Batik Air is traditionally known as the premium arm of the Lion Air Group. Despite the downgrading changes in recent years, the airline still maintains the makings of most Asian full-service carriers; this includes frills like complimentary refreshments, inflight entertainment, and baggage allowance. In particular, lounge access for Business Class passengers at its Jakarta hubs is included as one of those frills.

While I’ve reviewed the other Batik Air Lounge at the airline’s main hub at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, I was keen to check out the offering at the airline’s little-reported other hub at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport (Jakarta City Airport). At the time of publishing, I’ve not seen any reviews for this lounge, so consider this a Jakarta Potato exclusive!

Lounge Access Rules

Only Business Class passengers flying Batik Air have access to this lounge. Batik Air’s barebones frequent-flyer scheme, Batik Miles, makes no note of any lounge benefit regardless of elite status (or a miles-collecting scheme for that matter!). Additionally, there does not appear to be an arrangement for entry with any credit cards either, so this lounge can be considered quite ‘exclusive’ in the loosest sense.

Location

The Batik Air Lounge is located immediately after the security check in the Halim Perdanakusuma Passenger Terminal. Just after passing the security checkpoint, you’ll find a nondescript glass door that says ‘Business Lounge’. The door is very easy to miss, so make sure to pay attention! Worse yet, the door is nearly in the way of the security checkpoint, so you might need to take your time to make your way through if the terminal is particularly busy.

Batik Air Lounge

After gingerly making my way into the lounge, I was greeted by the friendly attendant seated at the remarkably small reception table. As Batik Air no longer prints boarding passes at this airport, I briefly showed her my mobile boarding pass for my flight to Bali. Seeing ‘Business Class’ written on it, she promptly waved me in.

Well if first impressions count, this wouldn’t be good for the Batik Air Lounge. For one I was surprised by the sordid state of the interior. Like how on earth do the walls look so dirty and stained? And what’s the deal with that rusting metal bench by the door? If anything, the certificate from the Indonesian Health Ministry and the hygiene rating proudly stuck on the reception wall did little to convince me otherwise.

Seating

Even after disregarding the soiled walls, the nondescript sitting room remains devoid of any positive character. In particular, there are five rows of sofa chairs arranged across each other lining the windowless space. You might argue that the pale cream walls and red flooring are a nod to the beautiful TWA Flight Centre in New York. However, I guess a ’60s theme would be a more apt description, given the stained carpets and outdated-looking furniture.

And yes, these are the exact same cream-coloured, leather-textured sofa chairs you’ll find at the airline’s Soekarno-Hatta lounge. Seems like they might have gotten a great bulk deal on these chairs at the local furniture store. While the chairs themselves are perfectly comfortable, I do wish they would at least change the cushion covers; if anything, their off-putting yellowish floral pattern adds to the run-down look of the lounge.

Having said that, the space looks more like a low-cost carrier’s cash-grab attempt at a paid lounge, skimming the most basic definition of such a facility. In fact, given the red carpeting and the Lion Air-centric wall decor, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a Lion Air lounge. There are at least several televisions scattered around the sitting room to distract you from the dreariness of the space.

At the very least, I’ll have to give credit to Batik Air for providing power outlets beside nearly every seat. After all, this is a basic provision often forgone by many lounges – so I’ll give it that.

Dining

Given the size of the facility, it is no surprise to see that the lounge does not have a dedicated dining area. Instead, it has a small food spread tucked into a dark corner of the lounge. The dishevelled state of the food spread continues the grimy-looking theme already established in the rest of the lounge. While I suppose it’s nice that there is a food and beverage offering to begin with, the dingy-looking spread doesn’t spark a lot of confidence, either.

Food

To start on a high note, available was a bubur ayam (chicken congee) station. Being a popular Indonesian comfort food and breakfast dish, this was a popular choice to coincide with any early morning visit. As it was actually warm, this was perhaps the best (or most edible) offering, particularly after being doused in its flavourful accompaniments.

Across from that is the rest of the food spread, which includes a choice of several local snacks, breakfast foods, as well as a salad bar of sorts. In particular, the former includes a selection of cakwe (dough fritters), bagelen (dried bread), as well as siomay dumplings and steamed bread. There are also packets of chilli sambal sauce to accompany these snacks, complete with a rusty pair of scissors to open them (though chained to the wall, of course). Classy.

This is followed by the three chafing dishes, all of which were interestingly left unheated. Of those, the first two featured a selection of bread (including roll cake, choux pastry, and fruit bread) and salad vegetables with two kinds of dressing (Thousand Island and a questionable oil dressing). There is also a jar filled with stale kerupuk (Indonesian crackers) on the side.

Finally, the last chafing dish contained a trio of breakfast dishes, including hash browns, eggs, and sausages. Beyond the strange, pill-like shape of the eggs, I’ll note that the hashbrowns looked soggy and stale.

Still, I guess there is something poetic to be said about the crooked wall decorations and near-dilapidated stand banner advertising the airline’s streamed inflight entertainment…

Drinks

A wide array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage options is not something you’ll come across at the Batik Air Lounge. No, that would be too common an offering. Instead, prepare to be blown away by a choice of over three types of drinks! Yes, you read that right.

On one corner of the spread, you’ll find a choice of Teh Celup Sosro (lit. Sosro Tea Bags), alongside a hot water dispenser. There is also a characterless coffee machine, which is worryingly complemented by an unchilled tumbler of milk for dairy-mixed drinks. As such, I probably would steer clear of those drinks and opt for hot tea instead. In fairness to Batik Air, Teh Celup Sosro is really quite great as far as household Indonesian products go.

Across the other end of the spread, you’ll find a tray with Batik-branded room-temperature bottled water. Next to it you’ll find a haphazard-looking chiller containing the same bottles. In some ways, I guess you’re spoilt for choice when considering the luxury of all three kinds of water – hot, room temperature, and cold. 😉

VIP Room

Like its counterpart at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, the Batik Air Lounge features a small VIP Room. Hidden behind a façade of frosted glass, the VIP Room contains no more than a handful of leather sofas and a flat screen television. Furthermore, with its dreary grey wallpaper and lacklustre furnishing, there’s nothing VIP about this space.

In any case, it was never clear to whom this room is dedicated, although knowing Indonesia, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were populated by Lion Air executives or low-level government officials. Funnily, Batik Air VIP Rooms are rarely locked – so I guess anyone with enough wits could use them?

Toilet

Lastly, the Batik Air Lounge contains a private toilet facility for its guests. Alas, private it might be, but luxurious it most definitely is not. Located by the tiny reception area, the toilets are placed down a seedy-looking corridor which looks like a back alley more than anything. There are even flip-flops on a rack to add to the charm. Hmm…

The toilet itself features a communal sink conveniently placed between the two gendered toilet stalls. Yes, there is just two solitary stalls, each labelled ‘Gents’ and ‘Ladies’, respectively. Between the crooked under-sink panel, the peeling paintwork, and the uninviting sterile lighting, it was not much of a sight you’d want to see.

The toilet stall itself isn’t any better. The men’s room specifically contains a urinal in addition to the toilet stall. Sadly the place looked and smelled bad, despite the moth balls casually placed on the toilet’s corners. It also felt humid and stuffy, adding to the disagreeable atmosphere of the place. If anything, I guess the cracking tiles, rusting metalwork, and yellowing toilet seat, only add to the character of the lounge. Yikes.

WiFi

Finally, I’ll note that the Batik Air Lounge does not have a dedicated WiFi network. Instead, you’ll have to connect to the airport’s own ‘Bandara HLP Free Bits Wi-Fi’ network for any non-cellular internet connection. At the very least, I appreciate that that network has decent speeds.

Overall

So how exactly was the Batik Air Lounge at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport? Well, not great would be an excellent way to describe it. While its sister facility at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport might qualify as mediocre, this one was a lot more shoddy. For one, the lounge itself looked incredibly rundown and dirty, in no small part thanks to the stained walls and the awful toilet. Given the state of the lounge, I’d even say that the whole ‘experience’ felt almost comical more than properly bad. In any case, this lounge has very few (if any) merits, so I’d either spend as little time inside or avoid it altogether.

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