What to Do About Volcano Flight Cancellations (on Bali or Elsewhere)

Updated 29 November 2017 to include advice on ongoing eruption.

At time of writing, Bali airport is closed until at least 7am local time on 30 November, and likely longer: this is the third consecutive day of closures. There are buses to Surabaya airport but the route is both flooded and congested, so you can expect the journey to take at least 18 hours, while a cyclone is impacting other Javanese airports as well: Lombok airport is currently open, but good luck getting a flight out that’s not routed through Denpasar. Banyuwangi airport is vulnerable to the ash cloud.

If you can, your best option is to sit tight: request assistance with accommodation from your airline if you’re flying with a decent carrier, or take up the free night and 50% discount that Bali hoteliers are supposed to be offering by order of the governor. If you fancy a try at Surabaya, buses leave from domestic departures and cost 300,000 IDR: there are approximately ten a day.

Many consulates have desks at Bali airport offering assistance to their nationals: this includes the UK, EU, China, Australia and many individual EU states. Head to the second floor, which is also where the airlines have desks set up. Some airlines are offering alternative flights via Jakarta – others, signally JetStar, are not even offering cash refunds at this point in time.

If you’re in danger of overstaying your visa because of a cancelled flight, head to the top floor, where immigration have a counter. You’ll need your passport and the original ticket: they’ll process a 14-day emergency extension permit at no charge. (And there are no parking charges at the airport.)

Volcanoes – and associated ash clouds – are an ongoing risk to flights in many parts of the world, particularly Bali, where one can expect a volcano to cause flight cancellations about every few months. (Indonesia isn’t known as the Ring of Fire for nothing.)

But knowing that a volcano might disrupt your flight doesn’t equate to knowing what to do when volcano action cancels your flight. So here’s a handy guide to what to do when a volcano does actually leave you stranded, in Bali or elsewhere.

1: BE NICE!

Particularly if you’re at the gate with all bags checked when your flight is cancelled, and it looks like other flights are leaving the airport, the natural response is to, well, erupt. And it’s even harder to be nice if you’ve actually taken off from the airport, then spent hours circling to burn fuel, before landing back from whence you came.

That said, the volcano is not the fault of flight crew or airline staff. And, unless airline staff have a personal hotline to the God of Fire, they won’t know what time the next flight is going to leave. That’s because they won’t know what the volcano is going to do, or which way the wind will blow, let alone how air traffic control will juggle its flight slots to fit in with that. Many staff will be working overtime, some unpaid; others will have cancelled their own holidays; and shouting won’t reopen a closed airport.

All yelling does is add to the time it takes to get out of the airport and into a place to stay. Further, if you’re nice, they’ll give you good seats when you finally do get on the last flight out of Lukla, or Bali, or wherever.

2: Get Accurate Info

You can pretty much ignore anything any other passenger tells you at the airport, even if their first cousin is a real life pilot (and you’d be amazed how many people have family in aviation when a volcano hits). You can also ignore things an airline call centre robot tells you unless their script has been updated very recently.

Flightradar24.com shows which planes are going into and out of which airports, and is generally a great indicator of what’s going on – way ahead of the news. Notam.org is a site devoted to notifications for pilots – just search the relevant airport to find out if it’s closed or not. Magma Indonesia is a great app from the Indonesian geological department that updates you on all earthquake, volcano, tsunami and landslide activity: get it on Google Play or visit the website here. You can follow the latest volcanic ash projections on the Darwin VAAC website, while Windy is a wind speed and direction app.

Social media is great for real-time volcano news. Obviously, connect with your carrier on Facebook and/or Twitter (Facebook is generally better for flight updates). Then follow national flag carriers and aviation experts for the country you’re trying to get to / leave on Twitter (you can review their stream even if you don’t do tweets.

Specifically for Bali volcano flights updates, I’d recommend following Garuda Indonesia, Gerry Soejatman and Matt Dearman on Twitter. You can also search the Bali Expats Facebook page (DON’T post new questions!) as folk who live on the island will have a good idea of how much ash is falling, what the wind direction is and how many planes are flying.

3: Don’t Assume Your Insurance Will Cover You

Travel insurance is great for lots of things. And, if you booked your flights and arranged your insurance before the latest volcano blew up, and if your insurance covers travel delays and cancellations, and if it doesn’t contain some awful wibble about acts of God, your insurer will likely cover costs of flights, lost reservations, etc (as always, check the Ts & Cs).

If you grabbed a sneaky trip to Bali knowing full well a volcano had been playing havoc with flights, and bought insurance on the basis that they’d cover any consequences, they won’t. Your best bet is to get the airline to look after you – if you’re booking flights when you know there could be volcano issues, consider flying business class, for a better hotel and better service if the ash hits the fan.

4: If You’re Away from Home, Your Airline Should Feed and House You Until It Stops

Aviation law isn’t crystal clear about whether airlines need to feed and house you if they cancel a flight for a natural disaster like a volcano, but in this social media era not accommodating stranded passengers is a PR disaster. And, unless you’re the Prime Minister, or have pressing medical needs, you can probably afford to spend a couple of days stuck in a tropical paradise on someone else’s dime. (If you DO have pressing medical needs to get somewhere, make sure your airline knows about this, and work with them to reroute.)

5: Exit the Airport, STET

Once an airline has cancelled a flight, it has cancelled a flight. Arguing is not going to change either that or the volcano. So your best bet is to get out of the airport and into the hotel ASAP, which is fiddly if you’ve already checked bags and cleared immigration. (If you’re landside, get straight to customer service, confirm you need a hotel, pick up your bags and get on the first bus out: if you’re flying business, be sure staff know this so they put you in a nice hotel.)

If you’re airside, make sure you have both halves of your boarding pass – you’ll need those for immigration. Find out where to collect your bags – that will usually be somewhere in arrivals, and the airline should open a passage through the airport to get you there. Then get your bags.

Next, you’ll probably need to go back through immigration to get yourself stamped back into the country and any visas extended/renewed. Most airports will set up a desk or two devoted to handling passengers from cancelled flights, though how rigorous immigration is about paperwork will vary from culture to culture. In Malaysia, they just scrawl a note on the exit stamp saying “cancelled flight”, add the date, and let you back in; I shudder to imagine the bureaucracy involved in, say, Mumbai. Then head back to customer service, explain you want a hotel and get yourself on the next bus.

6: Roll With It

Many volcanoes will leave you stranded on, or very close to, a tropical beach. If you’re self-employed or otherwise dispensable, I recommend rolling with it and enjoying the free food, at least for a couple of days. Watch the online channels, look at satellite pics, get an idea when a flight is likely to leave, and just chill. Many “stranded” Australians on Bali were actively celebrating each additional day.

It is, of course, possible to claim a refund on volcano-cancelled flights – just bring the card you paid with, your boarding pass and reservation details to customer service – and that may be the best option if you’re close to home. If you’re trying to get home, this is a risky strategy, not least because there’s no guarantee that the airline you rebook on will fly either. If you have limited holiday time, rebook to a different sunny hotspot or reroute via a nearby airport with no volcano flight disruptions.

7: But Have a Plan B

Even as the world’s worst planner, I’m still remarkably uncomfortable without a plan B, which will obviously be more urgent if you’re stuck en route to your holiday than on your way back home. Use Flightradar24’s maps and Skyscanner’s “nearby airports” option to research which airports you can reroute through, and check prices. Establish a date on which you’ll need to leave, which airport you’ll aim for and how to reach your destination from there, and keep an eye on prices: you can still claim that refund even if the airline has put you up in a hotel for two or three days.

For volcano flights to Bali specifically, consider asking for a substitution to another destination the airline covers, if you’re short on time – Borneo, perhaps, or Thailand. If you have reservations you don’t want to lose (or you live here and need to get back for family), consider flying into Lombok and picking up a fast boat to Bali, or into Surabaya and picking up a long, horrible bus or an expensive car: do check status on both these airports, too. Garuda is your most reliable option for getting from Australia to Indonesia when volcanoes are playing up, although very far from the cheapest, with AirAsia second: Aussie bucket shop airlines cancel flights at the drop of a hat as they have nowhere to put their planes.

8: Replacement Flights Don’t Book Themselves, You Know

After a few hours of being stranded by a volcano, most of us will be FlightRadar24 ninjas, with a good idea when flights are about to start running (though don’t let that detract from your time at the beach!). Make sure you and everyone you are travelling with are booked on a flight, and that transport is arranged from the hotel. Hotel reception should be happy to call the airline for you, so you’re not racking up roaming charges: check in with the airline once a day if there’s no news from the hotel.

9: Don’t Go to the Airport on Spec

By being nice (see point 1), you’ll likely have a good relationship with the local airline team. Ask them honestly which flights they think are most likely to run, and listen to them. Going to the airport on spec is a recipe for stress and misery.

10: Rebook on the First Flight of the Day

Even if it’s an anti-social hour, the first flight of the day is the one to rebook if you want to get home. Why? Because it’s the least likely to be cancelled. Of course, if what you actually want to do is to continue to skive off work and loaf around Bali, rebooking on a later flight makes absolute sense. Happy travels!