Coming to Sri Lanka
As I alluded to earlier in my previous post, getting to Sri Lanka couldn't have been more difficult. I know I'm verbose with my blog entries, but I think this is a story worth telling.
If you've read the blog you know that I was really supposed to be in Sri Lanka in late February (its April now). After waiting and waiting, I finally got word to book my ticket for Sunday, April 2 from Singapore.
First off, there are only three flights from Singapore to Colombo: Srilankan Airlines' flight at 3:30pm, Emirates at 10:30pm, and Singapore Air's at 10:45pm. I already had ticket for the Singapore Air flight, for which I had to cancel the original booking that was for Feb. 26. Since I was flying out on Sunday I didn't want to arrive late into the night the first day in Sri Lanka, thus I decided to try to get on the Sri Lankan Airlines flight. This meant I would also have to swing by the Singapore Airlines office at the airport to get a refund on my original ticket, because that was something on my to-do list for the 4 weeks I was in Singapore that I was too lazy to actually do. This is where things got dicey...
I checked out Srilankan Airlines' website for a booking, though the site was down at the time I checked. Looking back, that was foreshadowing of things to come. All you Accenture people, pay attention here. I went on the Horizon Travel site and searched for SIN-CMB flights, and found that the 3:30 Srilankan Airlines flight was available, but for over $500 USD one-way. I paid $650 for the fully flexible round trip Singapore Air flight, so this one, though at a more convienent time, was blowing my alloted budget. However, Horizon also showed that Emirates had a booking available at 3:30 Sunday too, for only $250 one way. I quickly booked it and thought I was set. The site indicated that the ticketing process would take up to 4 hours, so I waited patiently for an email confirming my itinerary and ticket. No luck. After a few hours I called the support line and spoke with a nice woman who checked my booking and informed me my credit card was denied. Wierd, but no problem, I have the handy, trusty Amex Blue as backup. I gave her that card number and was off to bed relieved about my ticket.
The next morning I did receive an email confirming my "pre-ticketed" itinerary. The itinerary included a note saying that 1) the flight was operated by Srilankan Airlines (I figured that out anyway) and 2) they could not ticket me electronically, so I had to go to the airport to actually pay for my "confirmed" ticket. I called Horizon and a young woman, who I pictured as the curt pregnant teenage girl in "Crash" who worked at the locksmith office because of her tone, confirmed that I indeed had to pay for the ticket at the airport. At this point I told Nima the deal and mentioned I was sketched out by this flight, but we'll see.
Sunday afternoon we left Nima's at 1:00pm sharp and headed off for my 3:30pm flight. If I haven't mentioned before, Changi International Airport is the world's most efficent airport. One of Nima's friends says she never gets to the airport for a flight more than 30 minutes in advance (and since Singapore is so small, all flights out are international!). Nima's a bit like my Dad in that she LOVES getting to the airport super early, and since Changi has plenty to do I had no problem leaving at 1.
We get to the airport and I head to the Emirates check-in counter. I tell the agent I'm heading to Colombo, and he tells me that I'm too early for check in, come back at 4. I show him my itinerary and he directs me to Srilankan Air's counter since the flight is operated by them. Ooookay, interesting. So I head to the other side of the terminal and BOOM!!! FLIGHT CANCELLED all over Srilankan's row. Debacle, right? It gets worse. I push my way through a sea of angry and confused brown people and ask the agent what's going on. She says the flight is cancelled for unknown reasons, but they're rebooking everyone on the Singapore Air flight. At this point I show her my Horizon printout and ask her where to pay for my ticket. She is clearly confused at my situation, so after consulting with a colleague she informs me I have to go to the Emirates ticket office, not the check-in counter, to pay for my ticket because it was booked by them. Once I do that she can book me on the Singapore Air flight. Hrmmmmm. Now I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about all this. Oh, and the Airline offices are upstairs, through some narrow halls, over the river, and through the woods. Nima and I take some back elevator up to what's most likely a restricted part of the airport, and after running around we find the Emirates office. The guy there takes one look at my print out and looks up at me like I'm from Mars. He's never seen anything like this. He makes a quick call, yaps something in Singlish, and comes back to me and says that I need to call my travel agent about this ticket because nothing was ever really booked.
At this point I say screw it with this flight, I'm gonna try my luck with that Singapore Air ticket I never cancelled. It is about 7 hours before the international flight I want is about to leave, and I'm just now making a booking. Can't say I've tried that stunt before. Anyhow, we head over to Terminal 2 which is basically all Singapore Air. What a difference. While T1 was all chaotic and disasters everywhere, T2 was calm, relaxed, clean, and had an air of efficency. I called ahead to get the ticketing process started, and it was fairly smooth except for the 15 minute hold time and waning cell phone minutes. But I got booked no problem and headed to the ticket office in T2 to pick up my ticket. BOOM! Just like that I was on the Singapore Air flight, and since they're Star Alliance I get miles to boot. With 7 hours to spare I check in early - and no worries about losing luggage because Singapore Air is too perfect - and head back to Nima's for a few extra hours of chill time. The best part was when Nima walked into her place with a look of sadness because I had just left, and Anji being a sweetheart and trying to console her. Right as Nima tells Anji "I wish Satyan was still here" I leap through the door with a hearty "KAPOW!" You should have seen the look on Anji's face.
I headed back to the airport around 9:00 and swiftly made it to the gate. The flight was great, had the whole row to myself and the dinner meal was probably the best I've had on an airplane (I've never flown higher than economy class so I've never had a great meal). I even got a chance to watch Fun With Dick and Jane - not a bad airplane movie. I arrived in Colombo just past midnight, and after waiting through immigration and baggage claim, I spotted my driver holding a placard that read, "Mr. Sathyan Merchant" - I was finally in Colombo.
Lessons from this escapade:
1) Never trust Horizon booking (Accenture people). What a debacle.
2) Despite flight schedules, don't pass up an opportunity to fly on Singapore Air. They're simply the best.
3) Chill places like Sri Lanka don't care about schedules. Always expect delays when traveling to such places.
4) Laziness pays off, in this case thank goodness I never got that refund.
5) Most importantly, things always work out.
If you've read the blog you know that I was really supposed to be in Sri Lanka in late February (its April now). After waiting and waiting, I finally got word to book my ticket for Sunday, April 2 from Singapore.
First off, there are only three flights from Singapore to Colombo: Srilankan Airlines' flight at 3:30pm, Emirates at 10:30pm, and Singapore Air's at 10:45pm. I already had ticket for the Singapore Air flight, for which I had to cancel the original booking that was for Feb. 26. Since I was flying out on Sunday I didn't want to arrive late into the night the first day in Sri Lanka, thus I decided to try to get on the Sri Lankan Airlines flight. This meant I would also have to swing by the Singapore Airlines office at the airport to get a refund on my original ticket, because that was something on my to-do list for the 4 weeks I was in Singapore that I was too lazy to actually do. This is where things got dicey...
I checked out Srilankan Airlines' website for a booking, though the site was down at the time I checked. Looking back, that was foreshadowing of things to come. All you Accenture people, pay attention here. I went on the Horizon Travel site and searched for SIN-CMB flights, and found that the 3:30 Srilankan Airlines flight was available, but for over $500 USD one-way. I paid $650 for the fully flexible round trip Singapore Air flight, so this one, though at a more convienent time, was blowing my alloted budget. However, Horizon also showed that Emirates had a booking available at 3:30 Sunday too, for only $250 one way. I quickly booked it and thought I was set. The site indicated that the ticketing process would take up to 4 hours, so I waited patiently for an email confirming my itinerary and ticket. No luck. After a few hours I called the support line and spoke with a nice woman who checked my booking and informed me my credit card was denied. Wierd, but no problem, I have the handy, trusty Amex Blue as backup. I gave her that card number and was off to bed relieved about my ticket.
The next morning I did receive an email confirming my "pre-ticketed" itinerary. The itinerary included a note saying that 1) the flight was operated by Srilankan Airlines (I figured that out anyway) and 2) they could not ticket me electronically, so I had to go to the airport to actually pay for my "confirmed" ticket. I called Horizon and a young woman, who I pictured as the curt pregnant teenage girl in "Crash" who worked at the locksmith office because of her tone, confirmed that I indeed had to pay for the ticket at the airport. At this point I told Nima the deal and mentioned I was sketched out by this flight, but we'll see.
Sunday afternoon we left Nima's at 1:00pm sharp and headed off for my 3:30pm flight. If I haven't mentioned before, Changi International Airport is the world's most efficent airport. One of Nima's friends says she never gets to the airport for a flight more than 30 minutes in advance (and since Singapore is so small, all flights out are international!). Nima's a bit like my Dad in that she LOVES getting to the airport super early, and since Changi has plenty to do I had no problem leaving at 1.
We get to the airport and I head to the Emirates check-in counter. I tell the agent I'm heading to Colombo, and he tells me that I'm too early for check in, come back at 4. I show him my itinerary and he directs me to Srilankan Air's counter since the flight is operated by them. Ooookay, interesting. So I head to the other side of the terminal and BOOM!!! FLIGHT CANCELLED all over Srilankan's row. Debacle, right? It gets worse. I push my way through a sea of angry and confused brown people and ask the agent what's going on. She says the flight is cancelled for unknown reasons, but they're rebooking everyone on the Singapore Air flight. At this point I show her my Horizon printout and ask her where to pay for my ticket. She is clearly confused at my situation, so after consulting with a colleague she informs me I have to go to the Emirates ticket office, not the check-in counter, to pay for my ticket because it was booked by them. Once I do that she can book me on the Singapore Air flight. Hrmmmmm. Now I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about all this. Oh, and the Airline offices are upstairs, through some narrow halls, over the river, and through the woods. Nima and I take some back elevator up to what's most likely a restricted part of the airport, and after running around we find the Emirates office. The guy there takes one look at my print out and looks up at me like I'm from Mars. He's never seen anything like this. He makes a quick call, yaps something in Singlish, and comes back to me and says that I need to call my travel agent about this ticket because nothing was ever really booked.
At this point I say screw it with this flight, I'm gonna try my luck with that Singapore Air ticket I never cancelled. It is about 7 hours before the international flight I want is about to leave, and I'm just now making a booking. Can't say I've tried that stunt before. Anyhow, we head over to Terminal 2 which is basically all Singapore Air. What a difference. While T1 was all chaotic and disasters everywhere, T2 was calm, relaxed, clean, and had an air of efficency. I called ahead to get the ticketing process started, and it was fairly smooth except for the 15 minute hold time and waning cell phone minutes. But I got booked no problem and headed to the ticket office in T2 to pick up my ticket. BOOM! Just like that I was on the Singapore Air flight, and since they're Star Alliance I get miles to boot. With 7 hours to spare I check in early - and no worries about losing luggage because Singapore Air is too perfect - and head back to Nima's for a few extra hours of chill time. The best part was when Nima walked into her place with a look of sadness because I had just left, and Anji being a sweetheart and trying to console her. Right as Nima tells Anji "I wish Satyan was still here" I leap through the door with a hearty "KAPOW!" You should have seen the look on Anji's face.
I headed back to the airport around 9:00 and swiftly made it to the gate. The flight was great, had the whole row to myself and the dinner meal was probably the best I've had on an airplane (I've never flown higher than economy class so I've never had a great meal). I even got a chance to watch Fun With Dick and Jane - not a bad airplane movie. I arrived in Colombo just past midnight, and after waiting through immigration and baggage claim, I spotted my driver holding a placard that read, "Mr. Sathyan Merchant" - I was finally in Colombo.
Lessons from this escapade:
1) Never trust Horizon booking (Accenture people). What a debacle.
2) Despite flight schedules, don't pass up an opportunity to fly on Singapore Air. They're simply the best.
3) Chill places like Sri Lanka don't care about schedules. Always expect delays when traveling to such places.
4) Laziness pays off, in this case thank goodness I never got that refund.
5) Most importantly, things always work out.
posted by SM at
4/06/2006 10:04:00 PM
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