I'll be staying a the W in Bali and arriving via Malaysia Airlines (economy) at 6:20PM on a Tuesday night.

1) Given the time of my flight, do you think it is worthwhile to pay for expedited service?

2) Is the $25 the standard VISA rate regardless of length of stay?

W has quoted me $30 for Express service and $17 for a ride to the W in Seminyak.

I have emailed Bali Tours for a quote, but they have not responded.

Blue taxi should be less that that - I#d guess 10-12; not exactly sure since I always catch a cab to Sanur. Get the ticket at the taxi counter outside the arrival area. If you want the hotel limo, they're usually more expensive.

Booked service both ways with Baki Con. On arrival massive lines, we just bypassed them definitely worth the money. On retur, If I returned would definitely book again but only for arrivaln, not needed

I decided not to get the service. Landed at 6:35pm and almost ran to immigration. First in line and out of there in 10 minutes. Probably would not have taken more than 20 minutes even if we did not rush to immigration.

Hired a taxi from the taxi stand outside for $9.

You can decide to use the service upon arrival. If the lines are long simply look for one of the 'security guards' in the white shirts and soon enough he will offer to expedite VOA and immigration for you. $25 + the VOA cost. You will never even see an immigration official. Takes less than 10 mins.

Greetings fellow FT friends �

We are heading to Bali in March 2012, and after getting suitably spooked by all of the hit and miss horror stories about obtaining a VOA in Denpasar and the lack of consistent experiences with �VIP� services, I decided to take the initiative last week and drove into downtown LA and see how easy/hard it was to obtain a single trip tourist visa at the Indonesian Consulate on Wilshire Blvd in LA. It�s only a 30 minute drive for me from Granada Hills in the Valley, so I figured it was worth the experience, and it could be something I could report to all of you who are in the area.

First of all, before you go, fill out the visa application online. Go to http://www.indonesianconsulate.us It�s simple � takes 10 minutes. Once done, you have two weeks to show up at the Consulate.

When you are filling out the application, you�ll need to have a 1x1 600 dpi photo ready to upload before you can complete it. I used Adobe Lightroom to create one from a photo taken of me at Disneyland. After clipping away Mickey Mouse, I created a nice pic. It worked no problem.

Upon arrival at the Consulate, there is lots of on-street metered parking along with a Parking garage around the corner. I was buzzed in by the guard in the lobby, and after signing in and handing over my driver�s license, I was directed up to the 4th floor. Note - the Consulate has very short operating hours M-Thurs until 1pm, Friday's close at noon.

I brought with me my passport, the application form coversheet you�ll print out, two passport photos taken from a convenience store across the street (behind the McDonalds), and �supporting� information. For the supporting information, I printed out a copy of my airline reservation, a copy of my latest bank statement, and a copy of my employment status. I can�t say if all of this supporting info - beyond the airline eticket print out which is a must -was completely necessary, but the incredibly friendly desk agent who did NOT ask for this data (only the application, flight details and passport photos) said it was great detail and makes things a lot easier.

You need to bring $45 � cash. Once your application is processed at the consulate, and you pay your $45, they will take your passport and give you a receipt and a date it will be ready to pick up. I went there on the 4th of January, and it will be ready for pick up on the 10th. Not bad � six days. Once done I have 90 days to enter Indonesia and can stay up to 60 days.

My entire wait once getting to the lobby on the 4th floor was 10 minutes. The desk agent humbly apologized to me once I told him why I was here instead of simply waiting to get a VOA upon arrival to Bali, and said it is unfortunate that DPS has gotten such a bad reputation for problems, but assured me things are better now. I believe him. However, for me, just the idea of not having to wait on a �potentially� long line to get a VOA, or use a VIP service - I think the idea of handing over my passport in a foreign country to a complete stranger is flat out nuts � is worth $20 and two trips to downtown LA.

Happy Travels, David

David it's not getting the visa that takes so long - for us it took about 3 minutes. The wait in the separate line AFTER the visa desk to get your passport stamped was our downfall last time. We waited in that line for hours. The only other lines are "crew" and "vip"... hence the many recommendations on here to use some sort of VIP expediting service. Sorry mate but you wasted your time getting the visa and didn't really solve the problem of the SECOND line.

We are going in April - would be great to hear how things are in March and what you decide to do. Best of luck.

Thanks for the feedback. Based on everything I've read, the lines are hit and miss - both first AND second - I simply wanted to keep my Passport in my possession and get through the first line as quickly as possible regardless of when we arrive. We arrive 11 March at 2:30pm local. I'll report out on C class TG service and DPS experience. Thx, David

Getting the visa beforehand does not make a lot of difference in waiting times and is about twice as expensive. Not a good tip to follow.

Just pay the guys $25 on arrival to get landside in 5 mins.

+1 ^

Most luxury hotels also offer this $25-$30 VIP service. It's straight forward, someone is waiting for you with your name as you get off the plane, hand him/her US$ for visa together with your passport and in approx 5 min, you are out if you don't have checked luggage. Highly recommend using VIP service.

We got done over by agreeing to a "Express Path" by one of those guys in the arrivals hall. DO NOT DO IT. If you must, arrange it beforehand.

My TR here spells out what happened.

First off, the smiling a**hole came up to my family and I spruiking an Express path through the many lines that confronted us (it was busy). He said $20 Ea. So he first went off and got the VOA's sorted. THEN he wanted ANOTHER $20 Ea to go through the next [customs] line. We refused and argued with him for a few minutes, as he specifically said $20 for the whole express path. He ended up giving us our cash back for the VOA and the "Fee" but we didn't realise that he shortchanged us. Bad first introduction to the country.

To make matters worse, when we were waiting in the Immigration queue, he came up to us and mocked us for having to wait in line. Wanted to punch the prick out - if only I wasn't such a lady

Lesson: Bali Airport is a corrupt hole.

haydensydney, mistake you made is not booking the service in advance. I've been to Bali few times and always booked the expedited service through Conrad or W hotels together with hotel car to resort. I've never paid for the service directly to the person getting the visas, only pay him the VOA charge. Once you clear customs, he/she brings you out straight to the hotel limo driver. Whole process is literally approx 10 min from de-boarding the aircraft. Hotel charges you the $25 fee as part of your hotel folio.

The service is also offered for departing pax however I haven't used that.

Yes, shame on me.

Lesson learnt should I ever have a desire to return to Bali (which BTW I don't).

When I was in DPS about a year ago there was a separate counter just for pre-issued visas which had a very short line (and VIP used this same counter) ... so at least then having the visa prior to arrival would have made a big difference. Perhaps the counters have changed since then (they seem to every few months). In any case my several trips to DPS have never encountered the huge lines, however I did note severe clustering in arrival time for some flights, esp. the LCC flights, so I'm sure the lines go from none to hundreds of people within a few minutes.

If I wasted time doing the Visa beforehand, I'll find out soon enough. It was no sweat off my back, and I took a conservative approach. My bad if this proved to be a waste of time. I'll let you all know when I arrive.

1. I've already arranged for my luxury hotel to meet me at the airport to transport me after I've collected my bags;
2. I'll clear customs with my passport never leaving my possession and a Visa already completed whether there is a line or not;
3. I'm not buying into a scam process at the airport - regardless of whether or not I have the money to pay for it.