Last night, my cousin was going back to Australia after few days in Indonesia to finish some things that has to be done. He picked Garuda Indonesia for his flight from Australia to Indonesia and vice versa and it was his first time using Garuda. Usually, he tends to use Qantas Airways. His plane was scheduled to leave at 8.20 PM and we went from my auntie's house at 5.30 just to be safe because Jakarta was very very unpredictable for traffic jam problems. Luckily the road was very clear so it only took less than half an hour to get into the airport. I accompannied my cousins until the front gate because i couldn't came in and then he was processing his tickets and so on.
After about thirty minutes or probably more, he came out and said that there was a problem with the ticket. When he used Qantas, he didn't have to bring the physical tickets, because it's already listed on Qantas' database, so you only need to confirm that the name on your passport matches with your record on the database and that's all. But it seems that Garuda is still using the manual procedures, so you have to bring your tickets and they will confirm it three times (tickets, database record, and also your passport). Because the real ticket was still in Bandung (because his girlfriend who bought the ticket wasn't leaving to Australia at that day, she still hold the ticket), so my cousin couldn't get into the plane and he had to buy another ticket for that. Luckily they will refund the money in Australia after he shows the original tickets (that means he has to wait until his girlfriend comes to Australia). What an unpleasant way to treat people who are leaving for other countries.
He was very lucky as we didn't leave him before he finishes all his administration at the airport. That's a new lesson that i learn when we want to go abroad using local airways. Always bring all the documents needed (passport, visa, and also tickets). When you are using international airways, perhaps you will only need to bring passport and visa (and very small printed paper to replace the ticket).
I think Garuda Indonesia (and all domestic airways) should learn about this also. When they have such a good technology infrastructure, they should learn to trust it and utilize it, rather than having to do the manual ways all over again. It's time and money wasting. Why do they have to build such a huge infrastructure if at the end they just don't use it??
The electronic ticket (or called e-ticket) cannot be deployed everywhere. It is based on the airline capability and the sector it is flying in. Until today, Garuda Indonesia has NOT declared that it is already using e-ticket on every sector. It will be soon, after the upgrade with Lufthansa assistance completed.
ReplyDeleteEven if you fly the most sophisticated airlines like Singapore Airlines, not all sector it is flying in are using e-ticket. For example if I fly to London (LHR) or Vietnam (SGN and HCM), I still need to use paper ticket. It depends on the airport ground handler company which is not fully under airline control. For example, the handler in Cengkareng from PT Angkasa Pura still cannot handle e-ticket. It is based also on the security measurement to deter unwelcomed passenger.
I need to point out that your cousin is very naive on this matter. If the airline is giving you a paper ticket, then obviously you have to bring it for check-in. Only if they tell you when you purchase the ticket that it will be an e-ticket for that sector, then you can come by bringing in identification and remembering the booking code only. Even for that, most of the times you still need to bring the printed itinerary to secure your way from the security guard in the departure area. You need to show them that you are a passenger by showing that printed itinerary.
Just to show you my credential, please do not take it as a cocky statement, I am frequent flyer from Singapore Airlines and Star Alliance member, on the level of PPS. And sometimes I get to fly flight 2-4 times a week to many Asia Pacific countries.
Hope this will enlight you better.
Thanks for the giving the response. I know that e-ticket cannot be deployed everywhere, but at least they can look for the database records rather than asking my cousin to bought another tickets, because they already had the record on my cousin on the passenger list
ReplyDeleteI don't know how angry your cousin at first :)
ReplyDeleteThe recommendation that garuda staff suggest is impossible especially when you don't have any money anymore.
It's been a long time a go since my last flight with garuda, because garuda is so expensive, i rather choose another airplane.
He's not angry, but worried
ReplyDeleteI think it's the cheapest one if you came from Australia rather than Qantas