Just when we were getting ready to head home from Bangkok.
We are travelling on staff travel this trip, which, as we all know, is on a space available basis. If there are seats available, then staff get a seat at a pretty good price.
Now this is a great concept, but there is an over-riding sense of the unknown. When you buy your tickets, there may be heaps of seats available, but when you rock up to the airport, any number of things could have happened. The flight could have been cancelled, an earlier flight could have been cancelled, filling up later ones. There might have been a last minute sale on, and all of the spare seats sold.
So, there is always trepidation involved when traveling on staff travel. Those who are a tad retentive, like my Sarah, will check regularly on the status, to see how our chances are of getting on the flight.
That's what happened here. The return flight from Bangkok to Sydney, was pretty full even before we left home. As it was, we extended a couple of days to get a flight with more available seats.
Over the days we have been here, Sarah has been checking on the flight. Yesterday, it was clear that we may not get on today's flight. Tomorrows one is worse.
So we decided to fly to Singapore to catch the SIN-SYD flight tonight. At the moment it's looking good, and there are alternatives. Two SYD flights, one to Brisbane and another to Melbourne. Must stay flexible.
So, Sarah goes tapping away on her computer (yes we brought her one this trip). Through her staff travel site, she can book seats on CathayPacific from Bangkok to Singapore this morning. There is a simple method for showing the chances of getting onto any flight. A smiley face, a no smiley face, and a frowny face. Cathay to Singapore has a smiley face. She makes the booking for BKK-SIN and SIN-SYD.
This morning we got up, had breakfast, and got a taxi to the airport. We were going to take the train, but that would mean accessing the skywalk via the mall, but that doesn't open till 1000. Our flight goes at 1150, so we are leaving before 0900.
We miss the train, and Sarah also misses her cinnabons for lunch.
This is something that a friend always bleats on about when they go to the states. At our end of the world, I guess it's called a cinnamon scroll, but in the USA there is a company that has patented the name. To the average Amrikan, these are called cinnabons. Same theory with the Elecrolux company. Some people vacuum, some 'lux'.
Anyway, there is a Cinnabon store in the Siam Paragon food court. We tried one the other day, and she was planning on getting a wee catering pack for the wait at the airport. Because we are not taking the train, we are not taking the skywalk to the train station at Siam Paragon, so we can't duck downstairs and stock up on carbs for the trip. Dots joined enough?
So a cab to the airport is at the mercy of traffic, and can take up to an hour. We did it in about 40 minutes, and gave the guy 700 baht. The standard rate is 500 for a car. This was a van, so we agreed on a little more.
Just for perspective, if it takes an hour, the charge, even on the meter, will never go over 700 baht. And that converts to about NZD28. It costs over $40 to go airport to our house in Christchurch, and we are literally 10 minutes away.
On Saturday when I returned from the dentist, my driver wasn't available. Rather than wait for him, I took a cab. Now this is only about 5kms from the hotel, but the road is often busy. Today took me about 40 minutes. The meter said 113 baht, so I gave him 120. 120 baht is about $4.80 in NZ money. For 40 minutes in a cab, right?
So we rock up to the Cathay Pacific counters, find the standby counter, and we are good to go. Sorry the flight is full, you will have to wait. Just take a seat over there, and come back at 10 past 11. So much for a smiley face. In our staff travel system, the system doesn't change from no smiley to smiley untill there are at least 30 seats available. But not with Cathay.
My theory is that being Thailand (the land of smiles), all systems are compelled to show a smiley face regardless. Always smiling.
We wait. We pace. We look around. 1 1/2 hours goes slowly when there is nothing much to do.
Eventually we go back, wait some more, and are given seats. Row 50-something and row 60-something. Both window seats. Doesn't matter, we are on, so lets get to the gate.
Luckily Customs and security are fast, so that we are at the gate (missing all the duty free shops) pretty quickly. Surprisingly, they are on final call, with over 20 minutes till departure. I'm so proud.
It's a good flight. Boeing 777. We like them. Good crew, good service, good food. I didn't eat, but my own Chef Ramsey tells me it is good.
The TV is good, but they wait till we are up before it is turned on, and turn it off before we are down. Bugger.
Soon enough we are in Singapore. As near as dammit to a 2 hour flight, and we head down to customs. Unlike the Amrikan customs, there is no staffing formula. Every counter manned. End of conversation. We start at the back of a huge mass of humanity, but the asian efficiency has us processed into sausage-like lines and away to pick up our bags in no time.
Now here's the test. Will our bags make it? We know how the back-of-house systems work. It usually takes longer for a bag to make it from check-in to the aircraft, than it does it's hapless owner.
But no. This is Asia. These buggers are good. I think Efficient is the best word to describe them. Process oriented, no deviation, getting the job done.
The bags turn up, we head upstairs to the check-in floor, and look for the correct bank of counters. A few hours to wait, but we'd rather be on the duty free side than this one. Just like Bangkok, not a lot to do on landside. According to the sign, there have been a few cancellations. One Jetstar to Melbourne. A few others. Lets hope that doesn't have an impact on us getting seats.
Off we go, front up at the counter and see what happens.
No problem, we'll take the bags. Here are your boarding passes, not together I'm sorry. Doesn't matter, interjects my Sarah. As long as we are on. We'll be asleep for most of the flight anyway. She doesn't want to talk to me during the flight, clearly.
Then it gets entertaining. There were a couple of women checking in next to us. When the second bag was on the scales, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't put a padlock on it. Please wait, I need to lock it. A debate ensues about how to get the bag from the rear feeder section back to the front so that she could lock it. No madam, you cannot climb up on the feeder belts to reach it. No burley blokes around, so the check-in agent eventually manhandles the bag, probably about 25kg and bigger than she is, back to the first feeder belt. There you are, madam. No "thank you". Charming.
But wait, there's more. Where's the third bag? The one with the glass in it? It was the first one to go. "But it's got glass in it!" she implores the check-in agents. I recognise the look on the check-in agent's face, even the chinese version.
YOU FUCKING MORON!!!
Like I said, we know how the back of house stuff works at an airport. Once it's gone, it's gone, baby. No Mulligans here.
"But it's only just gone!"
And your point is...? .......lost on me!
The girl tried to explain. Once the bag enters the system, it takes a long time to get through the maze of belts, where it will be scanned, sorted, re-routed, and eventually down to the correct lateral belt where it will be loaded into the correct container. Only then will it be retrievable. Let's not mention the number of times that the above sortation process will punch, push, wack, flip, thwack and slap the bag on it's way.
"But it's only just gone."
We had to leave. It was a toss-up whether to laugh in her face, or just slap it.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are more pieces of glass coming out of the box in Perth than there were going into it in Singapore. I'll bet she tries to make a damage claim with Qantas in Perth. Let's hope that the staff in Singapore warn them what's coming.
That was fun.
Now its back through customs to the shopping area.
Let's go this way. Oh look, a train to Terminal 3. Let's go there.
The world's shortest monorail ride. So this is Terminal 3? But back down that way, beside the monorail track, I can see Terminal 1. So all the expense of a train to take you to terminal 3, and you could walk it in a few minutes.
Come on people! Too much money to spend?
We are travelling on staff travel this trip, which, as we all know, is on a space available basis. If there are seats available, then staff get a seat at a pretty good price.
Now this is a great concept, but there is an over-riding sense of the unknown. When you buy your tickets, there may be heaps of seats available, but when you rock up to the airport, any number of things could have happened. The flight could have been cancelled, an earlier flight could have been cancelled, filling up later ones. There might have been a last minute sale on, and all of the spare seats sold.
So, there is always trepidation involved when traveling on staff travel. Those who are a tad retentive, like my Sarah, will check regularly on the status, to see how our chances are of getting on the flight.
That's what happened here. The return flight from Bangkok to Sydney, was pretty full even before we left home. As it was, we extended a couple of days to get a flight with more available seats.
Over the days we have been here, Sarah has been checking on the flight. Yesterday, it was clear that we may not get on today's flight. Tomorrows one is worse.
So we decided to fly to Singapore to catch the SIN-SYD flight tonight. At the moment it's looking good, and there are alternatives. Two SYD flights, one to Brisbane and another to Melbourne. Must stay flexible.
So, Sarah goes tapping away on her computer (yes we brought her one this trip). Through her staff travel site, she can book seats on CathayPacific from Bangkok to Singapore this morning. There is a simple method for showing the chances of getting onto any flight. A smiley face, a no smiley face, and a frowny face. Cathay to Singapore has a smiley face. She makes the booking for BKK-SIN and SIN-SYD.
This morning we got up, had breakfast, and got a taxi to the airport. We were going to take the train, but that would mean accessing the skywalk via the mall, but that doesn't open till 1000. Our flight goes at 1150, so we are leaving before 0900.
We miss the train, and Sarah also misses her cinnabons for lunch.
This is something that a friend always bleats on about when they go to the states. At our end of the world, I guess it's called a cinnamon scroll, but in the USA there is a company that has patented the name. To the average Amrikan, these are called cinnabons. Same theory with the Elecrolux company. Some people vacuum, some 'lux'.
Anyway, there is a Cinnabon store in the Siam Paragon food court. We tried one the other day, and she was planning on getting a wee catering pack for the wait at the airport. Because we are not taking the train, we are not taking the skywalk to the train station at Siam Paragon, so we can't duck downstairs and stock up on carbs for the trip. Dots joined enough?
So a cab to the airport is at the mercy of traffic, and can take up to an hour. We did it in about 40 minutes, and gave the guy 700 baht. The standard rate is 500 for a car. This was a van, so we agreed on a little more.
Just for perspective, if it takes an hour, the charge, even on the meter, will never go over 700 baht. And that converts to about NZD28. It costs over $40 to go airport to our house in Christchurch, and we are literally 10 minutes away.
On Saturday when I returned from the dentist, my driver wasn't available. Rather than wait for him, I took a cab. Now this is only about 5kms from the hotel, but the road is often busy. Today took me about 40 minutes. The meter said 113 baht, so I gave him 120. 120 baht is about $4.80 in NZ money. For 40 minutes in a cab, right?
So we rock up to the Cathay Pacific counters, find the standby counter, and we are good to go. Sorry the flight is full, you will have to wait. Just take a seat over there, and come back at 10 past 11. So much for a smiley face. In our staff travel system, the system doesn't change from no smiley to smiley untill there are at least 30 seats available. But not with Cathay.
My theory is that being Thailand (the land of smiles), all systems are compelled to show a smiley face regardless. Always smiling.
We wait. We pace. We look around. 1 1/2 hours goes slowly when there is nothing much to do.
Eventually we go back, wait some more, and are given seats. Row 50-something and row 60-something. Both window seats. Doesn't matter, we are on, so lets get to the gate.
Luckily Customs and security are fast, so that we are at the gate (missing all the duty free shops) pretty quickly. Surprisingly, they are on final call, with over 20 minutes till departure. I'm so proud.
It's a good flight. Boeing 777. We like them. Good crew, good service, good food. I didn't eat, but my own Chef Ramsey tells me it is good.
The TV is good, but they wait till we are up before it is turned on, and turn it off before we are down. Bugger.
Soon enough we are in Singapore. As near as dammit to a 2 hour flight, and we head down to customs. Unlike the Amrikan customs, there is no staffing formula. Every counter manned. End of conversation. We start at the back of a huge mass of humanity, but the asian efficiency has us processed into sausage-like lines and away to pick up our bags in no time.
Now here's the test. Will our bags make it? We know how the back-of-house systems work. It usually takes longer for a bag to make it from check-in to the aircraft, than it does it's hapless owner.
But no. This is Asia. These buggers are good. I think Efficient is the best word to describe them. Process oriented, no deviation, getting the job done.
The bags turn up, we head upstairs to the check-in floor, and look for the correct bank of counters. A few hours to wait, but we'd rather be on the duty free side than this one. Just like Bangkok, not a lot to do on landside. According to the sign, there have been a few cancellations. One Jetstar to Melbourne. A few others. Lets hope that doesn't have an impact on us getting seats.
Off we go, front up at the counter and see what happens.
No problem, we'll take the bags. Here are your boarding passes, not together I'm sorry. Doesn't matter, interjects my Sarah. As long as we are on. We'll be asleep for most of the flight anyway. She doesn't want to talk to me during the flight, clearly.
Then it gets entertaining. There were a couple of women checking in next to us. When the second bag was on the scales, she suddenly remembered that she hadn't put a padlock on it. Please wait, I need to lock it. A debate ensues about how to get the bag from the rear feeder section back to the front so that she could lock it. No madam, you cannot climb up on the feeder belts to reach it. No burley blokes around, so the check-in agent eventually manhandles the bag, probably about 25kg and bigger than she is, back to the first feeder belt. There you are, madam. No "thank you". Charming.
But wait, there's more. Where's the third bag? The one with the glass in it? It was the first one to go. "But it's got glass in it!" she implores the check-in agents. I recognise the look on the check-in agent's face, even the chinese version.
YOU FUCKING MORON!!!
Like I said, we know how the back of house stuff works at an airport. Once it's gone, it's gone, baby. No Mulligans here.
"But it's only just gone!"
And your point is...? .......lost on me!
The girl tried to explain. Once the bag enters the system, it takes a long time to get through the maze of belts, where it will be scanned, sorted, re-routed, and eventually down to the correct lateral belt where it will be loaded into the correct container. Only then will it be retrievable. Let's not mention the number of times that the above sortation process will punch, push, wack, flip, thwack and slap the bag on it's way.
"But it's only just gone."
We had to leave. It was a toss-up whether to laugh in her face, or just slap it.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are more pieces of glass coming out of the box in Perth than there were going into it in Singapore. I'll bet she tries to make a damage claim with Qantas in Perth. Let's hope that the staff in Singapore warn them what's coming.
That was fun.
Now its back through customs to the shopping area.
Let's go this way. Oh look, a train to Terminal 3. Let's go there.
The world's shortest monorail ride. So this is Terminal 3? But back down that way, beside the monorail track, I can see Terminal 1. So all the expense of a train to take you to terminal 3, and you could walk it in a few minutes.
Come on people! Too much money to spend?
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