Flight Number: PG0254
Aircraft: ATR72 200/500
Route: HKT-USM
Class: Economy
Seat: 02B
I was done with Phuket after a very quick relaxing 2 days and was next off to Koh Samui to spend my last 2 days of my vacation before finally heading home. As I mentioned earlier in my trip report I “lost” my ATM card in Istanbul and was supposed to get it shipped to me at my hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Well after checking with the concierge, business center and mail room I learned that Chase failed me and I was going to have to finish my trip without my ATM card. At this point in my trip I was running out of cash. I made one cash advance withdrawal of $300 in Phnom Penh but when I tried to do another cash advance in Phuket, the night before my flight to USM, my card was declined by 4 different ATMs. I was still able to use my credit card at the hotel so I didn’t think that there was a security hold or anything on my card and decided to take another shot at taking money out at the airport in the morning.
I used my last 600 of 800THB for the taxi to the airport, since I had my taxi at Koh Samui pre-paid I wasn’t worried as I figured worse case I can always sort out my money situation while in Koh Samui. I arrived at the airport a little early and tried all 5 or 6 different ATMs without luck. At this point I checked in to my flight, checked my bag and went through security to get airside only to find that there are no ATMs there. I did find a payphone and attempted to call my Continental World Chase Master Card using their collect # on the back of the card (512-623-7702). I found was that the number on the back of this credit card can NOT be dialed collect, not sure if that means from Thailand, Phuket, HKT airport, this particular telco’s pay phone or what but at this point I just couldn’t believe my string of annoying bad luck. Luckily I had another chase credit card with me which wasn’t even enabled for international use but I was able to dial their collect number on the back of the card (Amazon Chase Visa – 302-594-8200).
The agent I spoke with assured me that there was a note on my account that specifically said that there should not be any security holds on my card while I was in Thailand and said that I should try again. At this point I should have probably just hung up and called again but I hung up, walked downstairs to try the ATMs again, failed and called again this time from another payphone outside of security. At first the agent insisted the same thing that my card should work for cash advance but after a little back and forth she transferred me to Chase’s security department. After waiting on hold for about 10-15 minutes as soon as I explained the issue to the security agent she said that my credit was ok to use but that a security alert was triggered for cash advances on my card after the $300 withdrawal in Cambodia a few days earlier. At this point there was so much I wanted to say to the girl on the phone but I just asked her to take the hold off. Five minutes later I took out what I needed out of the ATM and walked back through security.
Once back airside I tried to walk in to the Royal Silk lounge using my *G card but was denied based on their stated policy that said that access would not be allowed to *G on a non international or F/C flight. Luckily PG had a complimentary lounge for all its passengers. I taught that was a nice touch and was able to hang out in the lounge, use the internet, etc.
Once on board I was on my second ATR72 now and unlike my previous VN metal ATR the seats were uncomfortable and the plane itself felt stuffy and hot. Also there was less overhead bin space, I had to take things out of my bag in order to fit it while on the VN flight I could have had a bigger bag and it would have still fit.
Just like VN PG also servers food on these very short flights. We were offered cold chicken burgers and an option of water or orange juice. I declined as I ate while waiting for my flight at HKT.
After landing at USM I picked up my bag, met my driver and went off to my hotel.
Beach
