I have just purchased a very cheap Business Class air-ticket to
Germany, relative to the normal cost here in Australia that is, and I
am wondering whether I jumped in to quick because of price rather than
checking it out first in terms of quality, i.e in-flight conditions,
in-flight cuisine and comfort etc etc. In short perhaps this Goose has
bought a Turkey?? To be more specific I was looking for a cheaper
ticket than the usual  $5800 to $6500 on offer from the two airlines
with probably the best reputations in Australia, QANTAS and EMIRATES.
I figured on something like $4000 to $4400 at best but was surprised
to find one on offer from GARUDA at $3040.  To give you a better idea
of cost and distance involved you should know that from the bottom of
mainland Australia, Melbourne, where I am now,  to Frankfurt Germany
would be something akin to an "Around the world" trip. Indeed after
leaving Melbourne and travelling North-North West for three hours or
more one is still only approaching Darwin, Australia's northern-most
city at the "topend". In US dollar costs, relating this to airfare
prices quoted above you should know that one Australian dollar equals
US54 cents in pure exchange rate terms but, and probably more
correctly, US77 cents in actual puchasing power parity terms. The
above is possibly incidental to question and may not help the
reseracher at all  but is included as a guide anyway. I suppose what I
am really asking and wanting to know is can airlines offer different
standards and still call it Business Class so accounting for the vast
difference in prices quoted by the various airlines. I mean if the
GARUDA  Business Class airfare is really inferior by a decent margin
because standards are only loosely applied and perhaps self-assessed
by the airlines then I may have bought something not much better than
the "Cattle-Class" I usually travel in.

 I think this is enough info for you to get my drift, yes??


  John From Melbourne

Hi johnfrommelbourne and thanks for the question,

From my research it seems that there are no international minimum
standards required for Business Class standards.  However this does
not mean that the standard of service is completely unregulated.  The
regulation takes the form of peer and customer review.  There are
several organizations that monitor the levels of service offered by
airlines (see below) and they rate the various airlines in terms of
quality, comfort etc........
From my research it seems that you probably havenīt bought a ‘turkey’
and that your flight will be quite comfortable.
However there is one thing that you should be aware of, and that is
the seating conditions on some of their  aircraft. I noted in my
research that the seating in Garuda might be just little more
“compact” than Quantas or Emirates (see below) I donīt know how tall
you are, but for me this could be a problem as Iīm 6ft + I would
suggest you ask the airline which type of aircraft you will be flying
on (if you canīt find out from your ticket) and what the seating
arrangements are.
Other than that I donīt think you will have any problems.

The National Business Travel Association 
http://www.nbta.org/

International Air Transport Association
http://www1.iata.org/index.htm

Skytrax world airline ranking
http://www.airlinequality.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Seating Specification/Comparison
Garuda:
Seat pitch (space row to row in inches ") 40-44"
Seat width (in inches ") 19-20"
Seat recline  (in degrees o or in inches ")  N/A

Quantas:
Seat pitch (space row to row in inches ") 50"
Seat width (in inches ") 19.5"
Seat recline  (in degrees o or in inches ") 11"

Emirates:
Seat pitch (space row to row in inches ") 46-52"
Seat width (in inches ") 19"
Seat recline  (in degrees o or in inches ") 9.5-11.5
http://travel.simplyquick.com/discount-airfares/business-class-seating.html

Also Garuda scores 3 out of 5 stars on an international rating.
http://travel.simplyquick.com/discount-airfares/airlines.html

Ratings for Garuda
http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/GA.htm

Last year Garuda won this award:
“Customer Satisfaction
Marketing Research Institute Frontier and business magazine SwaSembada
presented Garuda Indonesia with Their ICSA Award 2001 (Indonesian
Customer Satisfaction Award) in the category  "Total Customer
Satisfaction".
http://www.garuda-indonesia.com/about/awards.php

I hope this answers your question to your satisfaction, and if you
have any queries regarding my answer do not hesitate to ask for a
clarification.

Have a good trip!

THX1138

Search strategy included:
"industry standards" airline "business class" 
://www.google.com/search?hl=pt&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=+%22industry+standards%22+airline+%22business+class+%22+++&lr=

Thankyou THX1138,  Very well done, and as much or more than I should
have expected for the fee paid.  Looks like you are right and you have
articulated it well; namely that there appears no strict minimum
quality standards applied to the world's airlines in regards Business
Class. I have been going over what you provided including a mass of
opinions from individuals who have flown GARUDA and/or GARUDA Business
Class, ( on one of the sites you included in response). I note that in
fact most opinions were very positive of the GARUDA offering  and in
relation to the  3 or 4 criterions  relative to Business Class
specifically ,that GARUDA was rated 4 stars out of 5 by the average
respondee, which was  better than all but the top few such as
SINGAPORE, CATHAY PACIFIC, BRITISH AIRWAYS and such like.

Once again thanks very much and keep up the great research work,

   John From Melbourne