In Reply to: Travel questions posted by Thomo on Tuesday, 23. June 2009 at 04:59 Bali Time:
Agree with Michele, Jakarta is certainly worth a stopover, and can vouch for it first hand having travelled Sydney-Jakarta-Denpasar-Jakarta-Sydney leaving May 30 and arriving home yesterday.
We flew Qantas business with FF points to for the Jakarta legs and Air Asia Indonesia for the Denpasar legs.
We stayed at the Sheraton Bandara (which is nearby to the airport) on the way over as it was just an overnighter, and then at the Le Meridien on the way back ... had a late checkout on the 2nd day so looked around Grand Indonesia plaza, etc.
Re VOA - I travel on an APEC card so don't need a VOA but my wife does and the line up at Jakarta was about 10 people or so. I'm sure however it could get busier at times.
Obviously having cleared customs formalities in Jakarta we landed in Bali as domestic passengers.
We think the flight via Jakarta it's a worthwhile option and plan to use it again next trip.