"When you arrive in Hong Kong, you'll see, the airport is really beautiful ! It's brand new !" said one of my collegues a few days before I left. She didn't know it then, but she had put a real curse on me.
So, you remember where I left you in my last LJ entry ? Somewhere in China, next to the border. Hotel room full of shopping bags. That very same day, I decided I wanted to go back home, so I phoned the Call Center in Hong Kong, to check the flight loading. It was overbooked, so I decided I might as well stay a day longer. On Sunday, I was almost sure I was going to try the flight in the evening. Anyway, when we came back to the flat we had rented, I called Swiss again, and they said the flight was critically overbooked. On Monday, it was much better, so I thought, "why bother ?" I simply decided to try the flight on Monday, as planned.
Ok, here are some explanations : I travel as staff, therefore, I have very cheap tickets. The major drawback is the fact that, as a staff, you get whatever seats remain. So, basically, if the flight is overbooked, you don't have a very good chance to go home. Same applies if they have weight problems (in that case, you have two solutions : either you leave some luggage, either you leave the staffs). This particular week, it was Buddah's birthday, Bank holiday, and the end of the international fair in Canton. All the flights were full.
On Monday, I had a great afternoon with snitchcat, eating a full box of chocolates and searching for a bookshop in a huge mall (when I say huge, I actually mean HUGE). She decided to go with us to the airport. We took a taxi (fearing for a moment that we would have to take two taxis, because of the extreme amount of luggage) and we arrived in the airport. First, we wanted to check in my sister's luggage, because she thought she would have excess-bagage and she wanted us to take some of her stuff. Everything went fine for her.
We went to the Swiss counter (oh, and BTW, Lai, it's Swiss International Air Line, in two words ^^ (I double checked in the plane)) to check in, and they told us the thing we feared most :
"The flight is extremely full tonight. Come back at 22h15..."
I had checked with the call center this afternoon that there were 10 passengers overbooked in economy class, and that there were only 4 staffs (including myself and my mum) listed for the flight. Hence my next question :
"And, how many staffs listed ?"
"Mmm... about 15..."
OMGWTF !!!! O__O Great. I think my last hopes died this very moment.
ok, after a stupid taking-pictures session (stupid applying to the fact that I always look stupid in the pictures ^^), we went back to the counter.
"Come back at 22h25"
10 minutes later :
"Come back at 22h30"
5 minutes later :
"Come back at 22h40"
5 minutes later :
"Come back at 22h45"
At 22h45 precisely, a woman arrives with her child, and they are accepted. The representative turns to us and makes a thumb down sign. Great. 22h50, we take back our tickets and head for the Swiss agency.
Oh, and I forgot to say that, meanwhile, I went to see Lufthansa (as you all know, Lufthansa owns Swiss) and asked them if they would accept us in case we couldn't be on the Swiss flight. After a very tense moment as the guy searched like mad in his computer, he turns to me and says : "sorry, these are staff tickets, we cannot accept them". I look at him with a blank stare, remembering my first words to him, 5 minutes ago : "Hello, sorry to bother you, we are staff from Swissport, we have staff tickets on Swiss, I mean, Swiss only tickets, and I know you cannot normaly accept us, but all the flights are full, can you make an exception, please ????" This guy is STUPID.
So, back to our thrilling story-line ^^
The Swiss agency happens to be located next to the British Airways check in counters. British Airways being Swissair worse ennemy, the hope that they take us on their flight nears the absolute zero, but I'm so desperate I have to try. BA counter : "Hello, sorry to bother you, we are staff from Swissport, we have staff tickets on Swiss, I mean, Swiss only tickets, and I know you cannot normaly accept us, but all the flights are full, can you make an exception, please ????" (yeah, I have those pre-recorded sentences somewhere in my mind ^^) This time, it's a woman. She has a very dumb look, but I'm crossing fingers : maybe she won't notice that BA cannot accept us ??? 5 minutes later, after typing like mad on her keyboard (must be something they all learn when they are hired in an agency), she looks at me and say : "sorry, you have staffs tickets, we cannot accept you."
I think I would have taken it better if it was not written in big uppercase in the middle of the ticket : "LX ONLY STAFF TICKETS". Obviously, she didn't even look at the ticket.
Back to the Swiss agency, I ask the lady at the counter if she can give me the loading for the next day. I write it down, and ask for the loading on Wednesday. She tells me she cannot see it.
Me : "How comes ?"
Her : "I don't have access to the loading plans for the next days"
Me : "But, you do use the Swiss reservation system, don't you ?" (I could see it reflected, and I recognised it as my own system)
Her : "herrrr, yes."
Me : "So you can see the loading plans for any day !"
Her : "I don't know how to do it"
Me : "Can I tell you and you check for me ?"
Her : "Do you want to check by yourself ? Come here, and I let you use my computer"
Me : "YYYYYYESSSSS !!!!!"
I connect to the PARS (Swiss reservation system) and enter my request (for those who wonder, this system is actually much older than windows or even the idea of a user-interface. It actually looks a lot like the old dosshell, or even the command line, but with unix-like entries). I see her writing down everything I do, I think it's pretty cool, because she'll be able to help other staffs later. On the next day, the flight is hopeless. Overbooked by 14 people. On Wednesday, it's even worse : overbooked by 17 people. On Thursday, it's a bit better, overbooked by only 4 people. Friday is ok.
My mum tells me : "Let's try Tokyo or Bangkok !" The lady at the agency tells us that Tokyo is actually really expensive, and Bangkok is much cheaper. I have a look at the Bangkok flight. OMG, it's not even overbooked ^^ Cool ! I tell my mum, and she says : "Ok, let's go to Bangkok, then !" I'm really not sure about it, cause the flight is on Wednesday, and there is no flight on Thursday, The flight on Friday is pretty full. And it's well known that, in Bangkok, they always have weight problems. But she is heading towards an agency already, and wants to buy two tickets to Bangkok. I tell her I'm not going to Bangkok. She says : ok, then I'm going alone. Finally, I decide to go with her. Very bad mistake.
We take the bus to go back to our place. We still have the hotel for one night. My mum goes there, and I go with snitchcat. She has a spare bed for me, which is really the coolest thing ! ^^ On the next day, we wait for my mum, and we are actually starving ^^ When she arrives, we go to have lunch at a really great place (Lai, you can tell your friends the lunch was by far the best I had during my whole holiday in Hong Kong).
My mum has sent a texto to her friend in the airport, asking her to check on the Bangkok flight (we are supposed to leave for Bangkok this evening, and the flight BKK-ZRH is on Wednesday). The friend sends a mail, saying the flight is really good, no problem ! I call Swiss Call Center (they know me already : I've been calling twice a day, everyday since the 28th), and they tell me that the flight is critically overbooked. I'm like "What ????? In 12 hours ????? You sold FIFTY SEATS in TWELVE HOURS ??????" I make the listing anyway, but I already know I'm not going to Bangkok. I send a mail to my mum's friend, and waits for her reply. Finally, I manage to call my colleagues in Geneva Airport (something strange that you have to know if you plan a trip to HKG : the country code is not sufficient to call abroad. You have to dial 001 + the country code. For France, 00133. 0033 doesn't work) I'm lucky, because Valérie answers the call (she is one of my supervisors, extremely nice and qualified !). She checks the flight to Bangkok and tells me it's really overbooked. And then...
"But, you know it's a triangular flight, hmm ?"
"What ?"
"It's going to Singapour first. If you don't specifiy the location point as BKK, you get the bookings for SIN-BKK only !"
"OMG !!!!"
"Yeah. Don't go to BKK. The flight is at -20 (20 passengers overbooked) and 17 staffs are on the waiting-list"
"Ok, thanks.... what about the flight HKK-ZRH for tonight ?"
"It's pretty overbooked, but I've known worse flights, and everybody could get on it. I'll cross fingers for you, but don't go to BKK !!!!"
Meanwhile, my mum recieves a mail from her friend (who is also one of my supervisors in the airport)
"Actually, the flight is really overbooked, sorry. I didn't realise it was a triangular flight, and obviously, we made the same mistake... Don't go to BKK"
Cool. Now, we are stuck with two stupid tickets to BKK that we cannot even get totally refunded ! My mum says she'll pay for the tickets, as she didn't want to listen to me and caused this stupid situation (actually, it goes much deeper, as I told her it was not possible to come back from HKG on this particular week, as all flights were overbooked. I told her one week before our departure...).
What do we do next ? You'll find out in the next issue of "The terminal"... ^^