Our company uses an expediting service at CGK for all of our arrivals. It is the same routine every time. I'm collected at the jet-bridge by two people. Person #1 takes my passport and Person #2 walks me around the immigration booths directly to baggage claim, usually two minutes later Person #1 reappears with my stamped passport at baggage claim. They then escort me out through customs to my driver.

I have also been using the service when some of my friends from oversees are coming into town to visit as well. Some of them are not experienced travelers and I find it useful to have the service available for them.

I do agree with Jaimito Cartero the arrival process is pretty painless and the immigration lines as of late seem to be better managed. So the expediting service for me at least is a little overkill (i'm not sure I would be be using it if I was paying for it.) I would estimate that using the service saves me anywhere between 2 and 20 minutes depending on how badly immigration is backed up.

I'm also never traveling with checked luggage so I suppose that the time saved at immigration would be partially eaten up waiting for checked luggage.

I don't need hand holding or attention. :) It was purely a consideration if there are normally long lines that kan be skipped. 500K is the offer.

The convenience of the service sounds appealing to me, I'm not going to lie. However, I don't think I could justify it because, as others have said, immigration is fairly (not completely) painless. If you think you would value convenient service that gets you through quickly after a series of long international flights, then go for it. It would be especially nice if you're stuck in the back of the late-night JL flight and just want to get to your freaking hotel.

You could totally live without it, though, and do just fine. IMHO I'd just do it all myself.

Thank you for all the input. I will skip the expedited service, as the time saving seems to be minimal. Especially as I will have checked luggage to wait for, as it is the start of a 3 week round trip.

Just to put a status on time if other people have the same question. About 5 minutes to cover both payment for visa on arrival and the immirgation counter. All an expedited service would have added is I guess to increase my waiting time for luggage from 5 to 10 minutes.

Admittedly with immigration lines you never really know how many will be in front of you. But this would count as one of my quickest foreign passport arrivals this year.

Many countries now have a free 30 day tourist VOA.

I fly into Jakarta last week. The immigration line non-existant off a widebody flight, and went through in seconds, albeit with a grumpy officer. As a result I had to wait for my luggage which is rare (2 minutes?) and from aircraft door to taxi was about 10 minutes (3 minutes spent working out if it was worth waiting for a Bluebird, but jumped an Executive Bird due to big queues (need recommendation for other taxi companies that are trustworthy in Jakarta!!).

Also flew out of new Bali Airport International Terminal - wowsers - very impressed (although as is typical if you look closely it is fraying at the edge). Surprised they don't have smoking areas though for an Indonesia airport.

Executive Bird? Something new, or do you mean Silverbird or Goldenbird?

Sorry am jetlagged - undoubtably mean Silverbird - it was the taxi stand just to the right of the main Bluebird stand - designed to tempt you in with their higher prices and empty queues!

Out of interest I had been told there is an executive taxi company with wifi in the cars for traffic jams- but couldn't find out who - any idea? :confused:

Also 45 mins on Friday evening from airport to Doubletree - got to love Ramadan!

I'm at the Doubletree now. Love their 25% off sale.

Hate Jakarta traffic with a passion. 2 hours to go about 12km. At least we took Go-Car which is flat rate, about $3.50. Uber was 2.1x surge pricing.

I think Express might have wifi in some taxis, or perhaps just its luxury brand, which I don't recall the name of right now. All are white in color.

You can get mobile data pretty cheap here, though. It even works most of the time.

Goldenbird handled the actual driving for my hotel pick up from the airport, and they offer wifi in the cars.

Cipaganti taxi also has wifi and tv screens in their taxis.

Why did you need to pay VOA? Unless if you plan to stay in Indonesia for more than 30 days.

As it was listed as a requirement for my passport when I checked with the ministry of foreign affairs, and to be honest once I went to the link of the Indonesian authorities I only read the VOA rules. Which did seem to apply up to 30 days, and be extendable beyond 30 days. It was a quick read through so I may have skipped a detail or two.

Was this a business trip? If so you need a non VOA. Same if you need more than 30 days.