Friday, May 18, 2012

Sri Lanka SNAFU


Mood: Rested
Listening to: Tron on TV

We were supposed to leave for Sri Lank this morning. We woke up early, ran around eating breakfast, packing last minute things and making sure our passports and tickets were in our pockets. The cab came on time and we drove the hour to the airport. When we got there, we were told that our flight was preponed and that we were too late to get on it. Wait, what? Tell me this, who prepones a flight? I’ve been flying all over the place my entire life, and I’ve never heard of preponing and flight. Our travel agent, Yatra, apparently was supposed to let us know about this change. Had they done that, we would have gone earlier to the airport. It was a big problem because we were supposed to fly into Chennai and then catch a connecting flight to Colombo.  The only flight available was at 5 pm, and then we’d have to stay overnight in Chennai, at our own expense. After about 4 hours of arguing on the phone, we arrived at a compromise that we would move our trip forward by 1 day.  Since we were flying into Chennai and then on to Sri Lanka , it wasn’t possible to go later in the day today.

I was rather pissed that Yatra tried to blame us for coming late and then wanted us to go some crazy route (through Mumbai!) and get to Columbo at 4 am. Um yeah, take some more crack lady, cause that ain’t happening. Where the hell is the logic there? Go north to Mumbai and then way back south. All so you don’t have to move our hotel reservations 1 day later. I love watching my husband take on people who try to pull this tom foolery. It’s the only time the Buddha man (albeing not a laughing Buddha, Daddy G is a toothpick!) gets worked up and yells at people about stuff. It’s sexy.

See, this leads to bad PR Yatra, very bad PR for you. People, be wary of Yatra. Traditional travel agents are a smarter idea, even if they are a little more expensive. 

So, it turned out ok, because I really needed the 3 hour nap I took after we went back home because I am a book junkie and stayed up late last night reading. Hopefully tomorrow morning goes more smoothly!
Becky

2 comments:

  1. Aww that sucks! I would have been livid!

    Something similar happened to me in Bombay once.

    I had travelled from Texas non-stop via Paris. My flight reached Bombay at about 10:00 pm and my connecting flight to Cochin was to depart at 5:00 am the next morning. I thought I would sit it out in the airport rather than going to a hotel.

    Jet Airways was the domestic carrier I was using and their people checked my baggage for the morning flight and then sat me down at the proper gate to wait until morning.

    I sat there all night long. When it came for security check I went forward and asked when it would be starting. The officer looked surprised and said, "But didn't you know that the flight was cancelled? All the other passengers were taken to hotels for the night."

    I was furious and demanded to see their manager - but he wasn't in yet. So then I demanded a hotel room and they said, "But the next flight is at 9:00 am, so there's really not point in going to a hotel now.".... MURDER!!!

    When they saw my expression they quickly backed down and brought me a limo - took me to a luxury hotel where I showered, rested for a few minutes and had breakfast.

    When I got back to the airport the flight was boarding but I wanted to see the manager. He was in a meeting and the Jet Air staff were freaking out that I would miss the flight. I told them that I didn't care and that there was no way I was going to get on the plane unless I talked to the manager. lol... finally they went and got him out of the meeting.

    Thankfully I had cooled off a bit at that point - so I just told him that everyone makes mistakes. That's normal. But that you have to take responsibility for your mistakes when you make them.

    What had pissed me off so much was that up until the manager - not one person had apologized for the situation.

    And yes, sometimes I can be a jerk ;-)

    Hopefully everything will go well tomorrow :)

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  2. Wow, sounds like it was no fun for you. I know how I was when I flew in from New York, and I think it would have been an epic tantrum if that happened to me. Good thing they took care of you a little bit (breakfast and a hot shower almost never hurts!). I'm glad you got to talk to the manager also. I tell my husband this all the time - he's more of the shrugging and this is India types. I'm more the hell no, if you never complain then nothing changes type. :-)

    You'll never guess which airline we flew on. Yep, Jet. It was actually Yatra's fault for not getting in touch with us when the airline notified them about the preponed flight, but seriously, who prepones a flight??

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