Getting to Sorong from the NYC area

[jake11]

Just an FYI... we had no problems at all from Manado. If I remember correctly, we flew on Express Air to Sorong.
There were about 8 of us and all luggage made it just fine!! I have never had an issue with luggage not making it, just with cancelled flights and VERY late flights!!! They call the Sorong airport SOWRONG !! Need I say more?

 

[highdesert]

Another vote for the Manado route. And we've had all of our dive gear left in Sorong when we returned to Bali via Makassar. We had to claim it in Makassar and re-check it, but it wasn't there to claim. It caught up with us in Bali late the following day. If we hadn't allowed that extra day in Bali to make sure everything caught up with us, we would have been back in the US without our dive gear. NEVER make you air connections tight in Indo. An extra day of cushion here and there is a good thing.

 

[pinewoodsfarm]

Thanks again everyone, this has all been really helpful.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

Hmmm, sound out your boat person about their reasoning. The delayed dive gear biz is anecdotal, MDC is a larger size airport w/ a variety of carriers; no more or less likely to mess up than most others. However, I do see for example that Lion Air only flies every other day in that direction. You would want to know there are some backup flights available when you are doing a lob.

An experienced person dealing w/ getting their lob customers on board on a regular basis is going to have a good notion of what "usually" works best at any given time. If they have solid reasons for not flying into MDC I probably would listen, unless it's a "Well, once we had a customer that..." type of argument . Meh, if need be you can always do Manado on the way back and see what Lembeh diving is all about! // ww

 

[jeremyl]

A quick revival of this thread. Diving RA with a friend in Jan but would like to tack on a few days of tourism. Coming from US easy flights are SIN or Jakarta. Both of us have been to SIN but never Jakarta. Is there decent tourism for a couple days? I will likely return thru Manado to dive Lembeh for a few days but she will need to get back to work. Any other nice ideas of a way to extend a few days?

 

[jake11]

Another cool extension that we have done is dive in Ambon for a few days! We have done that 2x coming in from the 1am flight from Jakarta that gets into Ambon at around 6:30 am. We have been on the first dive both trips! You are ready for bed by the end of dinner but it is worth it!!!

 

[kittikat]

This is a bit of a late advice for the first poster, but I recommend Singapore Airlines flying out of JFK.
I don't know about your budget, but comfort should be a top priority, especially for pre-LOB trip.
Another good airline for US-SE Asia route is Cathay (although sometimes they have long layover at HK).
I heard Etihad is very good too.

You said you already got your domestic flight taken care of. Just want to add that most locals told me to fly with Garuda.
They give you generous luggage allowance, and price is about the same as Express Air last time I checked.
I am going to Sorong for liveaboard this summer, so let's see if this is true.

 

[Wingy]

I second manado via singapore. If you have a few days of sightseeing you want to do I would take a connecting flight from Jakarta to Bali...you will spend 2 days stuck in traffic in Jakarta.

 

[jeremyl]

Guess I need to just book this thing... So I can get from home (PDX) to either SIN or CGK with miles. My dive buddy will have to pay from SFO so its a bit cheaper to go to CGK for her. Bali I cant get direct and its a good bit more for her. Also cheapest to get to SOQ from CGK ($150 each way according to SkyScanner - 2X that from Bali - tho cheap from CGK->Bali - $60 so not sure whats up with that).

Garunda goes from SIN -> CGK -> SOQ for $250 it seems. So not a bad option if we want to be in SIN for a couple days vs Bali or elsewhere. The route from SIN-> MDC -> SOQ seems to come out a good bit more than that any way I found it. I wouldnt mind a couple days diving in Lembeh but I am not sure its worth the effort and we will be diving our brains out already. Chilling in Bali might be my fav option.

Garunda has $213 SIN->MDC ; a little less than Silk - but MDC -> SOQ seems spendy.

So maybe fly to CGK from the states - immediately hop to Bali for a couple days of unwinding and then pop over to SOQ from there on domestics. Maybe chill in Tokyo on the return for a couple days to fill up on Sushi.

Am I missing something on the flight costs? Is Sriwijaya Air relaible? This would be cheapest CGK->SOQ->CGK

Thanks!!!

 

[chillyinCanada]

Don't know what to say. If I could avoid it, I'd never do Jakarta again. How much less expensive? Sometimes the juice ain't worth the squeeze.