Trains and Boats and Planes

Dear reader, the title of the blog has nothing to do with the first two modes of transportation and all to do with the last - I just didn't want to waste the song title (see yesterday's blog for explanation).

The purpose of this blog is to warn you against having anything to do with Singapore Airlines if your itinerary is subject to change or in any way out of the ordinary!

Some time ago, I had booked my flight home to Sydney for Christmas to depart from Delhi (I had anticipated being there for a series of promotional sessions on behalf of KiBS following the APROS conference, but events overtook these plans and I finished up in Patna and then Kochi instead). For the last week or more, my travel agent in Sydney has been struggling manfully to try and get my itinerary changed from Delhi-Singapore to Kochi-Singapore so that I can take a much later, more direct flight to Singapore and reduce the elapsed travelling time by about 9 hours. But would Singapore Airlines (SA) make that change? Nooooo. As far as SA was concerned it had to reticket the whole itinerary and not just the India-Singapore section, and had to wait for a cancellation before being able to re-ticket the Singapore-Sydney section.

Yes, dear reader, you've already spotted the fatal flaw in SA's position haven't you - I would be that cancellation (coz I'm already on the plane!) and they could simply issue the new tickets! But no again folks, that's too logical. So each day I would play Julius II to Ian's (my travel agent's) Michaelangelo Bonarotti, asking (eventually pleading) "When will it be at an end" and hearing "When it is finished" in reply. I had got to the stage yesterday afternoon (remember there's a 5 and 1/2 hour time difference between Kochi and Sydney to take into account as well) when I decided with one of Ian's offsiders that the opening was looking highly unlikely and so I proceeded to confirm my Kochi-Delhi flight and check-in on the Singapore flight from Delhi (you have to do that so that you don't get crap seats like the ones I got on the way to Delhi from Sydney earlier this month because the SA computers wouldn't play nice with me).

I had resigned myself to the extended travel itinerary until I saw my emails this morning (I have been without 'out of office' email connection for the last 24 hours because Tata Indicom insisted on evaluating our claim for a replacement USB modem and I didn't get back online until last night at 9.00pm, only to find the Tata PCMCIA we purchased while we wait a week for the replacement Tata USB modem that the folks at Tata finally decided was warranted). Ian had written to say that it had all been sorted finally - someone else had dropped out, and I could get the Kochi-Singapore connection. All I needed to to was to pop down to the SA office in Kochi and get them to reissue the ticket.

This brings me to the following excerpt of an email that I've not long sent to Ian in Sydney, bless his cotton socks:

"Dear Ian,

Thanks for your emails regarding your success in changing the booking - well done! What the folks at JAA (Just Another Airline, my new name for SA) neglected to tell you is that today in Kochi is a public holiday (for a secular state, the Indians do very well in grabbing every possible opportunity to claim the religious holidays (this one's a Muslim holiday) as their own). Accordingly, the JAA and Silk (JAAOA - Just Another Airline's Other Airline) offices here in Kochi are closed and I am unable to pop down to the offices and get things fixed."

So today will be another day "lost in India" as I head out to Kochi International Airport for a 2.10pm flight that takes me north to Delhi via Hyderabad, arriving at 5.30pm, so that I can wait for the 9.00pm flight to Singapore, arriving at 4.55am, so that I can wait for the 9,40am flight from Singapore to Sydney, arriving at 8.15pm, then home to the bosom of my family.

What I added to my email to Ian, and I share now with you gentle reader, are the following wishes:

I trust that you experience the peace and joy of this Christmas season, and that 2008 brings you everything that you would wish for yourself.