Typhoon havoc
All set and dressed up but nowhere to go. Here we are on the way to the airport in the cab at 11.40am to catch the flight to Taipei on Sat (oh, yesterday! Seems like a long time ago with so much happening) when the call came to inform us that our 1pm flight is cancelled due to typhoon but we may rebook our itinerary without charges.
Damn, why pick this period to travel, you ask. Well, I was in Taipei the same week of Oct last year (see my Oct 2006 blog) and the weather was perfect. I booked this trip more than half a year back when the promotion was $98 per way (okay $150 with taxes). Who is to predict the weather these days being so erratic.
In some ways, I am relieved with the flight cancellation because I have been wondering if it is safe enough to fly but any changes I initiate would incur a penalty charge.
Well, only 1.5 hours before the flight did Jetstar make the call not to take the risk. What followed next was a flurry of phone calls to reschedule the hotel, the insurance coverage, to the bosses to extend the leave, etc. When we got that sorted, we tried to call Jetstar back to re-book our travel itinerary and it was hell.
My ears were glued to the handphone for two (yes, TWO) hours while the Jetstar jingle play on and on with the intermittent cheery taped voice announcing "your call is important to us, please hold and we will attend to you shortly."
I got desperate as their office closes at 5pm on Sat. I attempted the 24-hour hotline several times. This leads to a Jetstar customer service centre in Australia. I get through quickly but each time, the hotline staff claim they are not informed of any typhoon, nor flight cancellation and they will have to charge me $150 for the change in itinerary. They directed me back to use the local Jetstar number.
My gawd this is a globally connected world today why are these Australians playing dumb which only serves to impress that they are in the back waters.
Finally, at about 3.30pm, I re-dialled the Jetstar local number and selected to make a new booking instead of pressing the option for changes to booking. This got me through soon enough. After explaining my frustration, the girl was kind enough to help me with the changes and she quickly settled it without giving me more pain. In this small way, Jetstar makes up for the bad bits in other areas of their service.
I shudder at the thought of the dangers of travel these days. We live in dangerous times. Once my flight departure to London fell on the day just after the terrorists were caught for planning a blow-up using liquids. Now the typhoon picked the weekend I am travelling.
I am now flying out tomorrow. I wonder what lies ahead of my trip in Taipei - rains and floods? I hope it will not be as bad as I imagined. I will try and focus on positive side that there will be sale, sale, sale and more sales. After all, they must make up for lost time to draw shoppers back and their national day is just three days away.
Damn, why pick this period to travel, you ask. Well, I was in Taipei the same week of Oct last year (see my Oct 2006 blog) and the weather was perfect. I booked this trip more than half a year back when the promotion was $98 per way (okay $150 with taxes). Who is to predict the weather these days being so erratic.
In some ways, I am relieved with the flight cancellation because I have been wondering if it is safe enough to fly but any changes I initiate would incur a penalty charge.
Well, only 1.5 hours before the flight did Jetstar make the call not to take the risk. What followed next was a flurry of phone calls to reschedule the hotel, the insurance coverage, to the bosses to extend the leave, etc. When we got that sorted, we tried to call Jetstar back to re-book our travel itinerary and it was hell.
My ears were glued to the handphone for two (yes, TWO) hours while the Jetstar jingle play on and on with the intermittent cheery taped voice announcing "your call is important to us, please hold and we will attend to you shortly."
I got desperate as their office closes at 5pm on Sat. I attempted the 24-hour hotline several times. This leads to a Jetstar customer service centre in Australia. I get through quickly but each time, the hotline staff claim they are not informed of any typhoon, nor flight cancellation and they will have to charge me $150 for the change in itinerary. They directed me back to use the local Jetstar number.
My gawd this is a globally connected world today why are these Australians playing dumb which only serves to impress that they are in the back waters.
Finally, at about 3.30pm, I re-dialled the Jetstar local number and selected to make a new booking instead of pressing the option for changes to booking. This got me through soon enough. After explaining my frustration, the girl was kind enough to help me with the changes and she quickly settled it without giving me more pain. In this small way, Jetstar makes up for the bad bits in other areas of their service.
I shudder at the thought of the dangers of travel these days. We live in dangerous times. Once my flight departure to London fell on the day just after the terrorists were caught for planning a blow-up using liquids. Now the typhoon picked the weekend I am travelling.
I am now flying out tomorrow. I wonder what lies ahead of my trip in Taipei - rains and floods? I hope it will not be as bad as I imagined. I will try and focus on positive side that there will be sale, sale, sale and more sales. After all, they must make up for lost time to draw shoppers back and their national day is just three days away.
Labels: Taipei
posted by Fiery at Sunday, October 07, 2007
3 Guest comments
