it took me 3 days to get together to do this mini tr. lol.
i was supposed to fly cts-kix yesterday, but it was obviously clear that i wasnt gonna get to kix on wednesday, and that all flights to itm was zeroed out.
and on the morning of thursday it was clear i wasnt able to even get to cts.
/non flight related matters/
i was on the far end of Hokkaido at Shiretoko, so all was safe there- there were occasion power outage since typhoon passed on tuesday, but my hotel has its own generators, so even when the streets were dark our hotel was fine.
//flight related comments, on 5sept//l
JL: we tried to call jal on the hotline but it never got anywhere, its always the busy tone in the english line and the regional lines in japanese
CX: being on an award ticket, global rez line told us to call asiamiles/mpo. they were as useless as telling us they would reroute us but still based on fare class, sonaward availability. we got oka-hkg 1 day after our original kix-hkg. we must make our own way to oka.
at that point, we got 2 jep fares on NH cts-oka and 2 jep fares on JL fuk-oka (+1 was supposed to to a mr that ends up in fuk), being 10k yen each, its prob the one of the cheapest option if insurance doesnt pay up.//
6sept
in the morning of thursday after the earthquake, we had info on the big projector tv at the lobby, but all other ops in hotel was perfectly normal, so i didnt find out about the extent of the power outage until we hot to Rausu when 3 set of traffic lights were out and 2 of them were attended by wardens/police.
i was stopping by a gas station at the 3rd light and decided to just get some gas for the car. we were told to be rationed 17L gas for every car. then we saw all shops there being pitch dark.
at this point, we have decided to get to kushiro (where our next hotel was), let them know we are in the area, then try fly out of KUH (hotel was on the way anyways)
we passed by a few comvinient stores on the way, all had no lights- some are running the till on a car battery, and some are closed or have people queuing outside. besides a few main junctions all traffic lights are off.
//at crowne plaza kuh, the staff was v helpful and allowed us cxn or keep the room for as late as possible depending on the result of our plane situation. They told us there would not be power no water if we stayed there, but there is a ¥5000 menu for food. The manager also gave us her email address so we could contact her directly regarding our hotel room cancellation. she also gave us a copy of the flight schedule from the local airport, then we headed off to look for a flight.
times rent-a-car: Very helpful, besides cannot refund the remaining credit, it was very easy to change the reservation to end there, depending on the results of the flights. We also do not need to top up gas.
JL: i have an award ctskix, and +1 has a yokoso ctsfuk . hers was changed uneventfully. and staff wanted to tell me to buy new tickets- or tell iberia to change it. I refused stating that’s not what the press release said. after a longgggg discussion (2 hours total) they finally gave me my rerouted bp, so we will go to hnd first and fly to fuk and hij respectively (hij being nearest to fuk that they allow rerouting). all this being confirmed cuz we are premier, otherwise we would be put on standby priority.
NH: my friends bought an NH ticket ctsoka when we know we were rerouted to oka-hkg. so at kuh they tried to use that ticket- only for a queue attendant and a manager guy to tell them they cant deal w international ticket at the airport. eventually they bought a full fare ticket at the counter on the additional flight.
that is before we later tried again standing-by using the jep ticket at the counters after 2 hours, for rerouting to oka via hnd. the staff quickly did it on the earliest possible flight to oka via hnd. and they refunded the full fare ticket after.
they hv a mildly sour taste cuz they were told they cant reroute when all rules says they can.
7sept
//CX offered additional NGO flights to sort out KIX stranded pax. but its too late for us already. slightly buggering in my eyes.