Total Score: 13.5 / 20
Service 4 / 5
Food 3 / 5
Seat 3.5 / 5
Amenities and IFE 3 / 5
Flight Number GA 892
Departure from Bali at 22:40 PM
Seat 6E
I’ve been the only passenger in first class several times, but this was the first time I can recall having a completely empty cabin in business class. It was a very special experience for my grandmother and I to have the entire cabin to ourselves, though I thought the flight overall left more to be desired.
Boarding
Business class boarding was called first, and my grandmother and I were able to board the plane on our private jetbridge. The four crew in charge of business class greeted us by name at the door and escorted us both to our seats. We were offered champagne and a hot towel after settling in.
Waiting on each seat was a basic amenity kit, as well as a pillow and blanket which were pretty low quality considering this was a seven hour overnight flight. I’ve had better bedding on a two hour daytime flight!
Garuda Indonesia Amenity Kit
Pillow and Blanket
Seat and Cabin
On this version of the 777-300 which doesn’t have a first class cabin, the business cabin is in a staggered configuration taking up 7 and a half rows in a 1 – 2 – 1 layout. I felt that the cabin looked a bit tired and didn’t give off the feeling of prestige you find on many other airlines in their business class cabins.
The individual seats were comfortable with a good amount of storage and overall space.
Each seat has a large table to the side as well as a small pocket below the armrest to be used as storage.
The IFE screen, while not great, provided a decent selection of content and did the trick for this short overnight flight. While the footwell does look quite spacious, I found it a bit difficult to get comfortable while lying down as my feet felt very restricted like I was sleeping in a coffin.
I actually had some of the worst sleep I’ve gotten on an overnight business class flight ever. Aside from the footwell, the pillow and blanket were quite disappointing for business class, and the cabin was very warm. Being the only passengers in the cabin, we were able to ask the crew to turn the temperature down a bit, though that wasn’t even enough. One nice touch however was the ceiling being lit up to look like the stars which was nice to look at as I struggled to fall asleep.
I really expected more from a flight where most of the business class passengers want to get as much sleep as possible.
Food
The flight took off at 10:40 PM and landed at about 5:30 AM Beijing local time, thus only dinner was served with no option for even a small breakfast. I do believe the crew would have brought us whatever they had if we were hungry for breakfast, though we preferred to maximize our sleep and didn’t bother to ask.
We were each brought a plate of fruit and bread to start the meal service.
This was followed by an Indonesian beef dish for me, and a customized vegan dish for my grandmother.
My beef dish
Grandmother’s veggie dish
My dish was…interesting, though I expected better from Garuda given that I had the best airplane breakfast on my last flight with them from Bali to Seoul. Lastly, the dessert was extremely sweet, so I left it alone after just two small bites so I could get some sleep.
I may have had too high expectations for the meal service, though I came away a bit disappointed by the quality of the dishes. I understand this is supposed to be a relatively light meal to allow passengers to sleep on the short overnight flight, though I expected better.
Service and Crew
The crew were overly friendly as expected from Garuda and were especially helpful in crafting a bland vegan meal for my grandmother who has some pretty strict dietary restrictions. I expected an unparalleled level of service on this flight given we were the only two passengers, though after the meal service, I heard almost nothing from the crew until we left the plane. I’ve had some really interesting conversations with the crew on relatively empty flights before, but not this one..oh well.
We woke up about 30 minutes before landing to an early sunrise in Northern China and enjoyed the views before landing in Beijing on time.
Bottom Line
I have mixed feelings about this flight. Nothing really impressed me about this flight other than the fact that we had the entire cabin to ourselves. Everything else about this flight was just average from the meal to the seats to the service. For those looking to fly direct between Bali and Beijing, this is of course a great option, though not for those of you looking for a phenomenal business class experience.