Sriwijaya Air Business Class : Worth But...

On May 26, 2013 I finally tried the business class of Sriwijaya Air on flight SJ 593 Makassar/Ujung Pandang (UPG) - Jakarta (CGK).

I'm not an aviation geek but I'm a passionate writer so I decided to post a review.

As a business class passenger, we got access to the Blue Sky Executive Lounge. The lounge was incredibly nice compared to average airport lounge in Indonesia but still can't beat the Garuda Executive Lounge at Soekarno Hatta yet. In Sultan Hasanuddin Airport, there was no special counter for business class passenger but it was no trouble because the queue was not bad and I know that they only have 8 seats for business class.

At the time of boarding, one officer picked us at the lounge and brought us to the airplane. As usual, we didn't transfer from the terminal to the airplane using the platform bus but business class passenger car.

The aircraft was Boeing 737-800 named Kepercayaan (trust). It looked relatively new for Sriwijaya Air as they mainly use ex-aircrafts. I checked on planespotters, the aircrafts is currently the youngest (in age) fleet of Sriwijaya. The oldest is 25 years old baby, Cantik.

I like how the flight attendants greet you with their unique greeting. They were nice and friendly too. Smile all the time, have a good manner and polite.

nice space, new seat

I surprised with the new seats. The last time I boarded on Sriwijaya, the seats were old and ... can I say ugly? But this time it looked fresh and comparatively clean for this airlines's standard.

panel on seat, kinda dusty

seat

What always bother me on every Sriwijaya flight is their cleanliness. Most of the time you can easily find annoying dust (because they really ruined the look) or small trashes on their carpet. This time I spotted a red  candy plastic inside the brochure/newspaper stand. Not to mention the dusty armrests and panel.

There was no in-flight entertainment. I don't know if this apply to all Sriwijaya fleets or not.

today's inflight meal with choices of chicken or fish

Mom already took the grapes from the fruit bowl

The inflight meal was decent. It's Philippine Airlines economy standard but okay laa. We got sweet steamed cakes, bread and jam and of course nasi (rice) + grapes. My mom asked for fruits platter but they gave grapes instead. Only grapes, I mean. Plus point, now they have milk! I didn't get to drink on my last flight to Singapore by Sriwijaya because they didn't have milk that time hahahaha.

I slept for the half journey and when I woke up, I realized that someone put a blanket on me. My bro said it was the male FA. My question is, why don't they give us blanket at the first place so we can feel warm earlier? The blanket size was also unique. It cannot cover your upper arm till your feet because it was pretty short. Unless you sleep like a cat hahaha.

When we finally landed and parked safely, one of the attendants asked the ground staff about the car that supposed to pick business class passenger. I didn't hear what the response was but the car was just not available so yeah, we socialized (say it with style! hahaha) and used the regular bus.

The most upsetting time was when we waited for our baggage. We only got two checked-in luggage and we expected to get our luggage fast with the priority tag but yeah, we had to wait as well. Some ground staffs helped us in finding our luggage sih, so we just had to stand near the collect point.

Overall, it was a nice standard flight that worth the price (regular price for this sector estimated $210). I definitely would fly Sriwijaya Air again with this aircraft. One main point, Sriwijaya should always control the cleanliness of their fleets. I normally choose other airlines over Sriwijaya mainly because of my past experiences spotting trash and dust. Come on, they have good customer service, nice and friendly staff/attendants, competitive price, in-flight meal (it's becoming rare and expensive these days, thanks to LCC) and flexible baggage. It's too bad to lose customer on cleanliness standard when they're almost perfect in other aspects.

My suggestion is to add dessert or cold cakes, because this is always my expectation on any flights. So far I only found dessert in Garuda Indonesia business class (for domestic route, international route always give dessert laah). Fruit platter should be always available as well. I have no complain on the attendants nor the whole experience because we only paid for economy class, he he he.