Excited that it's opening but not excited for my upcoming TG to GA connection in late August.

Ooh, I'm excited.

I have GA - GA int'l-domestic connection early July.
It's about 2 hrs connection, but they have several flights afterwards anyway so I'm not that worried.

I believe thst Garuda domestic and international will be both be from 3U from June 15th onward.

You what?! I'm arriving internationally on 17th, leaving domestically on GA on the 18th. Unlike some Flyertalkers, i'm happy not being a guinea pig, especially in Indonesia! This doesn't bode well for me. I'll post back if anything is exciting / disastrous...

Anyway - my question was - i've family in Jakarta that I need to see, but on an evening arrival and am departure, i'll probably take a hotel near the airport (leaning towards FM7 - other option is the Ibis - any strong opinions one way or another?!). I don't fancy travelling into town and back - is there anything near the airport (restaurant wise) with nice food, can still get a cold bintang despite ramadan, fairly relaxed that we can meet up?

I'm used to simply getting taxis from airports to South East Jakarta, so never paid much attention to whats around the airport. Mainly remember flooded fields. Anything 20 mins taxi from the hotels / airport? Don't think there is anything in the airport itself. Will FM7/Ibis serve beers?

I've stayed at the FM7 a couple of times. It's cheap, and it worked well enough in terms of pick-up, and it's perfectly fine for a late arrival/early departure. But it's probably not the easiest place for your family to get to - and as far as I remember there's nowhere round it in any way welcoming.

Last time I stayed at the HI Express in Pluit - it's a delight, clean and welcoming, halfway into the city. On top of a shopping mall so lots of restaurants easily reached, even handy for the busway ....

Just be careful with these "Airport" hotels. I checked one out in January. It was near the airport, but took 45 minutes to navigate all the way around. Make sure it's within a 10 minute drive.

Thanks, Pluit could work as half way.

I'll need to find a bintang serving restaurant though rather than shopping mall type food stopover place.

As far as I know, GA plans to start slowly in this new terminal. GA should start with 3 domestic flights on the 20th of June: Jakarta- Yogya, Jakarta-Solo, and Jakarta-Semarang.

What you said probably true.

I was stuck from the airport gate (near Sheraton Bandara) to Terminal 2 for around 45-60 minutes. I almost miss my flight.

So if you stay at Sheraton, it won't help either. But of course it was Sunday after long weekend. Traffic was crazy.....

Thanks all -

Yup, after 30+ visits to Jakarta i've seen traffic go from ridiculously simple to incredible slow. I'm struggling to work out if Fri PM from the airport to town will be quick or slow due weekend / ramadan (lots of people leaving early).

I'm not overly worried about Saturday morning into the airport as that should be fairly quick (?).

Seems like i'll miss the new terminal then - I don't come back via CGK sadly (actually, not sad!).

Jaimito - did you nip onto the rooftop bar at FM7 - was it an ok place you think to sup a couple of beers & have a kretek or 2? (it might seem i'm making a lot of this point, but for the people i'm meeting, it's critical!).

Sam Bee, I think you need to be prepare for 2-3 hours ride on Friday evening. Just hope it will not be raining.

I've never been to FM7.

I usually stay at the Hyatt or Doubletree in town.

Cheers - in the end i'm staying at the latter - might as well use my Hilton Gold! As for the traffic, well, let's see :(

Are there foreign bank ATMs at arrivals? Will be flying in on CX and need some rupiahs on arrival.

There are money changers after immigration (this is what I normally do). Not sure about foreign bank ATMs.

It seems that the new terminal may not be opened on the 20th of May. The Ministry of Transportation doesn't want to release the certificate of occupancy until some defects and safety issues are rectified. Tomorrow is the deadline for the operator to improve the conditions.