall not bad at all- so far so good!