In the history of my existence, this is the second time I missed a flight and in a funny way because how can someone miss a flight when he or she is already within the airport grounds 3 hours prior to departure? It felt like winning all the Amazing Race legs (one of my favorite TV shows) except the final one just because I had to stop by the toilet.
Japan trip was one of those trips that I really looked forward to due to the fame it has and through the high recommendations of friends. However, it was also one of the most expensive personal trips I have ever arranged (this was in fact the main reason why I have been postponing this trip in the past) but I convinced myself that I just had to do it. Now.
With this, I had to be very wary of all the expenses I make starting with the flight tickets. The best option we found was to book connecting flights from our source countries to and fro Japan via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There were 5 of us who agreed to undergo this adventure: 2 of us came from Vietnam, a couple came from Singapore, and another one from Philippines. Out of all of us, only the one coming from the Philippines booked direct flights to and fro Japan.
Best priced return flights around 350 USD – checked!
On the day of the flight to Haneda, Tokyo on April 28, me and my friends were so ecstatic about the whole thing. The friend originating from Philippines already landed in Tokyo the day before for shopping (even more thrilled than us though it was already her second visit to the country)! Whereas for us coming from Vietnam, we landed in KLIA2 airport before noon.
~ 12:30
Four of us needed to have an almost 3-hour stopover in KLIA2 airport before flying to Japan. That means our flight to Japan was at 14:30. With beaming faces, we all accidentally met just before the Immigration counters. We happily exchanged our I-miss-yous and headed for the Immigration check. There was quite a queue that we even tried to dart from one line to another just to try to save time. But it did not give much difference I think.
~ 13:00
We figured that if we checked in earlier, it would be much less hassle for later so we went straight to the check-in counters to drop our bags.
I have been traveling a lot of connecting flights via Kuala Lumpur but it never occurred to me to prepare and bring the existing Ringgit that I have. We negotiated in one of the restaurants in Gateway@KLIA2 Mall if they accept other currencies or perhaps credit card but they outright said no. We had no choice but to hunt for a money changer, which was inside the Main Terminal Building (see photo above).
Some few steps from the money changer was a Malaysian food stall showing photos of food that looked very enticing compared to the first restaurant we went to. So we changed our minds and dragged all our baggage back to the Main Terminal Building.
~13:30
We ordered the famous Mee Goreng and yummy fried rice. What we did not consider (and ask) was the time it will take for the food to be ready. Aha, now you know what happened next.
Important Tip: Ask as in A-S-K how long or how fast will they serve the food! 🙂
~ 13:50
I believe I was still chewing my food when we had to run for the second round of Immigration check. The queue was not that long as compared to when we arrived earlier.
~14:00
And then, it was time to find where our gate was. ‘Gate P10,’ the boarding pass said. Okay, got it, gate P10. So we continued to brisk walk, walk, and more brisk walk. We had no clue where exactly gate P10 was and how far it would take for us to reach there.
From the Immigration counters to the security checkpoint prior to the gates, it took us around 8-10 minutes. Then probably some 1-2 minutes for the bag scanning. And then another set of 6-8 minutes from security checkpoint to our gate, which we could not find at first because the order was confusing. We were searching for P10 but we already saw P8 on our right and then P11 on our left. “Where is gate P10?!,” we had to wonder.
~Last 10 minutes before take off
When we finally found our gate, we were kind of relieved. Whew. But but but… there was nobody in the big hall except for the ground staff behind the table! I handed our boarding passes but the lady did not seem to care and was not looking at what we were handing her. And then we heard the words we dread the most with regards to flights, “gate already closed ah,” she said with one eyebrow slightly raised. Gasp! She searched for our names in the system, “how come only now ah? You checked in before 1 PM so what did you do?” she frowned. All we could say was “we had lunch…”
We begged for her to help us because for us, we knew we still had time and we could clearly see the plane from the massive window. “Please, please, please try. The plane is still here!” She slowly picked up her mobile phone, carefully dialed the number, and casually talked to a colleague. She was still wearing a poker face when she put down her phone, “sorry, they don’t allow already.” We tried to ‘cry’ once more but she raised her voice one notch higher “I called them already and they refuse to accept!” I just had to put on my ‘oops’ face with a big ‘yaiks’ grin.
And then one moment later, we saw the porters take out our luggage from the plane. And I just saw myself pointing at my bag against the window “Ohh, that is my bag.” The next thing we knew, the lady was instructing us what to do next to claim our bags and to probably re-use our tickets (of course with penalty).
We sat down by the massive window for a while to contemplate on plan B and watched our plane happily depart. Japan, why are you making it hard for us? We just laughed our blooper off. What an experience! Suddenly, a Japanese lady stormed into the glass door panting and then she wailed. We were not the last ones after all!
Our option A was to find other flights within the day so as not to miss our first day Tokyo tour. Option B was to try to get the same flight but for the following day, as the lady has advised. And so we retraced our steps back to the check-in counters in the Main Terminal Building. That also means another round of almost half hour walk. “This was the KLIA2 walking tour, ladies and gentlemen.”
We had to go through the arrival immigration area (again) and the staff just shook his head after we said that we missed the flight. He wrote on our passports the big bold letters “MISS FLIGHT XXXX.” Yes, my name now is Miss Flight. And because we were so special, we went through the fast lane out to claim our baggage, not from the conveyors, but from the Overbaggage Section. Alas, we saw our lonely baggage standing there waiting for attention. We continued on with our dragging exercise back to the Service Counter to inquire about our options. The guy checked our boarding passes and advised us of the cost for changing it to the next day. It was 660 RM (~163 USD). Hmm, we paused and thought again. We decided to set this next-day idea aside and considered option A.
~ 15:30
We scanned for flights that day and found 435 USD/head to Narita Airport or 482 USD/head to Haneda Airport for 5 PM flight. We leaned towards taking the Haneda-bound flight because it is way nearer to Tokyo but we saw that there were only 2 tickets left. We searched again and saw a 7 PM flight to Haneda that was good for 4 persons at 1880 USD total. We tried hard to book it twice but both times failed. The website was spitting some error. We refreshed the search and the 7 PM flight disappeared from the results. Aha.
We searched one last time and found the 11 PM flight bound to Haneda at 2166 USD for 4 persons with 1 stop in Singapore via Malaysian airlines and All Nippon Airlines (ANA). For our friends, Manish and Preity, who came from Singapore, it would seem that they came to KLIA2 to pick us up and then travel back to Singapore just so we can all fly together. Aww. How sweet!
Anyway, we booked it and it says ‘Reservation confirmed.’ However, the site also says it did not go through properly. What? That was again confusing. Then an email arrived. There was a link to check the status. I clicked on the link and the website said that the confirmation was pending. We could not do anything but wait.
Meanwhile, we headed to KLIA (the main and bigger terminal than KLIA2) in case we get the confirmation. The ticket costed 2 RM one-way for a 2-minute train ride via KLIA Ekspres.
~ 17:00
We immediately looked for the Malaysian Airlines counter to seek advise and help. The receptionist said that since it was booked through a 3rd-party agency, they could only check the status but could not confirm it for us. Ohh lala.
We waited more.
A coffee shop was nearby so we converted it to our waiting station, bought a costly Teh Tarik, Latte, and cheesecake. We checked the status every 10 minutes.
~ 18:00
We did everything we could think of at this moment: raised several support tickets, sent email to customer service, and chatted online with a representative who said that the verification with the bank was still pending. I did not really understand why. Why?!
We waited longer. The cheesecake lasted for more than an hour I think.
~ 20:00
We initiated another chat and still the status was the same. After another hour, the online representative provided a phone number and advised us to call the verification department since the time was already too tight. Of course.
We went running around looking for public phones, where were they? How I wish we could go back to those times when they were easily accessible but at that time, we only saw the booths but no phones installed, nothing. We ended up using our friend Arleen’s roaming account.
~ 21:30
We went into rounds and rounds of booking verification with the agent and it was still pending. I was put on-hold a million times and was finally passed on to another agent and thus, more rounds of verification routine. Argh! And then one said that the bank was closed and asked for another card. I quickly ran to Manish to prepare his card. Again, the agent said he had to pass me back to another department. Huwat? They played the ping pong game with me as the ball from one agent to another. I was extremely dizzy and the phone on my ear was getting really hot.
~ 22:15
Yes, that was almost 45 minutes call on roaming costing us 92 USD. It was time for the check-in counter to start closing but the on-hold music was still playing. The next best step was to just cancel the so-called reservation.
~22:45
So back to the last resort, which is to re-book for next day’s flight, and likewise back to the KLIA2 airport. We shelled out another 2 RM. We ran back to the service counter but the entire row was closed! Oh no! We ran to the nearest open service counter on the next row. We patiently waited for our turn only to hear the agent say “we are closed now. He (pointing to the person in front of her) is our last person.” The lady in front of us got frustrated and cursed. I ran to the agent and begged to consider attending to us. She cried that she had gone beyond her shift and pointed us to go to a specific row number on the other side by 11 PM.
If there was a race about running and begging, we would have definitely won. So we darted to the other side without checking the row number and the time, but one security stopped us saying they don’t attend to customers anymore. No no no! One second after that, I realized that it was the wrong row when I saw the sign.
~ 23:05
The service counter was still not entertaining customers but there were people behind who seemed like they were working on something else. Then one guy from the check-in counter came inside the service counter and noticed us a few minutes later. Finally! He helped us with the re-booking but wondered why we did it so late. Oh well.
The price for the first two persons was 760 RM or 187 USD/head. It was 100 RM more then when we asked 8 hours ago. But a few more seconds later, the price for the next 2 persons was 860 RM or 211 USD/head. Wow! With just a few seconds, the prices had dramatically changed.
Well anyway, we were assigned seats in the quiet zone of the aircraft. At last, some peace in spite of all the running, begging, dragging, and did I say running?
After all of these, we did not even remember that we did not have proper dinner yet so we, at long last, had it at midnight in KFC. Whew. But wait a minute, our Ringgits had to be enough to afford a meal. I was left with some coins after that.
~ 00:30
After the super long day, we looked for the hotel nearby. I knew of the existence of the airport hotel so we headed there.
Tune Hotel: 275 RM or 86 USD per room per night
Then we crashed…
