plunet

I hadn't had any response to the emails I had sent - both to the UK and Jakata email addresses, so I called up Jakarta early Thursday morning and after a lot of cut-off-the-call-after-two-mins with the IVR from hell, got through to Lana. She initially was aware of the cancellation of the London route and that reroutes were available onto GA via AMS and possibly KLM but didn't seem aware of the CX and SQ options, but after some explanation that the return flight times didn't work for me as I had couldn't leave BKK before 6am on 1st Jan, and had to be back in LHR by 7am on 2nd Jan, and some long pauses whilst she consulted colleagues I ended up suggesting a SQ itenary (she hadn't mentioned SQ or CX as an option, only GA or KL). This required a "case" to be created and sent to back office - she could instantly see that the outbound flight was approved from London but couldn't get a flight back on the 1st of Jan BKK-SIN-LHR to reserve correctly. She took my contact details, and said that I would get some feedback. Later yesterday I could see the SQ flights on my PNR as well as a mess of GA flights and the SQ flights were showing as confirmed but the etciket number hadn't changed and the PNR didn't work at SQ's website.

This morning Lana phoned me back and said that she couldn't get approval for the SQ flights to return on the 1st Jan - with the timing of the BKK-SIN connections the options were limited to two connections back to London and I couldn't move my travel plans to be on the 31st Dec or 2nd Jan, and it seemed that the fare bucket for the SIN-LHR flights that night didn't work out. But she proposed that she could rereoute me with CX via HKG, and to save any more faffing around I went with this - the connections are better with CX (it seems CX stable a couple of planes overnight at BKK so they have better options for BKK-HKG than SQ do for BKK-SIN) so was reserved on day flights BKK-HKG-LHR with CX getting back into London late on the 1st Jan. A further brief phone call later this morning from Lana and we have updated etickets issued, all ticketed under the original PNR, on a GA-plated 126- eticket and ticketed on CX in D class.

So my travel plan is better than it was with GA... LHR-CGK-BKK was always a bit of a roundabout route, although I miss out on an enforced stopover in Jakarta. I would have preferred the chance to try SQ business but very happy to accept CX business and get two extra days in BKK compared to my original itenary, plus I can usefully earn miles in BAEC with CX. A good end result, but a shame it took 3 months to sort it out.

Sisyphus1carus

Have emailed Garuda (who are obviously busy !!) asking this but thought someone on here might know.

When is the latest that we could sucesfully request a full refund ?

Our flights are early Dec but it might relate more to the date we were informed of the cancellation of LHR-CGK.

Cheers.

plunet

As far as I can recall, under EC261 there is no specific time limit, but something that could have worked in your favour... Had GA proactively told you about the cancellation? They have not told me, and if you hadn't emailed them they don't know that you know...

mr_botak

Personally I'd be tempted to crack on with it in terms of either rebooking or refund. It may take a long time to see any actual money, and at the moment they seem to be pro-actively offering / pushing the refund.

siw

I can see MNL and SGN being sensible routes because they are both regional major cities and suprised GA do not already fly there. But Paris, really? If they are giving up on the 3x weekly B77W to London how do they expect to fill up CDG flights and better (speculation clearly aircraft B77W? / frequency unknown)? Also, most (all?) SkyTeam transfers can be done in AMS already. As I have said above a few times if GA had the B787/A350 then LHR/CDG etc. would make sense (just see VN doing 5 daily B789/A359 flights between LHR/CDG/FRA and HAN/SGN). Even BI can fly a daily B788 to LHR (soon to be direct rather than via DXB), although historically linked but how much traffic daily demand is there? Each regional flag-carrier has the B787/A350 in some form: SQ,MH,TG,VN,BI,CZ,CX,CI,BR(soon),PR and QF and also some regional longer haul low-costters (JQ,TR). Ignoring the A330-900NEO as that'll be for Asia/Australia.

So GA get some B789 and/or A359 to fly a mixture of LHR-CGK and LHR-DPS (just like VN does from LHR to HAN and SGN with the B789). Then do the same with CDG/FRA/AMS. They could still put in a row or two of First, which is what makes GA standout (flown in there a few times and I always saw at least half full). I flew GA86 in Business yesterday and it was slightly better than VN business and plenty of Bali transfers.

clubeurope

they were supposed to get those planes, until they were told by government (as their main share holder) to cut back on "unnecessary" spending, like new aircraft. Though these planes will do a marvel, GA doesn't need anymore capacity at the moment, which is also the reason why they haven't been taking delivery of more 737maxs.

siw

Isn't having 10 B77Ws already over capacity? GA have assigned 5 or 6 B77Ws to the Hajj flights, along with some A330s and leased B744s. So during that time did the routes those B77Ws would have flown have to take capacity reductions? I think it's only LHR/AMS/NRT/JED that currently have scheduled B77Ws. Aren't the B77Ws leased, so when does their leasing expire? Then it would be time to have swap some B77Ws for B787s/A350s.

clubeurope

Sisyphus1carus

So despite my original itinerary (to BKK) having a stopover of one night in both directions Garuda are telling me that their policy for these replacement flights is that no stopovers allowed !!!

I have found replacement flights in business class in I booking class (as originally booked) but they are saying I can't have the stopovers.

Has anyone else got an overnight stop with their replacement itinerary ?

On Garuda flights ?
On another airline ??

Seriously frustrating.

It seems their policy for providing similar replacement flightd is actually preventing them from providing similar replacement flights !!

I HAVE FOUND VERY SENSIBLE, REASONABLE ITINERARY WITH AVAILABILITY AND THEY ARE SAYING NO YOU MUST GO STRAIGHT THROUGH.

Their itinerary gives just under an hour each way between flights :-(

plunet

My original itinerary had a stopover, but that was to break up the forced overnight in CGK and just because I have never been to Jakarta.

But with the cancellation of the route I was happy to alleviate the need for a stopover and just go through to BKK (in my case with CX).

On my dates, introducing the stopover in CGK also maintained the ticket at its low price - the CGK to BKK flights the morning following my CGK arrival had price premium on them, going onto BKK the next day kept the price sensible.

Having reread the EC261 wording it only states that the obligation is to reroute you to your destination (singular) and makes no reference to stopovers or intermediate routing as far as I can see.

If you absolutely have to get to Jakarta but want to maintain the value of your flight to Bangkok as silly as it is, it might be that you have to consider booking flights from Bangkok to Jakarta separately and trying to do a claim from the airline for the additional cost - but there could be many reasons that this would not work for you not least your time and inconvenience, but taking advice from a EC261 claims specialist might be worthwhile first to get their view on the stopover situation and if that is likely to work. Also bear in mind that the GA legal entity in the UK may be closed down in Autumn if they have no intention to fly here for a while so you might be forced to do the claim in the Netherlands.

A difficult one.

I had other Indonesian friends who travel frequently in business on GA, were not on an especially cheap booking, and were impacted by the schedule change, their destination was CGK. They seemed to be unable to argue that the time change to use the flights via AMS meant these flights were useless to them and they needed to be rerouted with SQ MH or CX, but that could be done and ended up having to take the refund and rebook with SQ - but I don't think there was a significant cost difference in the end. It does seem that there is a limited amount of flexibility that GA offer and beyond that there is no hope...

Good luck

mflat

Hi all,

Brief update after this thread's gone quiet. I've had good success with the London Garuda office, despite doing my booking online. They were able to transfer our LHR-MEL itinerary to Cathay Pacific, maintaining our Fare Class, and allowing great flexibility in timing, connections, etc.

Everything has now been rebooked on Cathay, and my reservation is showing up in the CX system.

I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Sisyphus1carus

Hi, could you advise how long each of your transfer times or stopovers are enroute ?
Odd question I appreciate !

Do you recall who it is you were speaking with ?
Cheers.

mflat

Original booking had the following layovers:
1 hour outbound
1:35 mins return

After the LHR Garuda cancellations, the trip durations of 24 hours all moved to 35-40 hour trips. I didn't write down the exact stopover lengths.

Now with the rebooking on CX, I have the following layover lengths:
3:25 outbound
2:45 return

I spoke with several different agents at the London office and they were all very helpful.

TWAnonrev

I cancelled my flight altogether after they announced the change. They are taking their sweet time issuing a credit. Much much longer than any other airline when I've had to cancel. It's been a month so far. Any guesses how much longer?

plunet

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If you paid with a credit card, approach the card issuer to get the refund sorted.