OMG. I thought I was done posting for this trip, but whoa.
It is now officially rainy season in Indonesia and when we were in Kupang, the other divers' flight to Bali got severely delayed, but mine did not. I was glad for that.
For my domestic flights, I had three: from Alor to Kupang, Kupang to Surabaya, then Surabaya to Jakarta. That last flight was delayed by THREE HOURS. Not for weather, for some mechanical/operational delay on Batik Air. I wasn't stressed out at first. I guess I thought there was a possibility my International flight might be delayed too.
But as it turns out, it was not. In fact my Domestic flight landed after my International flight took off. And I still had to claim my luggage. So even if I had hustled and tried to find a different flight to make, I still would have to go get my luggage and find the counter, etc.
I paid for an airport escort to meet me at Jakarta, so I assumed that they would just figure this out for me. Seriously, I was not stressed... I mean in my head the worst case scenario was that my trip is just extended a little.
Admittedly, I am a cheapskate on some things. Getting an international phone plan is one of those things. I only use WiFi, never cell service. So as soon as I landed in Jakarta, I got on the WiFi and WhatsApp'ed the "escort service" (sounds so salacious).
The escort service said that they were waiting for me at the original time and since I didn't appear, they no longer had anyone there. But they helped me get to a local airport hotel (FM7) without having to hail a taxi myself or pull out Indonesian Rupiah from the ATM. So there's that.
The Bellboy from FM7 started messaging me on WhatsApp and told me to meet him outside. (Seriously, that is what the name on the ID in WhatsApp said "Bellboy"). So I went outside to look for him. Nowhere to be found. So I went to message him again... and Womp Womp. No WiFi service.
I have AT&T and they have an International plan that kicks in for $12/day. Since I didn't have to use it for the 3+ weeks I have been here, I decided this is the time to use it... so I turned it on and messaged Mr. Bellboy.
He finally found me and then had me wait while he went to find another guest. No problem.
I started researching my return flight. (I had decided not to try to trek to the physical ANA counter because there may not be anyone there anyway). I first went on the United App to see what my return change options were and the cheapest change option was over $4K. I was NOT paying that. Gah! That was try #1.
I have almost one million lifetime frequent flier miles on United. So I was sure that they would give me some consideration given the operational delay of the domestic flight on Batik Air.
I spoke with an agent over the phone, old school style. And she was nice and understanding... but she said that the least expensive option was to go tomorrow morning for a $4K difference in airfare. WTF!?! I calmly explained that it was not my fault the domestic airline had a delay and given my loyalty to United, was there anything they could do. She said she could not because the actual flights were operated by ANA. And the delayed domestic flight was on a completely separate unrelated ticket. I get that. However, I told her I could not pay that much, and said I was about to get on the hotel shuttle and hung up. That was try #2.
Mr. Bellboy said the other guest was dealing with lost luggage, so he was going take me privately. On the shuttle ride (since I now had cell service) I tried to research any other option on my United App. But it wasn't letting me login - I guess since the signal wasn't strong enough. Ugh.
I hadn't eaten a meal since breakfast and by now it was like 11pm. All I wanted to do was check into the hotel and order 24 hour room service. Then, I would figure out my return flight options.
Once I was in my room alone, I ordered a Cajun Chicken Sandwich that sounded delicious and a couple of Coke Zeros and I got on hotel WiFi to start researching.
Truly, a change to my original ticket was a $4K difference for economy class but only $2K difference for business class. Huh. Isn't that interesting? This really is still just try #2, but researching it more myself online.
I looked at using my Frequent Flier miles... I mean, isn't this exactly what they are for? I would rather blow a ton of miles than pay $4K, that is for sure. I found a one-way ticket that was extremely convoluted (like flying Ethiopian Air thru random airports) that I could have gotten for 100,000 frequent flier miles. I never booked this, but I really contemplated it because it is a whole lot easier to cancel/change/redeposit frequent flier miles than payment for flights. Let's call this try #3.
I also found that if I stayed an extra night at the hotel and flew on 12/17, I could have a one way brand new ticket for about $1,500. Well that's a LOT better than $4K, so I booked it, knowing I could still cancel within 24 hours if I found a better option. This is try #4.
Now these tries are not necessarily all sequential because I was researching on my App, on the website and waiting for agents on the old school 1 800 number all at the same time.
Try #5: I called United 1 800 number again. Because if there is one thing that I learned consulting in the airline industry all those years ago is that things change all the time and that if you don't like an answer from an agent, just hang up and call again.
This time I explained to the agent about the domestic delay, my lifetime FF miles and asked if there was anything he could do. He was understanding and said that since this was an ANA operated flight, there was nothing he could do but he could transfer me to ANA and they might be able to grant me a one time exception and rebook me. Well, that sounded positive.
Try #6: After being transferred to the nicest ANA agent who heard my story she said that since United "owned" the ticket, ANA couldn't do anything for me. WTF? I was just sent from United to ANA. Talk about being sent into an infinite loop. But she could help me find other options. I said I was flexible on the return date and routing, but my ultimate goal was to get back to Chicago. This woman told me that the cheapest she could do was $4K (and that United would have to handle the rebooking). Gah!
I paused to eat my room service (that chicken sandwich was pathetic), and took a deep breath knowing that I at least had a $1.5K option on hold.
Try #7: I researched an exchange of my ticket again. And if I scrolled down, all the way at the bottom I saw a weirdly routed option that would only cost me $232 dollars. Wait, what!?!??! That would be awesome actually. I went ahead to try to book that, and it wouldn't let me. Neither on the website nor on my iPhone App. I got some red error message. Ugh. Well, at least this is fodder of a possible routing to talk to a live agent about.
Try #8: I called the 1 800 number one more time to talk to a live agent. I was on hold for forever. In fact, I was peeing when they finally picked up. Their background noise was REALLY loud and I started to explain about the delay (and this possible $232 routing I couldn't seem to book online), and then I was so tired and clumsy that I broke a glass sitting on the nightstand. Crap.
I took a deep breath and focused on the agent (filtering out her loud background noise) who was already several steps ahead me and was looking for return options. She found one via Garuda to Tokyo departing late on 12/16 on and then Tokyo to Chicago arriving 12/17 @ 3pm. And SCORE... at no cost to me. What!?!?!? OMG. I was so excited, but I just kept calm with her and said yes, that would work.
She rebooked me at NO COST and I waited with bated breath for that confirmation email. It came to my inbox and I was so relieved!!!
Once that happened, I used the 24 hour cancellation policy to cancel that $1.5K option... and then I slept like a baby. It was almost 2am.
Three learnings out of this:
#1 - Maybe it is not a bad thing to build in an overnight layover between Domestic / International flights.
#2 - If I don't like the answer a live agent is telling me, just hang up and call again until I do get an answer I like.
#3 - In case of emergency, BREAK GLASS (like I did to my drinking glass in the hotel room).
OK after several hours sleep and a breakfast buffet, I am going back to sleep before this final trek home.
Sweet dreams.
