Holy Smokes: 90% Off Award Tickets in All Classes of Service on Garuda Indonesia

by Gary Leff

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Citibank ThankYou points transfer partner and SkyTeam member Garuda Indonesia just introduced online award booking last month. Until then you had to ticket in person at a sales office (there are only four in the U.S.).

I have a ton of Citibank points as a result of spending over the past year or so earning triple points on air and hotel and double points on restaurants and entertainment with my Citi Prestige Card — and I’m really tempted to use them on this new offer.

This new promotion that runs through end of year: 90% off award travel in any class of service. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an award promotion like it.

Garuda now offers telephone booking (in addition to online), no sales office required either, which is great because this deal doesn’t appear to be available for online booking.

The promotion is valid for booking through December 31 and travel between February 1 and May 31, giving you 90% off mileage cost on all Garuda Indonesia routes in first class, business class, or economy.

I almost feel like there has to be a catch, but it doesn’t appear so, here are the terms and conditions. (I thought for a moment that ‘subject to seat availability’ could mean something other that saver awards must be available, but they even specify the eligible saver award booking classes for the offer..!)

* This promo eligible for flight classes R (First Class), O (Business Class) and X (Economy Class)
* This promo is subject to seat availability
* This promo eligible in Garuda Indonesia contact center or sales office redemption channels.
* This promo eligible for all GarudaMiles members
* Registration is no[t] needed in order to get this promo

“Wait no more, redeem your mileage in Garuda Indonesia contact center at 0804 1 807 807 / +62 21 2351 9999 or nearest Sales Office in your city.”

Here are their ticket offices if you prefer to handle in person:

The Points Guy reports that transfers from Citibank took 2 days to turn up in a Garuda Indonesia GarduaMiles account. So there should still be time to move points and take advantage of this offer.

Garuda Indonesia has said they want to fly from Jakarta to Los Angeles via Tokyo in 2017 but of course that’s not scheduled yet so not bookable with this promotion. However first class onboard their Boeing 777-300ER looks fantastic.

There’s virtually no competition for redeeming first class awards on SkyTeam member Garuda Indonesia. Delta miles, of course, cannot be used for international first class.

Garuda’s award chart isn’t normally great (without a 90% discount!) although shorter flights especially in economy and business are reasonable.

Each Garuda route is priced separately, and roughly based on distance. Economy awards normally start at 4000 miles each way and business starts at 7000 miles each way.

The shortest first class redemptions are normally priced at 45,000 miles one-way. Here are some normal first class prices:

  • Jakarta – Syndey is 90,000 miles one-way in first class
  • Jakarta – Abu Dhabi is 105,000 miles one-way in first class
  • Jakarta – London is 190,00 miles one-eway in first class

(HT: Ron F.)

Update: Some commenters at One Mile at a Time think Garuda Indonesia is botching their English and that they mean to offer 10% off (which would hardly be the proclaimed ‘best deal of the year’). Will see what I can figure out. Needless to say verify availability and pricing before transferring points to GarudaMiles.

Update 2: Per One Mile at a Time Garuda Indonesia confirms on Twitter that the offer really is 90% off.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

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Comments

  1. so did you price out some tickets with 90% discount? How much is it all in for a first class long haul ticket? fuel surcharges? thank you and wishing all you miles and points addicts 9999999999999 miles in 2017!

  2. Were you able to call and price this out along with fuel surcharges? Does the flight have to originate in Jakarta?

  3. I haven’t called. Garuda Indonesia adds fuel surcharges onto award tickets, and those will generally mirror the fuel surcharges on a paid ticket so that’s easy to price out.

    So Bali – Tokyo one way in first class should be $28 in YQ:

    And Jakarta – Amsterdam one way in first class should be $175 in YQ:

  4. It means you pay 90% of the regular redemption. In many Aisan languages that’s how a promotion is phrased. Just go to any Asian shopping mall you’ll see sale signs like “70% discount” – it just means that you pay 70% of the original price or getting 30% off.

    This is a clear case of lost in translation.

  6. Some Indonesian speakers at One Mile at a Time say the Indonesian site says 90% off, that it isn’t a mis-translation, for what it’s worth. I’ve been on work calls and haven’t gotten through. We’ll see.

  8. Does Garuda fly to/from New York?

    How can I use Delta miles to take advantage of the Garuda promotion?

  10. It is a legit 90% off promo. I called their Jakarta office and they confirm. However, it is not very practical for me here (Seattle) to book a round trip CGK-AMS in F, or even DPS-TYO in J. I could not book for my parents and siblings either (since they still live in Indo) because I have to do that in person. I did encourage them to go to their local GA office in Jakarta to book first thing tomorrow morning … LOL! I smell a family trip to Tokyo sometime soon … 🙂

    For those who have Citi TY points and have means to pre-position yourselves either in Europe, Asia, or Australia, lucky you! You can still call. GA phone system is not the best, but I got through on my 3rd call. The staff’s English is not bad, at least the one that I spoke with is quite good.

  11. @Gary – the ticket office listed for NYC is not correct and not what’s shown on the website when I just checked. I tried to go to the address you have above and they weren’t there. It appears the correct address is at 1 Penn Plaza although haven’t tried visiting.

  12. I finally got through to Jakarta call center and they said the promo ended early morning hours Indonesia time on 24 December. There goes all my hard work on my spreadsheet… 🙁

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