Help! Best route to SOQ from YUL

[Melisande Leduc]

Hi there,
I'm looking for advice on the best travel route from Montreal to Sorong. I've spent the last 2 hours reading all the posts I could find on the topic, but there isn't anything recent for Montreal.

If anyone has experience flying to Sorong from Montreal, I'd be super interested in knowing the route you went with, especially for getting to Jakkarta.

I'm considering getting myself a direct flight to to Asia (Beijing or Shanghai), and then booking flights on a domestic airline like Garuda. Ideally, I'd like to avoid having to take 5 flights...

Thanks!

 

[outofofficebrb]

Book yourself a ticket to Singapore, Jakarta, or Bali. It can be round trip or multi city (e.g., fly in to Jakarta then back to Montreal via Singapore). You will need to stop once.

Buy a local ticket with an Indonesian carrier from your arrival airport to Sorong. Plan your flight out of Sorong based on where you will fly home. That can be non-stop if you’d like. If flying on the same day on the local carrier, cushion it by about 5-6 hours from your arrival time if you can. That will allow for delays with airlines or customs and give you time to get your baggage then check in at the next airline.

If going on a liveaboard, plan to arrive at least 24 hours earlier than the morning you board the boat. For example, if you board in Sorong on a Wednesday morning, be settled in your hotel by Tuesday morning. If there are delays or missed flights you can still catch the boat by taking the next morning’s flight.

Good luck!

 

[Melisande Leduc]

Awesome, thank you for the advice! I'm going to research flights today. I'm so excited!

 

[borisphotosafari]

Get your self to Asia. Not sure which way is faster for you. From Alberta, I go to Vancouver and get to Asia.
Try Garuda they have a direct flight from Jakarta to Sorong. This a cheaper way.
Singapore Airlines(Silk Air) has a flight to Manado and then you can connect to Sorong.

 

[Goingforsound]

There are daily flights from Denpasar (Bali) or Jakarta.

You have to book the tickets using a local website in order for your canadian credit card to work. I use nusatrip.com some flights company offer free extra luggage for diving gear.

Sometimes the flights are cheaper trough Manado.

JC

 

[chillyinCanada]

Look at Finn Air to Singapore, then Garuda to Jakarta or any airline direct from Singapore to Bali.

I've gone through Manado which is more comfortable to me but that takes up another day yet again.

 

[Hoag]

This is where sites such as expedia.ca or orbitz.com excel! They may not be perfect, but they will give you some very good options from which you can fine tune to meet your specific needs and timeline. There is also the "old fashioned way" of actually stopping in to talk to a real travel agent. They may have insight that might not be available elsewhere.

 

[Melisande Leduc]

Thank you! I now have even more things to look at. I have a friend who is a travel agent, and she was kind enough to send me some advice. I had this dream of getting myself there in 3 flights, but <sad clown fish face> that is not going to happen. The idea of spending a few days in Manado and diving there also appeals to me, though as you said, it adds a day of travel.

So far I think the initial "get me to Asia" leg will be Montreal - Shanghai. Flights to China are quite "affordable" right now. From there, on the way in, I think I will either do Shanghai -> Singapore -> Manado [dive a few days] -> Sorong OR just straight to Sorong via Jakarta.

There is apparently a flight from Shanghai to Manado on Lion Air, but it appears sold out... which seems weird to me.

 

[Hoag]

Thank you! I now have even more things to look at. I have a friend who is a travel agent, and she was kind enough to send me some advice.

FWIW, knowing a travel agent who you think of as a friend can be worth their weight in gold. You already have a relationship in which you trust each other. I think if I were in your shoes, I would go sit down with this friend and let them see what they can come up with.

Good luck and whatever you do, do not forget about crossing the International Dateline. The day you get there is perhaps more important than the day you leave YUL.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I suggest you use ITA Matrix to search for flights. I also suggest minimizing the number of separate tickets to get to Sorong especially if you do not actually plan to stop anywhere and are just transiting. The more individual tickets you have, the more complicated it is if something goes wrong. Essentially, for each new ticket you have, you will have to exit, go through customs if it’s a new country, pick your bags up, possibly transfer terminals, line up for a check-in then check in your bags on the new airline/ticket. If you have a delay with one ticket for whatever reason and miss your next flight which is on another ticket, it will be considered a no-show on that subsequent flight. You will have to see if your travel insurance would cover that should you have any. The further you are from the target destination, it’s likely there are fewer flights per day there so if you miss a flight in Shanghai and need to get to Jakarta or Sorong, there will be way more flights if you were in Singapore instead, as an example. Same if you want to go to Sorong.

I suggest using ITA matrix and seeing what your pricing is like that way. Price may be a driving factor but don’t forget to factor in convenience and problems that can arise. It’s a very powerful tool to do this with and not have to do individual separate searches. You can choose a departure airport of Montreal and pick multiple destinations (Singapore, Jakarta, Bali) to see which is cheapest all in one search. Give it a range of when you want to leave (pick a month) and tell it how many days you want to be gone (can also be a range). Then hover your mouse around the days you want to leave on that calendar based on when you need to be in Sorong and work backwards from there. It will show you the lowest prices. Click on that and see what airport it happens to be flying to then start building your tickets that way.

Once I find the major trans-Pacific ticket, I look at the local flights and work backwards to piece the entire itinerary together. I find out what the latest flight I can take to Sorong is from the airport I’m arriving at then figure out which ticket fits that best so I minimize my chances of missing it.