Experiences, baggage allowances, reliability? Usually fly Lion/Wings but no flights on my travel days.

Preferred over Merpati. Merpati crashes and cancels more often.

Fairly reliable considering their fleet consist of two ancient 737's and one Dornier. One of the jets came from a cargo operator, the other from an defunct African airline. Baggage allowance is a strict 20 kgs and they stick it to you for the excess at 25k rupiah per kg.

One of the jets has extra rows crammed in it so you have no leg room at all. This also means overhead bins are at a premium. Most of the domestic travelers carry on about 5 items each in various types of bags and sacks.

It is better than Wings, worse than Lion or Garuda.

There are four choices (Lion/Wings, Express Air, Batavia, and Merpati), and they are equally bad or good, depending on which way you look at them... best to use the one that suits your itinerary

Anyone know their carry-on rules? Wondering the best way to pack camera gear for this trip.

HaHaHa!! We flew Express Air in Feb 2011, we were worried about our carry on and didn't bother with Duty Free as we were worried it would be too heavy and we might not be allowed a second bag. I've never seen so many bags, boxes and containers squeezed into an overhead locker! I did see an old lady have her rather large roll on bag taken off her at the gate but it was just put in the hold.

We also saw a car bonnet being checked in to the hold and while waiting for our bags gallons and gallons of corrosive chemicals zooming around on the baggage carousel.

Our hold bags were 20kg and we were glad as the excess baggage was enforced. It is cheaper to pay in rupiahs than dollars/euros.

Other people on our trip only had 10 or 15kg limits on their hold luggage with Lion Air/ Garuda and were hit with big charges.

HTH

Sharon

Express is 20kg, as is Lion. Wings, owned by Lion, is 15kg. Garuda is 20kg, but allows another 15kg for sports equipment. Express and Lion charged us 25000 rupiah per kilo for excess. This was 31 Oct.

The 15kg with Garuda seems to depend on departing airport. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. More often than not, I have not received the extra allowance departing from Bali.

I have always gotten it from Bali. You have to ask. You have to insist. You have to open your bag to show the gear. My buddy had the web page printed out. I have the screen capture of their website page on my laptop and my Ipad and have had to show it to them.

Does Indonesia domestic not have the liquid carry-on ban the rest of the world seems to have? Wondering how Frogtone got duty-free through? Would LOVE to bring some red wine to Raja and not pay the outrageous liveaboard prices. 11 days of Bitang just doesn't do it for me.

You are allowed to bring in one bottle of wine. You can try smuggling them in but if they check and find it, you will find yourself in an awkward situation. Many of people who live there pay for the duty since it's still cheaper than retail at the restos. I know I bring in bottles for special occasions. You also have to ask if the boat will charge you corkage or not or just find a boat which throws in wine for the price.

Thanks Drew. I have no problem bringing only one bottle of wine each into the country. And even if I pick some up in Jakarta, I imagine it will still be much cheaper than paying boat prices.
But my question is can you get it through the domestic terminal? I know some places don't follow the carry-on liquid ban, (Trinidad to Tobago or Tahiti to Rangiroa for instance), but I would be shocked if Indo was so flexible.
Do you put it in your checked luggage? Since I'm only allowed 20k, I'll be carrying a soft bag and that will be maxed out with dive gear etc.

We're on The Seahorse. I've read the price of wine is ridiculously expensive, like 70usd for a cheap bottle of Aussi red.
I've been on boats that throw in wine for free, but I've never heard of anyone charging a corkage fee. That's pretty nervy.

Alcohol is expensive because of the Indonesian 300% tax on it. It isn't just price gouging. I don't drink on a liveaboard so I don't know.

There is another option now to get to Sorong: Sriwijaya Air. I think they started flying to Sorong in June/July. I took it going out from Sorong to Makassar, but they do continue to Jakarta. More comfortable than Lion, IMO, and unlike Lion, they gave out food and drinks during the flight. The outbound flight from Sorong leaves at 11.30am.