Garuda Indonesia Reviews | Opinions of Garuda Indonesia shared by travelers

In late January I purchased a Jakarta-Singapore round trip ticket on Garuda for March 24 in the Singapore airport.

Unfortunately, I was unable to fly on March 24. I went to the Garuda office on in Jakarta on Rasuna Said, cancelled my fight, and asked for a refund, knowing that there would be a penalty. I was told that my reservation had been cancelled, and that I would be notified when they had the cash refund for me to pick up at their office. Apparently there was no way to refund my purchase directly to the credit card with which I paid for the ticket. 

I never heard from anyone in that office, and when I tried to find out what had happened, they informed me that they did not know.

I flew to Singapore on March 30, went to the same counter in Changi where I had originally purchased the first ticket. They informed me that there was no record of my visit to the Jakarta office,  that they could not refund my ticket either, even thought I had purchased it there. They told me to take the MRT (because it would be faster than a taxi) and go to your office in United Square: apparently that office had to have my credit card in hand to swipe. There was no other way, electronic or otherwise, to refund me my money.

I did so, and it took me two hours. Once there I was told that the people in Jakarta had never followed through, and that the people at Changi were wrong: they could have refunded my ticket.

So I spent a total of approximately seven hours (Jakarta traffic, hiking through Cangi, and taking the MRT), only to be told that it should have been taken care of (a) in Jakarta, or (b) at Cangi. Nor was it in their power to do any "service recovery" so that I might walk out a happy Garuda customer (like not charge me the penalty, give me some free miles on my new mileage card, offer me a Coca Cola, nothing). But that they would be sure to inform the people at Cangi that they were wrong I the way they handled the situation.

Bottom lines:
-never purchase a Garuda ticket unless you are willing to forfeit the cost of the ticket if you are I'll on the flight date, or have lots of time and patience to chase your refund.
-their actual flight service is fine but when there are good options like Air Asia I will choose them so that I nevere have to experience Garuda service again.