Jaunted

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New Airline Alert: Indonesia's Batik Air

Indonesia has just gotten even more accessible for travel to their tropical paradise. With the introduction of a premium subsidiary, Lion Air will try to go head-to-head with the national flag carrier, Garuda. Batik Air is planning to get their birds in the sky by March of next year.

Usually, we see premium airlines creating low-cost offshoots, but this the exact opposite. Lion Air is the low-cost carrier while Batik will be the one with higher ticker prices and, to go with it, high levels of service. It's to be based out of Jakarta, flying to South and East Asian destinations and Australia.

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In-Flight Entertainment / Garuda Indonesia / Garuda / Indonesia Travel / Food Travel / CGK / DPS / HKG / SYD / JED / → All Tags

What's Cookin' Good Lookin': Garuda Indonesia's Secret Recipes

...And we're not talking in-flight food, but off-flight food.

Did you know that in-flight entertainment systems can be more than just an avenue for catching up on episodes of 30 Rock or Gossip Girl? Well, on Garuda Indonesia, there's heaps of information in a very well stocked seatback TV.

When we perused the offerings to watch some television on a recent Garuda flight, we found more than just Bahasa-language sitcoms. Since we don't speak enough of the language to even get one wise-crack, we opted to go deeper into the pages and pages designed to keep passengers happy until final approach.

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Flying Garuda Indonesia's Executive Class Actually Has...Class

Since an important part of traveling includes how you get there, it's always nice to sit up front in an airplane. While it makes more sense to experience first or business class on long-haul flights, doing so requires a lot more digging into pockets than most people can manage. The most economical way to fly in the premium cabin is to use miles for an upgrade.

We recently flew an airline that isn't part of our favorite airline alliance (yet). This means no opportunity to use those frequent flyer miles to stretch our legs. While planning a Bali trip, we needed to fly to Denpasar/Bali from Jakarta, and found one of our options to be Garuda Indonesia. Knowing little about them beyond that they're the national airline, we were curious.

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Religion Travel / Alaska Airlines / Lion Air / CGK / Airline News / Airlines / → All Tags

Alaska Airlines Stops Handing Out Prayer Cards, but They're Not the Only Airline with Them

By now you've probably already heard the news that Alaska Airlines is doing away with dispensing mealtime prayer cards onboard. For many travelers, the fact that an airline would do this in the first place is surprising. Like flyer need to be reminded that their lives are in the hands of a few people sitting up front, and the buttons and switches they're operating to keep the plane aloft and on course.

Well, while Alaska Airlines sends all those prayer cards to the recycling bin, at least one other airline is continuing the practice. Twitter user @Jonathan_Liem tipped us off that Lion Air, an Indonesian carrier that flies around SE Asia, includes "invocation pamphlets," printed with prayers for several religions, in your seatback pocket. "Please do not remove from aircraft." Ay yai yai.

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The Most Popular Airports on Foursquare

It's been a minute or two since we last wrote about location-based social networking site Foursquare and its impact on travel. Does it still have one? You betcha, and with their recent introduction of "expertise badges" and a refresh of the 4sq site, it's high time to reflect a bit; we have, after all, been tapping to "check in" on the app for a solid two years now, leaving priceless tips along the route. Follow us here, by the way.

There are a few things you discover the more you use Foursquare, and we don't just mean which macaron-specializing bakeries are nearest your home (though there's that too, of course). What we mean is that users are overwhelmingly mobile; those truly into Foursquare get around, and they really love checking into, and leaving tips for, airports around the world.

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