Bali - Volcano high risk
#76
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Floating around
Programs: UA 1K (1MM), DL Gold (1MM), Marriott LTT
Posts: 10,327
Now this is an airline taking care of its passengers. I guess it's not a perfect scenario, but if you have to get off of Bali then this isn't bad:
From SingaporeAirlines.com
"Singapore Airlines has arranged for customers to be transported via coaches and ferries from Bali to Surabaya, where they will be accommodated on flights to Singapore. The land journey from Bali to Surabaya will take approximately 18 hours. Efforts will be made to contact customers who have registered their mobile phone and email details with us. "
The transport departs at 0600. No word on how long they will continue this but I suppose it's either until SQ gets all the passengers off the island who want off (and had booked through SQ) or SQ limits it to a few days.
18 hours departing at 0600 is a midnight arrival. That means either a 1 or 2am departure to Singapore or an overnight in Surabaya. No word on the website whether SQ is putting people up in hotels and then flying the next morning or what.
And no word on people who need to get back to Bali being offered the reverse of the above.
Still a nice gesture from SQ.
-RM
From SingaporeAirlines.com
"Singapore Airlines has arranged for customers to be transported via coaches and ferries from Bali to Surabaya, where they will be accommodated on flights to Singapore. The land journey from Bali to Surabaya will take approximately 18 hours. Efforts will be made to contact customers who have registered their mobile phone and email details with us. "
The transport departs at 0600. No word on how long they will continue this but I suppose it's either until SQ gets all the passengers off the island who want off (and had booked through SQ) or SQ limits it to a few days.
18 hours departing at 0600 is a midnight arrival. That means either a 1 or 2am departure to Singapore or an overnight in Surabaya. No word on the website whether SQ is putting people up in hotels and then flying the next morning or what.
And no word on people who need to get back to Bali being offered the reverse of the above.
Still a nice gesture from SQ.
-RM
#78
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: QR/AC Gold, VA Silver, IHG Plat, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 1,581
Well I have a trip to Bali in very early January, and I think it is in serious doubt. Really don't know how long it will last, but I may have to look at alternative locations.
#81
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,200
I have a multi destination trip planned for Feb. Its for a special occasion and delays will mean losses on further flights and hotels. Is it better to pick another destination? Or is Feb plenty of time away for it to settle down?
#82
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Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: London
Programs: Hilton, IHG - BA, GA, LH, QR, SV, TK
Posts: 16,966
I think you are going to have to assess the risks yourself in terms of the costs of any last-minute switches - you could reduce the risk by going for easily changed/cancelled flights and hotels as an insurance. If that would be too expensive then it might be better to simply go somewhere else. Because in truth no-one knows how long the rumbling will go on, and whether the rumbling will end with a bang or a whimper.
#84
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
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I think you are going to have to assess the risks yourself in terms of the costs of any last-minute switches - you could reduce the risk by going for easily changed/cancelled flights and hotels as an insurance. If that would be too expensive then it might be better to simply go somewhere else. Because in truth no-one knows how long the rumbling will go on, and whether the rumbling will end with a bang or a whimper.
#85
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: BRU & CGK
Programs: GarudaMiles, Qatar Privilege Club, Miles&More
Posts: 206
My source is Angkasa Pura 1. The operator of the airport. And as always in Indonesia, Instagram is a better source than any website . Try to follow the official ngurahraiairport account if it is important to you to have the latest updates.
#86
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Long Beach, CA
Programs: AA PLTPRO, HH Diamond, IHG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,557
I was on a multi-city/segment itinerary. However, I booked it as a multi-city ticket that got me to Bali. Then, I had a multi-city ticket home from Jakarta. The Bali to Jakarta was a refundable one-way (tix are fairly inexpensive for this segment). This way, if something happened on our way there, we could have simply skipped the last segment of the outbound ticket and no other segments would have been cancelled. Additionally, I booked hotels on either end of the Bali portion of the trip to add days in case we skipped Bali at the same hotels, but under separate reservations. As it became close and we didn't need them, I cancelled those "contingency" nights at the last minute before any penalty was taken.
The only issue would have been if we were stuck on the island during an eruption - at worst, we would have to wrangle a bit with the downstream flights but had peace of mind for the first half of the trip and also wouldn't lose out if we had to make last-minute changes.
#87
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: Connecticut
Programs: DL PM, Global Entry, TSA Pre√
Posts: 34
We cancelled our trip. We were supposed to leave yesterday JFK-AMS, then today AMS-SIN-DPS arriving tomorrow all on KLM. Trip was through December 14th. Glad we cancelled. While things might improve, it's not worth taking the chance of getting stuck somewhere. So far the cancelling of all the hotel and airfare reservations have gone smoothly with many hotels waiving the usual penalties.
#89
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Join Date: May 2012
Location: Sydney Australia
Programs: No programs & No Points!!!
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We cancelled our trip. We were supposed to leave yesterday JFK-AMS, then today AMS-SIN-DPS arriving tomorrow all on KLM. Trip was through December 14th. Glad we cancelled. While things might improve, it's not worth taking the chance of getting stuck somewhere. So far the cancelling of all the hotel and airfare reservations have gone smoothly with many hotels waiving the usual penalties.
#90
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Portland OR Double Emerald (QF and AA), DL PM/MM, Starwood Plat
Posts: 19,589
The economic impact on Bali and their people has been huge ... over $100 million in lost tourist spending already from the volcano this year. Hard to judge the risk, but so far the disruption has been minimal with flight cnacellations being for only a few days. Worst case it could be another Krakatoa. Best case no further disruptions; both are unlikely.