[Anonymous]

[magicalmedical]

My family of 8 people are going to have a vacation to Tokyo with GA 884 Jakarta to Narita by Garuda Indonesia, we are platinum frequent fliers member of Garuda. However, Garuda changes our arriving and departing airport in Tokyo from Narita to Haneda. The problem are not just we have a connecting flight from Narita to Sapporo but also we are travelling with 2 kinds and 2 elderly parents, thus, we have arranged our private transport from and to Narita airport .

The rerouted flight was not make us angry, however, they way Garuda handled this situation was such a pain and disappointment. We complained about this to Garuda office, it was so hard almost impossible to see the supervisor in charge. One time we waited for an hour to see the supervisor in charge with no kew of customer in the office. Also they hung us with our request of exchanging our flight by did’t give us any answer nor contacting us until we have to go to their office everyday.

Their solution was to provide us with a bus from Haneda to Narita (2hours journey) to catch our flight in Narita (we only have 4 hours transit time). Garuda will change us with new tickets (by budget airlines carrier!) if we missed our flight. Moreover, about private transport that we have booked from and to the airport, Garuda won’t do anything about it nor provide us with any solution. This way of handling the situation that caused by Garuda in the first place was not acceptable even for a low cost carrier let alone Garuda.

[dutchyankee]

Hi MagicaMedical,

I found this link which might explain something (although I found it a bit confusing).

https://www.garuda-indonesia.com/sa/en/news-and-events/perubahan-jadwal-penerbangan-ke-tokyo.page

Sorry they haven’t treated you the way you expected.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello MagicalMedical –

Sorry to hear about your experience with Garuda before the start of your vacation.

But according to the above link, Garuda gave ample notice of the Tokyo airport change so I can only assume you must have booked the flights many months in advance.

And are you holding through tickets for the entire trip or travelling with separate tickets ? In other words, one set of tickets for Jakarta-Narita plus separate tickets for Narita-Sapporo ?

Haneda is the main domestic airport and there are very frequent flights from there to Sapporo. For example, ANA flies three times an hour while JAL operates hourly. There are also regular flights with another couple of local carriers.

For that reason, is it not possible to switch your domestic flights to depart Haneda rather than Narita so as to avoid the lengthy transfer between the two airports ?

Being rebooked on a budget carrier if the connection is missed, as you mentioned above, might seem penny-pinching but almost all flights between Narita and Sapporo are operated by low-cost airlines.

[magicalmedical]

Hello AMcWhirter,

Yes we hold the tickets since last year for our kids end of term holidays. And yes we are holding sapate tikets, Garuda doesn’t operate to Sapporo.

We already asked garuda to switch our domestic flight depart from Haneda rather than Narita, but I guess because their service really sucks, they only want to give us bus tickets from Haneda to Narita rather than a replacement of our domestic tickets, and its the cheapest option for Garuda too right?

And only if it doesn’t work out Garuda will give us replacement tickets, but by that time its already such a disscomfort, traveling with 2 kids and elderly parents: need to rush from landing, imigration, baggage handling, take bus to another airport, check in again. And if we missed our flight, we loose our time in Sapporo too. We have asked for the next immidiate flight if we missed our flight not just budget carrier flight because JAL and ANA also operate from Narita to Sapporo.

I was surprised that garuda service is this bad , and we are platinum frequent fliers too, guess it doesn’t mean anything for Garuda.

[StephenLondon]

But magicalmedical, any travel agent should have been able to book you through tickets to Sapporo, thus giving you one-contract protection in the event a carrier such as Garuda changed arrival airports in Tokyo.

Once you book separate tickets, Garuda have zero responsibility to accommodate you due to an airport change. They are honouring the contract you have with them, and that is to get you to Tokyo, just as your second contract is to get you from Tokyo to Sapporo. You are already ahead by being given a transfer from HND to NRT, and an offer to fly you up on an alternative carrier in the event of a delay. This is already quite generous of Garuda. What more do you want?

Had you booked it on one ticket, you would have been protected.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

As Stephen says – Garuda only have a contract to get you to Tokyo, not Sapporo as you have booked as 2 separate tickets. This is the inherent risk anyone runs when you book 2 separate tickets. Not knowing what you have booked domestically then I’d consider seeing if you can change the domestic flights to go from Haneda instead and pay the relevant change fees (or at least on the return leg).

If the through fare was extremely high then you should have considered an alternative carrier – or if the fare was cheap and decided to book 2 separate tickets as much better value – then sadly it hasn’t worked out for you in this case now that they have changed the schedules. But Garuda have no obligation with regards to your onwards flights to Sapporo so whilst you might want more empathy from them – they don’t have to offer anything apart from possibly a full refund on the flights to Tokyo if you don’t accept the schedule changes.

[magicalmedical]

Dear StephenLondon, The contract is to Narita Tokyo not Haneda. Moreover, this is a service bisnis. My previous experience with Singapore airlines is completely different, they overbooked their flight from Melbourne to Singapore, thus, they changed my flight schedule, which I also hv connecting flight from Singapore to Jakarta with Garuda. They not just change my ticket from Singapore-Jakarta, but also upgrate me to business class, and double up my points for that flight. If they are not low budget airlines then service is the only thing that differentiate one airlines with another. I have never experiences any problem with Garuda up until now, thats why we are platinum members, but comparing their service to others non budget airlines, this is the worst I get, thats whys I think its not right.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi MagicalMedical

As you say the contract with Garuda is to get you to Narita. So if they are now providing transfers to get you from Haneda to Narita then they are fulfilling their contract. What happens with the onwards flight is not their business or responsibility. And if on the return your miss your connection because the domestic leg is late – then you are responsible for paying any fees to change the ticket back (this would have been the case anyway).

[AMcWhirter]

Hello MagicalMedical

As others here have explained the main problem is that you have booked separate tickets.

Each ticket provides a separate contract with the airline. As far as Garuda is concerned, you were simply flying from Jakarta to Tokyo and ending your journey there.

When buying separate tickets, great care must be taken if making a connection in case of schedule changes.

This especially applies when booking flights many months in advance because airlines may make schedule adjustments towards the end of March and towards the end of October.

So when booking flights which cover the period of a schedule change then always check to make sure the timings remain the same.

Yes, of course the airline should inform the passenger of any changes but it is not unknown for airline email alerts to end up in the passenger’s “spam” box where they remain unread.

Remember that there is no certainty in air travel !

A prime example is where Garuda has had, at fairly short notice, to reschedule half its European flights because of the runway situation at Jakarta.

So once again many passengers will be inconvenienced. They will miss connections or have to rebook their trips for different dates.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/101748/garuda-to-reschedule-european-flights

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