Thursday, March 26, 2020
March, 26 – normally in the morning we would have had a flight from Phuket to Singapore. But that flight will be ‘a bit’ later.
So today I had something to do, I was prepared to spend all day on this issue.
Normally we would have flights back to Ukraine (Kiev) in the night of 28th to 29th of March, both of us from Singapore, Valentyna on SQ to Munich and further to Kiev by LH, all flights in I-class (Lufthansa Business Class Award ticket), me on LX via ZRH to KBP, in A-class (discounted First Class).
I called LH Senator Hotline in Germany by Skype, and, surprisingly, was talking to an agent within less than 10 seconds of waiting. Unfortunately the call was disconnected after I just told my booking code, which was a Wi-Fi issue. Frustrated I called again, prepared to wait – but got a German speaking lady within again less than 10 seconds. I really can’t understand why some people report of hours waiting in line.
I told her our booking codes, informed her of the booking classes. She told me not to worry, that she would handle both, the paid- and the award ticket. That was good news.
My request was ‘earliest 1st of May’ & ’both on the same flight’, so we would fly together, just in case something would go wrong.
She told me that both, A- and I-class would be available on LX, starting 1st of May every day. So I chose the 1st of May.
Both changes were handled within minutes, even seats were reserved, nothing charged at all. Perfect !
I just luckily jumped into the pool – when me phone (Thai number) rang. Valentyna picked up, called me. The same lady of Lufthansa called, told me that we would have a problem with Valentynas ticket, since I bought the original one 30th of April 2019 and therefore it would be valid only until 30th of April 2020. She told me we would have to cancel the ticket, buy a new one by miles. The problem was, the ticket was bought with the miles of my ex-wife’s account, and they would have expired 31st of December 2019. I informed the LH lady about this issue and she informed me, that this wouldn’t be a problem, because the returned miles would be valid again until the end of this quarter. So no problem, I gave her my credit card details for the fantasy charges (US$ 300) and we said ‘Good-Bye’.
Within 5 minutes she called again, informing me that on the account of my ex-wife wouldn’t be enough miles. How ? I paid for the ticket 67’500 miles, while now it costs 71’500 – and the account only had a remain of 67’500 + 2’780 miles.
So what to do ? She told me to do mileage pooling, so adding the account of my ex-wife to my account. I went to my notebook, she telling me what to do. But it didn’t work, the page she told me to open was missing. I read that mileage pooling wouldn’t be available since my ‘place of residency’ is Ukraine. The lady offered to change the ‘place of residency’ in both accounts to ‘Germany’, which she did within minutes.
Now I was able to add my ex-wife, then I had to open her account for accepting – and it was done.
The lady issued the new award ticket, the fees were charged from my credit card (who is ‘Airbus helicopters Germany’ ?)
and I received the second ticket.
What a fantastic service ! Maybe LH group doesn’t offer the best product on the market, but the service is outstanding.
What could still happen ?
1.) Ukraine could be still closed for entry on 1st of May, so I would have to change again
2.) Wen would not be able to fly via Singapore and I would have to change from SIN via ZRH to KBP to BKK – VIE – KBP, both in business class, which would cost me, even downgraded, a fee of EUR 1’200, which LH would reduce to 500.
It was time for in-room-sport, followed by lunch.
During the last days we had to learn that the housekeeping of the Le Merdien is quite lazy and inconsistent. One day they didn’t made up the bed, the next day they remove the towels but don’t put new once, same with cups and glasses. At least the Nespresso caps the give a lot, meanwhile we do have 10+. Cleaning of toilet ? Why ? So today I called the duty manager, who came after 1 ½ hours and fixed everything. We were offered free dinner, which we denied. So a bottle of Prosecco arrived.
Swimming, tanning (as far as possible)
and a nap, before we had to get ready for dinner.
We drove into town, everything along the street quite dark. I wanted to have dinner at Phen’s next to the JW Marriott, where I ate quite well during my last visit. When we arrived everything was dark, the restaurant closed.
2nd choice was a Japanese restaurant in town, but it has been closed down, too. This isn’t because of a lockdown, just because less and less tourists around. In addition, today Russia announced to cancel all flights out and in, just evacuation flights still in operation. And when the Russians leave, it will get very lonely around here.
Further to the centre of town, where still some shops and restaurants were operational, the Italian restaurant we ate the day before, the Japanese one we ate 2 days ago, some fruit shops and a Thai restaurant, called ‘Orchid’.
After buying some mangos
we went over to ‘Orchid’,
where 3 other tables were occupied. We took a seat, ordered some dishes we wouldn’t get at the hotel.
We were a bit afraid that the food would be very tourists – but after ordering them ‘Thai spicy’ they were quite good.
To my very positive surprise, while eating, I got a message from my credit card account that my health insurance finally has transferred the money I’ve spent in Brazil at the hospital.
At 2100 we were the last guests, the city completely empty, no other people, even no cars driving, a very strange situation and feeling.
We drove back to the hotel, made some phone calls back home.