whimike

I am sitting at the Colombo airport in Sri Lanka right now writing this, needing to vent, and FT seems the perfect place to do so.

I was in BKK earlier today, and took a flight on UL (Sri Lankan Airways) to CMB, then taking EK from CMB to MLE. Only about a 1 hour connecting time, but connections at CMB are very easy, get off of a gate and get right back on at the new gate (assuming you already have a boarding pass).

A day before the flight the person I am traveling with decides he wants to bring a "friend" and put me in charge of booking their flight. When I try to book online I can't pay for the ticket because Emirates requires the credit card to be in the travelers name. So, I call the Emirates "gold desk". I explain that I am on the flight and will be able to show the credit card at the ticket counter, but they say I am not permitted to pay for the ticket. And, not only am I not permitted to pay for it over the phone, when I go to pay for it at an EK office/airport, I can't use a credit card there either, I have to pay with cold hard cash. I explain that my connecting time in CMB is only an hour and asked if I can pay at BKK, and the agent says yes, no problem. (Just to note, I did try to book it on Expedia to get around this problem, but only Y tickets show up on Expedia/Orbitz/Etc..., there are no F or J tickets able to be bought.)

Compare this to UL... I book the flight online for the "friend" from BKK <-> CMB and it allows me to pay with my credit card. At check-in the agent simply asks for my credit card to verify I have it. Done. Boarding passes issued.

So, I make sure I am at BKK 3.5 hours before departure just to make sure that if there are any issues I have plenty of time to deal with them. I head over to the Emirates counter and tell them I need to pay for a ticket I booked on the phone with Emirates. I stand there literally for an hour while the lady types away at her keyboard and makes several calls. At first she says I would need to pay cash in Thai Baht. I said fine, no problem. Then, eventually she says there is nothing she can do, she can't take my money and can't sell me the ticket, that I would need to buy it at CMB. I tell her I don't have time to buy it there as I have a short connection time. She says the time is long enough and I can take care of the payment at the transit desk.

So, I arrive at CMB and make a b-line for the transit desk. I am the first one there and right away tell them what I need to get done. Now, at CMB the transit desk is manned by personnel that represent all the airlines there. I tell them that I have a ticket that is reserved but needs payment. They tap away on a computer and can't find the reservation. I provide them the booking reference, and they want a ticket number. I explain again I don't have a ticket as it needs to be paid for. 15-20 minutes go by and they tell me that I need to go through immigration, exit the arrivals terminal, go to departures, and then go to the Emirates check-in counter to pay. Ummm.... I don't have a visa to go through immigration. Oh, no problem they say, I can buy an "on arrival" visa for $25 by standing in the line over there that is about 15 people deep. I explain that the flight is leaving now in 45 minutes and they say, oh, well, then you won't make your flight. Mind you, we are three people all flying in premium cabin with 2 confirmed paid tickets and one that was confirmed but simply needs payment.

When they realized two of us were in F and one in J, just 30 minutes before departure, they called over and got an Emirates staff to come over. He looked into everything and stated that since I had checked in online I could go board if I wanted to, but the other two will miss the flight, and that in the future I should make sure I am at the transit counter at least 45 minutes before departure. I explain to him that I was there an hour before departure, and he said "oh, well, sorry that you are going to miss your flight, but even if you could pay for the ticket the check-in was now closed and your F/J seats don't even exist anymore as they were given away since the flight was full."

So, now what? I ask the EK guy if they will move us over to a Sri Lankan airways flight that left in 2 hours. He gets on his phone and comes back and says no, EK won't do anything of the sort. That I would have to buy new tickets on Sri Lankan if I wanted to go that route, and that my existing EK tickets would be charged as a "no show".

When Emirates tells you to pay for a ticket at the airport, be vary wary. If they had told me that I had to pay at CMB, and would have to clear immigration to do so, clearly I would never have even bothered booking the ticket. But, the EK agent on the phone told me that I can pay at BKK. When that wasn't going to happen the agent in BKK told me I had to pay in CMB and could do so at the transit desk. Everybody I am talking to at EK is giving me incorrect information that led to this debacle. I just don't understand all these silly rules that are necessary to buy a ticket.

Now... Getting past the issues with EK, trying to buy a ticket on UL was an absolute disaster as well. As soon as I realized I needed to buy new tickets I got on my computer to buy from the UL website. Only premium cabin was available, which was fine, so I go to book 3 tickets. As soon as I try to pay the website tells me there is an error as we are too close to the flight time (it is 9 PM and the flight leaves at 1 AM, there was also a flight at 11:45 PM but it was sold out). So, I head over to the transit counter to see if I can buy a UL ticket (UL staff works the transit counter so was holding out hope). The UL staff there tells me they can't sell me any tickets, that I would need to go through immigration to the departure hall to buy it. Ugh... They confirm that economy is sold out but plenty of business class seats and I should go now to buy them. So, with a very mild win of convincing the airport personnel to waive the requirement to get a visa, I head out of the airport and walk over to the departure area. Finally find the ticket counter, which is a walk up window where you stand outside in this sweltering humid heat.

Anyway, I tell them I need to buy 3 business class tickets on the 1 AM flight to MLE. The lady says that the check-in counter is now open for that flight and that since economy is oversold that she can't sell me any tickets on the flight even though business class has seats. Uh, really?! I tell them that the UL staff at the transit desk sent me out there to buy the tickets and told me the seats were available. She said sorry, I can't sell you the tickets. She then says she can sell me business class tickets on the 7:15 AM flight and when I reach the check-in counter they can change me over to the 1 AM flight, since the business class seats will still be available, but that she can't sell them herself. She tells me they are expecting me at the check-in counter (she called them several times on the phone) and they know what is going on. So, without any other option I buy the 3 tickets (at about a 30% premium over their web prices).

So, with tickets in hand I try to get into the departure hall... but... there is a line of 200+ people out on the curb waiting to get in the terminal, and it is 11:30 PM now. To just get in the terminal you have to go through a security screening, and.... there is no line for premium passengers. So, 30 minutes there goes by. Now, I am in the terminal, but now have to go through an ID check in order to even get to the check-in counter, and that line is 100 people deep with no premium lane. 15 minutes there goes by. I get to the UL business class check-in counter and when it was my turn I explain the situation and the lady there has no idea what I am talking about. As I press my case she finally says there is just 1 seat left in business class and everything else is sold out, and I would need to check at the transit counter later on to see if there are any no-shows.

After passing passport control I get back to the transit counter. I explain what happened to the guy that sent me to buy the tickets in the first place, and he then claims he never told me there were any seats available!!! So, basically this agent told me there are plenty of business class seats available, but I had to exit the airport and re-enter to go buy them. I go to buy them and I am told I need to buy 7 AM tickets, but would have no problem getting them changed to the 1 AM. Then told no way I can get on the 1 AM, but can try at transit. And, and transit the original guy denies he told me there any seats available on the 1 AM flight. When I question him as to why he would tell me to exit the airport to go buy the tickets if he originally told me none were available, he just shrugs. I tell him I will take any seats on the 1 AM whether business or coach. He calls somebody and tells me that I need to come back in 15 minutes to see if any seats are available. I come back, and he still can't tell me, wait 10 more minutes, after a few more calls they tell me the flight is completely full.

To complicate matters even more, one other person (4th traveller) with confirmed tickets missed their flight out of BKK and was put on a later flight from BKK -> CMB. In BKK they were confirmed onto the UL 1 AM CMB -> MLE flight because it was known they would miss the EK flight. So, now that I am realizing I have been duped into going on the 7 AM flight I ask about changing the 4th persons flight from the 1 AM to the 7 AM. And... The transit desk guy tells me that the 7 AM flight is not only completely full, but business class is oversold by 2 seats, so the 4th traveller would need to go on the 1 AM flight.

So, after sending the 4th traveller off on the 1 AM to now wait at MLE for us for 6 hours, the 3 of us are now waiting at CMB for another 6 hours.

I am just thankful that the first night at MLE I "only" booked $400/night rooms instead of the $1,100/night rooms for the following days, since those $400/night pre-paid rooms will go unused. Hopefully once I finally settle into the hotel my current aggravation and lack of sleep will be history.

I have some quick turn-arounds coming up in CAI and NBO over the next few months. I can't wait...