Flight Review: Lion Air Economy Class B737 SIN to CGK

To get from Singapore to Jakarta, I flew Lion Air, which is an Indonesian low-cost carrier. Traveling around Southeast Asia can be super affordable thanks to all of these low-cost carriers (e.g. AirAsia, Jetstar), although you often have to be cognizant of fees.

It’s a little misleading for me to title the post “Lion Air Economy Class”, since Lion Air only has economy class on most of its planes. You can pay for extras like priority boarding or exit row seats, but most of the planes are all just one class. That being said, when I checked in, I was proactively offered an exit row seat, even though I hadn’t paid for one. Not sure what I did to merit that, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. (I also didn’t have to present my credit card that I used to purchase the flight, even though I was warned that I would have to).

Singapore’s Changi airport does security at the gate, and my gate area was shared with a beautiful Singapore Airlines A380. I longingly reminisced about my flights in Singapore Suites, but I instead was going to be boarding a Lion Air Boeing 737-900ER.

My main impressions of the flight were how empty everything was. There wasn’t a line at gate security, and the flight was maybe only 1/3 full. The plane itself was very no frills with no amenities to speak of. There’s no in-flight entertainment, no overhead screens, and no power outlets.

The pitch is pretty darn tight for the normal seats (SeatGuru says 29 inches), but it’s bearable for relatively short flights within the region. Then again, I’m only 5’9″, so taller people might feel differently!

As stated before, I was seated in the exit row, and a flight attendant came over to do an exit row briefing. I’ve sat in the exit row many, many times in my life, but I still try to pay attention during these briefings. This time, however, the flight attendant did the briefing in Bahasa, which I guess makes sense, but I didn’t understand a word.

On these flights, there are no complimentary snacks or drinks (unlike, say, on Bangkok Airways), but they have a variety of snacks and drinks available for purchase.

One aspect of this flight that I particularly enjoyed was the following sign in the bathroom. Just goes to show how unintuitive so many things are! We just think they’re “intuitive” because we’ve been well conditioned, but there are so many things we take for granted.

We landed at a remote stand in Jakarta, which wasn’t super pleasant because the buses to take us to the terminal weren’t air conditioned. Once we got dropped off at the terminal, though, it was pretty confusing because there weren’t adequate signs or directions to go to immigration.

One last noteworthy part of this segment of the trip was that there were people at baggage claim who were checking people’s bag tags. Like once you retrieved your bag from the carousel, you had to produce your corresponding bag tag and show it to someone before you left the baggage claim area. Just something to keep in mind if you’re flying into CGK.

Overall, I happily fly low-cost carriers like Lion Air when the price is right. Yes, it’s no frills and the seats are tight, but those things don’t matter as much for short flights. It also helps that you can still get lounge access via things like Priority Pass to make the travel experience a bit more enjoyable.