Behind the Scene, Before the Journey

The story started long time ago. I can’t remember who initiated the idea or why we ended up choosing Manado as our first trip together.

Yes, I have a bunch of girl friends. We have been so close since we were young. But unlike any other people who could afford to go round the world since their school time, we only could enjoy the privilege of holiday when we have earned our own hard money. And we are proud of it. J

Let’s set that intermezzo to the side.

To make long story short, we decided to visit Manado and one of my friend suggested one of the long weekend of the year. And taa daa, we chose 01 May 2014 to 04 May 2014. As a true planner, I became the one who was so excited and I kept checking on the air ticket for the specified dates.

I found out that Lion Air had so called midnight flight to Manado. If we took that flight, we could reach Manado early morning and we could straightaway go for our tour. I always love the idea of not wasting any precious time. So, I suggested this to my friends and they were okay with that.

So this was our initial itinerary:

30 April 2014 Flight from Palembang/Singapore to Jakarta

01 May 2014 Midnight flight from Jakarta to Manado followed by 1^st-day tour

02 May 2014 2^nd-day tour, preferably Bunaken

03 May 2014 3^rd-day tour

04 May 2014 Flight back to Jakarta followed by another flight to Palembang/Singapore

When I initially checked the ticket price, it was about IDR 1.5 million (SGD 170) for return tickets. We are human, so naturally we like to procrastinate. We did not buy the ticket until one fine day in August 2013, I went into Lion Air website and found out that the price had increased to more than IDR 2 million (SGD 230) for return tickets.

In the end, we had 10 people in line for the trip. We decided to take Lion Air for Jakarta-Manado flight simply due to the midnight schedule and Garuda Indonesia for return flight as we caught the promotion. In total, we spent slightly less than IDR 2 million for the air tickets alone.

A few weeks after that, one of my friends informed us that in the webpage of Lion Air, our specified flight had disappeared and changed to Batik Air (same time different flight code). Fyi, Batik Air is Lion Air’s sister company. When my friend enquired to the call centre of Lion Air, the customer service officer told my friend that both flights were the essentially the same.

So, phewww. Everybody thought we had our happily ever after.

Only till one day prior to our departure.

The unexpected paid a visit.

My friend (our contact person who settled our ticketing – let’s call her Pink) received an SMS saying that our flight would be delayed 3 hours to 5am in the morning. She then called the call centre of Lion Air to confirm, but the customer service officer seemed puzzled and told her that it was still on schedule. When she told us, we literally cheered and laughed at the false alarm.

Until the second thunder.

I do not know what exactly happened but there were riot inside our chat group when we were told that our Lion Air flight was cancelled and all passengers would be transferred to the next available flight at 5am. We were not informed beforehand and everything had been settled: the connecting flight, the transportation in Manado, our tight itinerary, everything.

Pink called the call centre again to ask for compensation. We wanted to be transferred to Batik Air that would fly on the same schedule as our cancelled flight. But the customer service officer told her that no compensation would be given. If we were not happy with the change, we could get full refund of the air ticket. What the hell? We were told only 1 day prior to departure!

Another friend, let’s call her Hero, called the call centre again. After she explained everything, she was channeled to the manager. The manager promised to call her back with solution, but no avail.

So, she decided to go to the airport to speak to Lion Air representative there.

Distance from Hero's office to the airport

She explained everything to the person. However, the person did not help much. He said that Lion Air had called Pink to his home number but nobody picked up so it was not their fault. Hello, when you called her house and nobody were around, couldn’t you call again? What a lame excuse.

Hero insisted on getting all of us transferred to Batik Air. The person said no. He could only transfer us to another Lion Air flight. Apparently according to that person, we bought promotional price ticket so we were not entitled for upgrade. We should just get full refund of our tickets and buy Batik Air ticket (which already cost more than IDR 2 million one way that time). Some heated arguments occurred there and the person even said that we could sue Lion Air but they were not wrong, Lion Air had their own regulation and we would not win even though we tried.

And that person threw my friend to the Headquarter in Gajah Mada.

From the West to even more West and to the Central

I was so pissed and upset at the same time. I had so little hope already.

But Hero was really a real hero. She did not give up. She went all the way to Gajah Mada to complain.

In the Headquarter, she received another chunk of information. The spokeperson said that Lion Air had informed the travel agency regarding the change in September 2013. He implicitly blamed the travel agency. Hero asked the conversation between Pink and the customer service officer to be retrieved but they could not do that because we could not remember the date exactly. Hero gave him Pink’s phone number that was used to contact the call centre, but again the spokeperson said that the retrieval could only be executed according to the date.

Hero called me. I can’t remember exactly what we were discussing but I advised her to demand our right once more. I had so little hope left. I was prepared to change the itinerary.

She almost gave up to.

But, after she ended her conversation with me, miracle happened.

The spokeperson said that they would transfer us to Batik Air. No reason was given though. He told Hero to be careful when buying air ticket with travel agency.

Hero didn't care. As long as we boarded the plane on time, nothing would matter more. When she informed the good news to us, everybody was so thankful. Hero was indeed a hero.

We learnt our lesson and I hope all of you can learn from ours too.
1. When you make a call to any call centre, do take note of the timing of the call as well as the customer service officer so any dispute can be solved easily in the future. Everything must have proof!
2. When your flight number disappears from the airline's website, ask for a replacement ticket. Act fast and relax in the future.
3. When traveling in Indonesia, choose Garuda Indonesia whenever possible. You really get what you pay.
4. When you think you are right, do not give up eventhough the world is against you. Determination yayyy.

That night all of us went to sleep with smile.

Next Post - Manado, Here We Come!

Love is in the air,
Little Feet