Of travel companies working together...or so they say.

To those whom it may concern, I am back home in Kuantan. After about 36 hours of travelling. -_-

I left home early in Lyon, because I had a ticket problem to settle at the airport. My return to France was supposed to be on the 14th of September, with a flight leaving Singapore at 9pm on the 13th. However, that flight was cancelled, and the travel agency sent me an e-mail with the new flight times. This was some weeks ago, and the flight details they gave me said that I was supposed to leave Singapore at 1am on the 13th, reaching Zurich at 8am on the 14th for my connecting flight to Lyon. However, as some of you might have noticed, there is a mistake in those times: it is not possible. Leaving Singapore at 1am in the morning would mean reaching Zurich the morning of the same day, NOT the day after. So I sent an e-mail back to lastminute.com (the travel agency) asking them to confirm that my flight was actually leaving on the 14th at 1am. At that time I thought that they had simply forgotten to change the date stated previously.

First confirmation:


Second confirmation, after they modified my ticket:


See? They could have simply changed the time (and the flight number, which isn't in the screenshot), and forgotten all bout the date. So I was this trusting lamb, thinking okay, fine, they just forgot to change the 13 to a 14.

No, I was wrong. And I was feeling so confident that everything was all right (sooo trusting) that it wasn't till the day before my departure that I realised that I still hadn't received a reply from lastminute.com. Then I suddenly thought of checkmytrip.com, a site that is linked from some online travel agencies' confirmation page (though this was not the case with lastminute) So I went to that site and typed in my reservation number...and got a scare when I saw that I was supposed to reach Zurich at 8am on the 13th, and that my connecting flight was on the 14th. -_-

So I called lastminute on their Paris local number (I say Paris, but it's just because the number starts with 01) Which, since my modem isn't working and I still haven't received a new one, I had to call using my mobile phone credit instead of my home phone's free calls, but that is another gripe. And that guy told me - after a lot of dilly-dallying that there was no error - that I had to confirm with the Swiss airline company myself, because the information I received was exactly what the airline had given to lastminute. He gave me a number to call, which was a 0897 number, which costs 1 euro per minute to call on my mobile phone. And since I had only about 10 euros left on it, I wasn't going to call and spend my 10 euros on listening to an automated voice telling me that "my call was very important to them". So after debating whether I should call someone to ask whether they were in Lyon and if I could use their home phone (that wouldn't have been a free call either, I bet, but it would've been cheaper and I could pay them back later), I finally decided to just go to the airport and look for the Swiss airline counter (which I kinda believed I'd seen before...the benefit of being a frequent traveller?)

So that's why I went to the airport early. After checking in (may I remind you that my problem was with the return flight, the one to Singapore was fine), I went to the Swiss counter and told them about my problem.

But you know? Those travel agency/airline workers are all very pandai (clever) one. This one, just like the one I spoke to on the phone with lastminute, explained to me patiently, "that is the local time, madame". Oh for goodness sake I know it's the local time! And I know the local times in both countries, thank you very much. Unlike you, obviously!

Okay, but that is a slight gripe, just about them thinking they're know-it-alls and thinking that I'm an ignorant first-time traveller who doesn't know how to think. The guy at the counter was very helpful, once he understood the problem, he called the office in Zurich to ask them whether he could change my connecting flight to the 13th, so that I wouldn't have to wait 24 hours at the Zurich airport. There he was speaking in English, and was I glad I understood, 'cos I do not want to take the flights on the 13th! I was scheduled to arrive in Lyon on the 14th, but I didn't want to arrive a day earlier! (what's more, I already have a flight to Singapore on the 13th...but no more details there, I'd mess up your brain (or is it messed up already? :P ) )

So I stopped him and told him to change the first flight instead, so that I would leave Singapore on the 14th at 1am. So that's what he did. But...then there was a problem with the computer system, he had a problem modifying the ticket I had bought since I had bought it with Lufthansa, bla bla bla. He made another call (or was it few others?) and finally managed to get it done, but he had to issue me a new ticket, because somehow the old one couldn't be modified. Okay, I don't mind, as long as I have a correct ticket.


So I have my ticket. That's why I was really glad I went to the airport early...that way I wasn't panicking while he was having all those problems.

Though, that wasn't exactly the end of the adventure. Upon arrival at the Singapore airport, I went to the Singapore airlines office to confirm my return ticket. The guy at the Swiss counter in Lyon had told me that I could confirm the ticket either at the Swiss counter, or at the Singapore airlines counter, because the flight was operated by Singapore airlines. But...the Singapore airlines people told me they couldn't confirm the ticket, because they had not issued it. Whatever. So I went to the Lufthansa counter (there was no Swiss counter, it seems) and there I got another scare, when the person there told me that my flight was still on the 13th. Another round of phone calls, and finally she told me that it was okay, the flight had been changed with Swiss, but hadn't been modified with Lufthansa. And the ticket is confirmed now.

And there are lots more I want to say, like the pilih-kasih-ing of Singapore mobile operators and the bus ride home, but it's getting late so I'll probably write that tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next...we shall see :P

And by the way I'm having to get used to not using my external keyboard...which means that I just keep missing keys, for some reason. I will type something and then realise that a few keys were not pressed down properly. Argh.