[nono1973]

Originally Posted by nescafeGold

this is very interesting topic. and in fact, i found it quite fascinating that ferry ticket is the only thing that price can go cheaper other than currency exchange.. (not to mention petrol price up and down recently)

to answer your question, why horizon ferry is more expensive than batam center ferries, it is because the terminal.

I have already been curious on this thing for nearly a year liao. The security guards and the cleaners in my office building keeps suan-ing me for paying S$48 to Harbour Bay while they only pay S$26 from sillypore to Batam Center...lol.

Originally Posted by nescafeGold

Harbourbay is private owned terminal meanwhile batam center and sekupang international ferry terminal is cenghu's owned terminal wavemaster used to owned the solo right to operating at harbourbay but replaced by prima ferries a.k.a horizon ferry. in addition to prima ferries, batam fast also operating but on very limited trip per day. Even though the distance is shorter, (technically lesser petrol) the price is still more expensive because the licensing fee could be different.. like how budget airline charge terminal tax differently for different departing airport.

So,i am guessing due to the cheaper ferry prices,the Batam Center terminal is more crowded then and since Batam Center is government owned,that explains why they are stricter in the custom checks too. Read in papers every month will have 50+ visitors from Sillypore being send back from Batam and most of which are from Batam center.

hmm....

Originally Posted by nescafeGold

Then, back to my topic.. why ferry fare can go cheaper compare to few years ago,. this one you have to give it to competition. i think it started from sindo ferry give discount $10 for flashing ntuc card, then wavemaster go full force to sell at $38. but this is only apply for singaporean or to be more precisely if you bought the ticket from signapore side (harbourfront).

The Sindo ferry promotion with NTUC card thing is similar to their SAFRA card promotion,but i think it is w/o tax (or something like that)...with tax in,still around S$40 plus but just a bit lesser than S$48 but i will end up at Batam Center instead of Harbour Bay. So overall calculation for me is still isnt worth all the trouble.

Originally Posted by nescafeGold

From batam side, it has been while the fare is always around $30 (if you bought ferry voucher from money changer, not from terminal ticket counter). meaning if you bought ferry voucher, you only pay $30 (or less depends on the ferry operator) for the round trip.. and this is only available from batam..

Why? this is to boost the passenger from batam side or from indonesian side. Since the day sgd has hike to more than rp8500/$1, it has impacted a lot on number of visitor from batam side.. so in order to boost passenger from batam side, they start lowering the ferry fare from batam side.. but not from sg side.. $48 to singaporean probably doesn't cost so much, but to ordinary batam worker, it could be 25% or 20% of their monthly salary. If they don't do that,, the ferry may bring full pack of visitor from sg, but empty ferry when departing from batam.. same goes for returning trip..

So,there is actually a price war from both side and i havent even realise it the whole 2014...lol. If only there are tickets from Harbour Front to Harbour Bay at those stated offer price...

One day,I am going to join my office building's security guard to Batam to see where i will be ending up. S$26 versus S$48 has a S$22 difference. 15mins of travelling difference between the 2 ferry terminals and the taxi fare of 70k versus 40k.

Originally Posted by nescafeGold

Prima ferries itself has started it few years ago.. it charge indonesian passport holder for $38($17/Rp165k + $21) if you bought your ticket from harbourbay batam. if you bought from harbourfront, it still $48 regardless what passport that you're holding.

So far only seen Batam Fast and Horizon goes from Harbour Front to Harbour Bay. Hmm...looks like i will need to visit money changer more often to find out more on this one becos what i am after is Harbour Front to Harbour Bay and hopefully at a lower than S$48 price.

I book from Batam Fast online before,total cost me S$49,more expensive than using Horizon (Prima Ferries).

This is indeed a very interesting topic,and thank you for sharing. I have already confirmed heading to Batam this 19th Feb,Thu and be back on 21st Feb,Sat.

An idea just struck me,i wonder if it will be cheaper to Cater a "private ferry" to Harbour Bay...anyway,i am just wishfully thinking for now on this one...lol.