Garuda Indonesia gets creative with new offering, gets mixed response on social

Garuda Indonesia has a new economy offering named Economy Sleeping Comfort (ESCort) which has been met with mixed reviews from netizens. Highlighted in a Facebook post on 5 February 2019, ESCort is targeted at long-haul flights, starting with the airline's London-Denpasar and Jakarta-London routes. A ticket in that category provides passengers with one row of seats in the Economy Class cabin, as well as a specially selected mattress, pillow, duvet and blanket. Through this, Garuda Indonesia aims to meet the demand of passengers who prefer like to lay down and sleep better. Other benefits in the ESCort package are free baggage allowance up to 40kg, business class meal and amenity kit, priority baggage handling free USD5 wifi voucher, and special milleage at 200%. While there were questions regarding the offering and genuine curiosity to know more about the offering, some fans also brought up safety concerns such as the ability to fasten seatbelt in such a position. However, Garuda did not actively respond to these concerns, and directed members to its website. Meanwhile, according to a statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, the services have been available for booking via all the airline’s direct channels since 26 January with around 24 seats available for ESCort priced at Rp 28 million. Garuda Indonesia spokesman M. Ikhsan Rosan said to the media outlet,that the airline will continue to try to be creative and innovative to grab the market - especially for the London route.