In Reply to: GARUDA DELAYS .... VERY ANGRY!!!!!!!!! posted by Shopaholic on Tuesday, 13. July 2004 at 13:56 Bali Time:
Something similar happened to me with Garuda during the mid-1990's. We sat on the plane on the runway ready to take off for about 1 hour before the plane went back to the departure gate and the pilot instructed everyone to get off because of a "mechanical problem". By this time it was about 7 P.M. The plane's route was Jakarta-Honolulu-Los Angeles. The flight was "cancelled" and the passengers were told that Garuda would pay for a hotel for the night, and that they would try to fly us to Los Angeles the following morning. Most passengers (who were Indonesian) just accepted the announcement and proceeded like sheep out of the departure terminal to the shuttle buses for departure to the hotel. About 8 of us vehemently protested and DEMANDED FLIGHTS ON OTHER AIRLINES NO MATTER WHAT ROUTE THEY HAD TO TAKE TO GET US TO LOS ANGELES. Garuda finally gave us seats on another Garuda flight late that night TO TOKYO, WITH A CONNECTING FLIGHT FROM TOKYO TO LOS ANGLES ON UNITED AIRLINES. THEY ALSO PAID FOR A DAY ROOM AT THE TOKYO AIRPORT AND A MEAL IN TOKYO. In your case you should have STRONGLY DEMANDED a flight to Sydney or to Auckland or to anywhere else that ANY airline might fly you with a connecting flight to Denpasar. Demand, Demand, Demand And don't let them tell you "No". Threaten lawsuits too. Being obnoxious helps too.