Air tickets in Bali

This morning I went down to Kuta to order a plane ticket to Singapore, to renew my Business Visa. I’ve had some ups and downs with airlines recently and wanted to get to the bottom of things. My ticket on Garuda (serviced by Malaysia Airlines) to London, was supposedly changeable, as far as the date. “You just call to change at least 24 hours before flight and no problem,” the travel agent told me. Six weeks later I tried that and almost lost the ticket! I was told my ticket was not transferable at all. Only by luck, and using some pressure tactics that I learned over the years, from my colleagues, I got the manager to write me a new ticket.

Singapore is a handy place to do the visa run, it fairly close (2.5 hours direct), easy to navigate and I have been throguh the system before. I once tried processing my Business visa in Bangkok, and got dicked around. Arjuna in Kerobokan told me I didn’t need and onward ticket form Bali, Bangkok said I did and wouldn’t issue the visa without one. Singapore doesn’t care about the plane ticket.

Kadek the travel agent on Poppies I said my London ticket was changeable for free. All I said, was that there are varied tickets, some are for free, some charge to change, some you cannot change. Important to get this straight before you leave on a long trip, or like me you could be standing with your bags at the airport with your ‘hopes’ in your hand.

Today, as predicted, most of the flights to Singapore are fully booked. I did book one, leaving a couple of days earlier than I had wanted, but I have to get to the Embassy on a day when its open, and as a precaution, when its open the next day too, should I not arrive in time (you put the paperwork in before 12 noon, and pick it up in the afternoon). One time I made it to the Embassy at 11.55am after flying from Bali-Yogyakarta-Jakarta-Singapore, and catching a cab downtown. I don’t know if it just me, but it feels like airlines are trying to cram as many people as possible onto the flights and over the last 12 months I’ve been on many packed planes, flying trans-Pacific, tran-Continental and regional. Book early for flights out of Bali.