Well that didn’t last long. Garuda Indonesia has pulled its astounding 90% off award ticket sale, a full 7 days before it was originally scheduled to end.
In a way, it’s not surprising. Once the deal got picked up by the travel blogs, it was only a matter of time before Garuda’s reservations hotline got swamped by people hoping to score one of its coveted First and Business Class seats (me included).
And you can argue about how much this promotion is really costing them (in that the seats blocked off for saver awards are usually the ones that would have gone out empty anyway) but one thing’s for sure- when this deal came out most of us knew that this was going to be a mad rush situation. No one can really say they expected this to last all the way to the 31st.
There was some initial confusion as to whether awards that were booked but not yet ticketed would be honored. It appears that the answer is “yes”, provided the issuance is done before 31 Dec. Other bloggers who have called in have got similar answers. My worst fear when I heard that the promotion was pulled was that the miles I transferred (which are now still en route to my Garuda account) would end up orphaned. But it looks like I (and anyone else who has already booked an award) should be safe.
I certainly hope no one here transferred miles before getting a confirmed seat. I guess the object lesson here is
- If it’s too good to be true, it probably is
- If it’s too good to be true and is true, it probably won’t last
Congrats to everyone who got in on this deal (and I’m expecting many trip reports, ahem), and to those who didn’t, chin up. Deals come and go. I’m excited to see what this game throws at us next.
Good thing we have your site…within that short period of time some of us manage to snatch a steal of the year because of your post… ??? (sadly i’m not of those lucky bunch, well, mabye next good to be true moment)
Thanks and keep up the good work/info…
Merry Christmas to you and your family… Happy holidays…
AW
agreed, same here, was too late to the party.
thanks for the speedy share as always!
much appreciated!
thank you alvin, same to you. better luck next time!
Hi guys,
my citi miles posted today to Garuda, you should check your GarudaMiles account!
So psyched
i transferred mine on friday and I see nothing in my account yet. getting nervous. i’m convinced it’s because there’s a hyphen in my chinese name and garuda’s system does not support hyphens.
when did u do the transfer?
Saturday morning. Surprised it posted today actually.
thats fast, still waiting for mine, and i did it fri morning. hope it posts soon then