Flying with Garuda Indonesia<\/p>\n
On May 15 to May 18, 2003, my husband, my 5-year-old son and I
\nwent to Yogyakarta for the long weekend. We booked a return
\nflight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta with Garuda Indonesia. I made a
\ndirect reservation with \"Garuda 24 hours\" at (021) 23519999 under
\nbooking code: QD6CN4.<\/p>\n
For our son's comfort, we specifically requested seats at the
\nfront of a section. Garuda reserved our seats in row 10 D\/E\/F for
\nflight GA 2062 on May 15 from Jakarta to Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
The day before we left, we checked in at the Garuda office in
\nHotel Indonesia and our boarding passes were issued for the above
\nseat numbers. On May 15, we reported to the check-in counter at
\nSoekarno-Hatta airport while we checked in our baggage. Up until
\nthen, everything was fine and nobody from Garuda said anything
\nabout our seats.<\/p>\n
Once we boarded the airplane we found that our seats were next
\nto the emergency exit, and that this is prohibited for children.
\nFor everybody's safety, the cabin attendant moved us to row 12
\nD\/E\/F. We didn't argue because we agreed that passenger safety
\nwas important. We also noticed that there was a child with two
\nadults in row 10 A\/B\/C who had to be moved to other seats for the
\nsame reason.<\/p>\n
We kept wondering why three employees of Garuda confirmed our
\nseats (at reservations, the city check-in and at the check-in
\ncounter) but none of them knew that children are not allowed to
\nbe seated next to the emergency exit in an airplane? Or maybe
\nthey knew but just didn't care about the safety of passengers and
\nignored the safety procedures?<\/p>\n
Our problems with Garuda were not over yet. We were supposed
\nto leave for Jakarta in the afternoon of May 18 on Flight GA 2092
\ndeparting Yogyakarta at 3:50 p.m and arriving in Jakarta at 4:50
\np.m.. We chose this departure time because we expected the flight
\nto be delayed and would arrive in Jakarta around 6 p.m. and we
\ndid not want our son to be too tired for his class the following
\nday.<\/p>\n
On the afternoon of May 16, I called (021) 23519999 from
\nYogyakarta and found out that our reservation for GA 2092 was
\ndeliberately canceled by Garuda Reservation Control without our
\napproval and without even informing us. The staff explained that
\nGA 2092 was over-booked and we already had confirmed seating on
\nflight GA 2112. Whatever the reason, we didn't understand why
\nGaruda made no effort to call us and let us know about the
\nsituation!<\/p>\n
As expected the departure of flight GA 2112 was delayed for
\nabout an hour and we landed in Jakarta around 9 p.m. By then, our
\nson was exhausted and my husband and I were very upset with
\nGaruda's service.<\/p>\n
SOERJANDARI A., Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/flying-with-garuda-indonesia-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }