I was just wondering upon immigration if they ask you a bunch of questions when arriving at CGK. Or they just look at your passport, stamp it, and go? Apparently, Indonesia's corruption is pretty bad especially at CGK from what I heard. Is going through the airport smooth or rough? I've had some smooth, some rough experience at MNL. So im not really sure if its the same with CGK.

so I did this turnaround on 797+798 (evening flight combo) form HKG. I had hell a lot of trouble and discourage anyone against it. I had no CX ground agent escort but maybe that would have made the difference.

Basically the guy at transfer security (if you can call it "security") had the #$&*& with me flying from HKG and travelling to HKG, let alone on Business class. I tried to explain it's milage run etc but he was very very suspicious of my movements and I seriously feared they take me to a seperate room and do a "internal search" for drugs. Anyways after 15minutes of explanation/hassle they finally let me through.

One thing I wasn't sure, is that he kept saying "you rich man, anything for me?"... I didn't get it at first but I reckon he was asking me for bribe. I didn't give any, but I wonder if I should have slipped in a US$20 to smooth things out, saying "here's my airport tax" to give myself the deniability should it be taken the wrong way (bribing an official would be a lot more serious offense I suppose)...

Anyways just not worth it. I will stick to a SIN-turn around which also have mid-night flight and a lot more civilized destination, all for 500miles of difference.

Thanks for that info - if you don't mind me asking, what was your profile when you were travelling? How were you dressed? Suit? sweatpants? Are you HK/Chinese? Western? Pretty incredible that he would have the guts to ask you for a bribe inside airport security, that's just embarrassing and troubling. Not good.

I was asked for a bribe after I cleared immigration at CGK too. The staff said they can help me clear custom fast, no line. And of course I didn't do that.

I was lone traveller, early 30s (but look like 20s some say), dressed casually (long pants and polo shirt with backpack). I'm Chinese looking. And I'm innocent looking person (as in I get asked for direction on street, people find it easy to ask me cuz I look like a nice guy).

He never specifically said 'give me money' but i think connotation was well understood when he said "ah anything for me in your backpack" and handing his palm out to me. I honestly looked confused and thought he was joking and I didn't hand any money out and he reluctantly let me through.

This is bad enough experience. I've decided against travelling to Indonesia for tourism in future because of this guy.... I'm sure there are lots of nice people but one bag egg has just cost Indonesia their tourism revenue from a potentially high yileding family....

sorry to hear your experience fakecd, i do have to say it is a very slow and inefficient airport. no one wanted bribe from me apart from the enforced departure tax despite i showed the IATA rules.

did you have to pay departure tax at CGK?

oh yes that 150,000 IDR tax... well what happened was at the boarding gate area my boarding pass beeped. well I was surprised cuz there wasn't any upgrade possible... they took me aside and and CX agents asked for that 150,000 IDR. Added dead cost, not efficient for the miles run....

To be fair I was happy to be out of that airport. I'd paid 100 USD to get out of there....

I thought you don't need to pay the departure tax since you are transiting. Did you tell the staff you are just doing a turnaround? Did you preprint your boarding pass or got it at the transfer desk?

Yup. Asking for bribe for sure.
Big no-no to appear rich. Better hide/remove anything that might be considered rich (including first class tag on your luggage, etc)
If they have nothing against you, you generally could just ignore them.

I know that it's pretty discouraging, but it shouldn't stop you from visiting there in the future.

Sadly, it's fairly common (i grew up in indonesia).

As for the tax I preprinted at Hkg using self kiosk. In fact check-in agent refused to print for me and I couldn't do on Internet either but the kiosk printed all! Bug? At the gate, In fact I told them I was transiting but my itinery is so complex (Hkg-cgi-Hkg-hnd) all as connection and those staff looked confused. I rather just pay the money and forget the fuss after the transfer gate incident....

As per "not looking rich" it's hard when u have biz return on same day, no matter how under-dressed like a rag I was

I'm considering doing the same turnaround next month - did you encounter any problems?

Many thanks

i did not have any issues apart from the ones i have addressed on this thread. ask anything if you like and happy to answer. (PM if you prefer).

Was it worth the hassle, and would you do it again?

Thanks

i strongly advise u against it refer my posy from oct. there r better places for turn around and jarkata aint one of them. u better have super good reason for doing this or they think u r trafficing drug.

yes i would do it again. please do check you have appropriate visa or arrival documents.

side note: i recently (Jan 2013) been refused to check-in for HKG-MNL-HKG turnaround flight because the visa issue, even through i have done it twice in Feb 2012 without any issues, back then my passport was less than 6 months till expire and no visa.

maybe CX has tighten up with all the arrival documents / visa regardless wether you are doing a transit or not.