TALES FROM THE TOP

I’ve been a frequent traveller ever since i learned how to say the word airplane back in the late 70’s.

For some reason, mom and dad made sure I was one of those well traveled kids.

Maybe because they wanted me to have something to say in class when the teacher asks each student to stand in front of class and tell everyone what they did the last summer.

As a young teenager, I’ve navigated the maze of airports from Tokyo or Hong Kong or San Francisco while transiting for Vancouver.

Twice a year my Mom would trust me enough to travel the 15 hr journey from Vancouver to Manila all alone, and often with One or Two transit stops in between depending on what airline, Philippine Airline only started plying Vancouver-Manila direct in the late 90s. So I was either on Cathay Pacific or United, without a “flying mum” or an airline staff to make sure I get to the right connecting flight.

So what am I trying to get at? I’ve been flying even before I can drive, so I know a lousy airline service-disruption excuse when I see one.

A few days ago, my World Mater travel organizer alerted me about my upcoming New York trip. Alerting me 48 hrs ahead so I can start the on-line check-in process.

And that was exactly what I attempted to do. Attempted, because at first log-in to the Singapore Airlines website, it shows nothing, as in all my booking is gone

I quickly called the hotline and I was told the airline is performing a system maintenance and everything will be back on line by 3 am.

I tried it again, this time around, my booking shows up BUT when I click on “check-in” I get a variety of messages ranging from “internal error 500” to the check-in process has to be completed at the airport, to I don’t have any bookings eligible for check in.

Well since I still have a day to go, I didn’t bother much. 12 hours later, I attempted the same process and got the same results.

Repeated calls to the hotline didn’t help, though the agents were nice enough to reassure me that my flight, seats and tickets are all good to go, no one can explain why my bookings on line are playing hide and seek with me.

I knew the signs weren’t good. This happened to me before in New York on the same airline, and a few years back in Vancouver on the same airline. Missing bookings.

Singaporeair.com has not been the most reliable since it reformatted in May, a “failure” in the words of its own CEO, something he will, he says in an email to frequent flyers, rectify and investigate immediately.

Well Mr CEO, your email was dated July 14, it’s already September and I can see the problem has not been rectified or investigated.

I tweeted the other night “ If I am the CEO of Singapore airlines I would have fired the on-line team, but Im only a frequent customer”

So through the day before my flight and into the evening I called the hotline 3 times, to make sure, each three different agents are looking at the same thing, my ticket is there in the system for my Monday morning flight.

When I marched up to the check-in counter at the airport, the lady behind it had a puzzled look when she typed in my name.

I knew something was wrong, I know that look, I’ve seen it before.

I was right, she looked up, told me, my seat is there, but my ticket has, again, not been issued and is not in the system.

I was getting frustrated, and it takes Tim a lot to get frustrated.

You see, I booked this vacation back in May, paid for it then, earned the points in my credit card and thought everything is good to go.

The check-in lady was nice enough to walk to ticketing herself without asking me to do it, as I assume other airlines would.

She came back 20 minutes later and everything was fine. She quipped, “this happens all the time.”

I thought, well, since part of my ticket is redeemed points, maybe the booking system is a a bit complicated.

But then again, why didn’t the call center agents spotted something was amiss after my frequent calls to them 24hrs before my trip?

Why did none of the 4 or 5 agents I spoke to, noticed?

What would you do?