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Something wrong with the airline system ? or is it just plain pain in the a**....(part I)

I wrote this because it actually happen to me..Geeked
As a guy in IT line of work....I could never understand this problem. This is the history
For a job in Chennai (India), company had bought me a round ticket from MA* airlines.
On the day I should flight this airline told the passenger that it was delayed (being an Indonesian this should be regular....no problem).
After 1 hour of delayed I finally flight to Kuala Lumpur first (it was the route).
Upon arrival at KLIA I suppose to took a fligth again to Chennai, but that's not the case.
The connecting flight that suppose to took me has flewn because of the delay in jakarta I missed the flight.....Angry,
but that's ok the airlines try to put me in the hotel along with 2 other passenger that has stucked with me.
When we arrived at the hotel the front desk told us they would gave us single room for three of us (what the he**). 
Of course three of us got rage, we hardly know each other but they want to put us in one room?, this guy should be out of his mind.
We told him to call to MA* and he eventually gave us separate room.
On the next day in the morning we rushed to the KLIA to get checked in....
MA* told us we have to switch airlines because there are no MA* flight till evening...,
we then got switched to a local indian airways which is eventually had flight to KLIA. 
This MA* personel then collect our ticket and change it to a boarding pass...., 
the bad thing was I forgot that my ticket is also a return ticket and the MA* personel also forgot to return my ticket....
so by the time I realized it I already at chennai airport.
I rushed into a MA* personel in chennai airport and tell them the problem....
they said I only had to go to centrall office in downtown chennai and I will get it back.
I went to the MA* Chennai office and they told me they cannot reissue the ticket until there's some confirmation from KLIA or Jakarta office.
So I told them to make the call, and still yet they were not make the call
(my thought was a single international call is too expensive for this airlines).
I call my colleque to help me on this problem through jakarta, but still the problem goes on and on until 5th day ....
(heck we live in a communication age...but for this time the communication still becomes burden to this airlines..).
On the 5th day....my office colleque told me that they already had MA* Jakarta Office to send a telex to MA* Chennai office, 
I wait for couple of hours to make sure that MA* Chennai office got the telex and made the call.....
I call the MA* Chennai office and they told me still haven't got the telex 
(by GOD a telex travel more than 2 hours !!!, its imposible), this is one thing for sure the MA* personel in Jakarta had not send it.
So I ordered my colleque to went to MA* Jakarta Office on 6th day and assist the MA* officer to send the telex (heck they even don't know how to send it probably...grrrr).
On 6th day I got fully conform that the telex has been sent with the assistant of my colleque,
so I made the call to MA* office and they said they already got the telex and I can get my ticket.

After all said and done....it has worn out everything from me, my colleque for this simple problem...,
I already made a resolution to my company....nerver use MA* anymore.....because we've come to the conclusion that
MA* is a screwed company of the first order even an international call is way to expensive for them.


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Posted: Nov 14 2006, 07:20 AM by omwok | with 3 comment(s) |
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Comments

tahir said:

For an international flight, if it is available, I should prefer use the international airline/flight carrier of the country of destination or the country you are coming from, yes in this case our beloved GIA. It can provide better inter(national)connection/services when something unplanned happens.

But if travel time is not a concern, and you are interested to see more places or get more experiences during your trip, you can get benefit of the advantage of flying with other international flight who has non-direct route to your destination. You can schedule your trip and even get overnight during your transit and have time to walk around in unknown misterical cities/places at no extra flight cost (except the accommodations) :).

I have done this before and at that time, I went for MA* for Amsterdam-Jakarta flight. The route was Amsterdam-KL-Jkt. During my transit in KL, I also took the train to Singapore, stay there a couple of days and went back to KL before I continue my trip to JKT. It is interesting to see the view along the railways and you will know where their money grows, yes... on those entire palm trees where CPO(Crude Palm Oil) coming from :) Talking to local people and by looking around, you will see a lot of interesting things other ways you will never know about. You should take minimum stuff in your backpack if you want to try this way of traveling, while you are young, alone and no one asks when you will come back :)

I have good experience with MA* and the kindliness and the services they have provided. No delay or other unwanted things happened.

Back to your story, we see most of the IT happening is just as a simple thing, but from others view, it will be translated as extra cost, extra work, and no benefit for them, it is not their responsibility etc.

We should just be better prepared for all unwanted possibilities, regardless of how simple things are as we think :)

What you have experienced could happen to anyone, any flight, anywhere. And the best is that we all should have take the lessons from it.

# November 15, 2006 12:21 AM

norman said:

Yang kayak ginian, biar di baca massa, coba post juga di: http://www.wikimu.com

Cuma, bahasa Indonesia ya... :)

# November 15, 2006 9:20 AM

zeddy said:

MA ini Malaysian Airlines atau Mandala Airlines atau yg lainnya?

Karena kalo speaking by flight code, Malaysia Airlines itu MH :)

Whichever airlines you took, the problem is in India. I don't want to generalize, but during my Imagine Cup times there, my friend had to remind the hotel employee 10x just to get an ice :)

Btw, it probably is not the airlines. It's the people. On my flight back from Delhi to Jakarta, eventhough our flight was SQ (Singapore Airlines), we still has some stupid SQ employee attending to us. We had 5 tickets, 4 was told confirmed, and the other one was "unknown". We went to the supervisor, and he said, "On my screen, it says confirmed. Go back and tell him that there's no problem." And yes, we ping-pong back between supervisor-stupid guy and finally the stupid guy realized he had to press some buttons to see the ticket as "confirmed".

Never am I going back to that place....... :)

# November 15, 2006 12:54 PM