Lost along the way
Dec 12, 2022, 2:49 pm
#1
Moderator, Finnair
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2011
Location: MMX (CPH)
Programs: Eurobonus Diamond, QR Gold, AY+ Platinum, A3*G, Nordic Choice Lifetime Platinum, SJ Prio Black
Posts: 14,178
Lost along the way
My original plan was to publish this in the Finnair forum - Every now and then I write some travel anecdotes and sometimes it is more of an internal affair. I ended up publishing it as a travel-report anyway. But if you find it difficult to get some reference, well then you know why.
Lost along the way
So we all know how the joy of travel has been lost over the last 3 years. Entry restrictions. Quarantine. Flight cancellations. Fleet down-sizing. Rebooking upon rebooking. Refund issues. Volatility in rules. Testing. Pre-departure documentation.
Benefiting from one of the world's most travelable passport it has been like someone just tossed all the rules of the game, and had them replaced by random nonsense. Everything I knew was lost. Every fare and every destination needed scrupulous research, every time. 18 months into this mess, I just gave up. I felt forced to retire from the game.
Not that the world seemed to care.
When Finnair announced the unlimited 3x tier-points promo earlier this year, I was mostly meh. I hadn't seen a tier point promo in a decade and normally would have jumped at a 2x one. But. Just meh.
Finnair wasn't flying any more to places I wanted to go. Or I could go, if I was hoping for easy entry rules. Or would go - I did not even trust them to actually fly what was in the schedules. What is a 3x tier points promo worth on flights that won't take off? And in the unlikely event that they'd actually take off per schedule, doing so without me onboard due to some missing form or test-result or documentation? Exactly. So, meh.
Sadly, there was a few months of optimism by the end of 2021. Closed borders started to open, vaccination documents started to become globally recognized. Maybe travel would soon return to something similar to pre-pandemic style? Spring fever started to thaw my frozen travel heart. I booked some flights, I bought some points, I made sure to renew my Platinum/Emerald status.
Besides trying to fix the backlog of Hanami-trips to Japan and family-reunion-trips to Australia, I also booked an award-flight to Singapore just before the next mess hit the fan - closure of Russian airspace leading to Finnair abandoning the Asian strategy entirely.
Finnair - the airline offering the not really shortest distance from Europe to South-East Asia
Of all the longhaul trips booked, only the award to Singapore survived this. And as I geared up for it, my first longhaul flight in almost 3 years (2 years, 10 months, 5 days , 1 hour and 25 minutes, but who's really counting?), I quickly realised that the ease of travelling was not all that had been lost along the way.
Clothes
I used to have prepared pack cubes with basic clothing ready 24/7. Socks, underware, T-shirts/shirts. Pants, short and long.
Now, that might sound like I used to be a professional traveller, but that is not the case. The real reason for having prepared pack cubes was that I many years ago had come to a realisation: I would always postpone packing to last minute. Literally, the last minute. Like the same minute when I was supposed to leave for the airport-train, I had to toss stuff together and run for the next departure. Pointless promises to my self to "never put myself in that situation again" eventually turned into a routine where I just didn't unpack after a trip. The pack-cubes with some clean clothes left inside just went back into the closet. There they stayed forgotten, but available for a quick grab the next time I was caught by surprise it was departure day already.
From then on, on departure day I was always already set. No thinking, no decisions. Grab 4 black pack cubes from closet and put in roll-aboard. If one of the bags felt suspiciously thin, then replenish. Otherwise, just trust it will be OK.
Done - packed in less than 5 minutes. No anxiety over what to bring and how much.
Well, since last departure day a lot of time had passed and I even moved house, so all that routine was gone. No pack-cubes waiting for me to grab. Doing it all from the ground up, I of-course ended up with 2 too many pants for a weekend away and some long-sleeves not really suitable for Singapore 30° high-humidity season.
Adapters
Panic - what kind of power outlet do they use?! I suddenly realise this is also lost knowledge. I used to know exactly what plug was used in most parts of the world. And now suddenly I needed to research online to know the standard plug of Singapore and Malaysia!? Silly me, of course the British standard socket is used, I say after shamefully refreshing this knowledge with the help of google.
I also used to keep a green Marimekko amenity bag with adapters - power socket converters and the Apple replaceable prongs and USB-chargers. Where the heck is that one now?! I only have a general idea where it might have ended up after moving house. I went to dig at that location. Not striking gold. Soon enough though, I find it at the second place I look.
The bag is half empty. I find a stock of various adapters and decide to just grab 2 converter plugs and one USB charger instead of the half-empty bag. But WTƒ, now I realise that most USB-fed gadgets have moved to a new generation of connector, so the USB type A charger with my well thought-out collection of adapter cables is antiquated.
Check-in
At this point I've already surrendered to the feeling of being a total newbie. But I quickly find out that it can still get worse. I no longer can remember passport numbers and dates. Frequent flyer numbers of secondary programs are lost too.
I used to be able to fill out any arrival card and check-in procedure without looking anything up. All important numbers and dates I knew by heart. Now I realise how tedious typing all this info is, when you need to read number by number and double check you type the correct info.
Money
I know exactly where my repository of foreign paper money is, so getting it and trawling through it is easy enough. I find a decent stash of Sing$ and Ringits. I just empty the euro-wallet into a desk-drawer and put the exotic money in. Ah! A pleasant surprise - there's that fallback credit card I forgot I had! Good, let's keep that in there!
Oh! Good catch, I tell myself as another brilliant thought strikes me: Let's go online to check if there are any regional blocks on that card!
Frequent Flyer-cards
I have a Finnair branded leather wallet (binder style) with physical FF cards and other what-nots needed for travel. All the cards in it are outdated. But the insurance card is valid I guess, let's salvage that one to the money-wallet and forget about the Finnair wallet. Sigh. That leather smell and soft touch brings back so many travel memories. OK, OK. no time to be sentimental now! Clock is ticking!
I trawl all drawers associated with travel, but can't find any physical FF-cards anywhere that are still valid. What to do? Download apps? I guess so.
Pre-departure documentation
7 days before departure I received a pre-departure mail from Finnair. I didn't pay much attention to it. They always were full of irrelevant and even incorrect info anyway. 3 days before departure, by chance, I opened it again and read a bit more carefully. It says I need to add pre-departure documents. A (not so tiny) bit of panic as the purported 3 day cut-off time is just a few hours away.
I drop everything and focus on this task and manages to find the Singapore arrival card service. It fails to accept my entry. Yikes.
Probably a browser thing, I think to myself, and quickly download the app instead. It too refuses to accept my entry. I take a deep breath and read the instruction in the app carefully. Aha, the three day threshold is a "less than" limit, not an "at least" 3 days before, as I interpreted the Finnair communication.
The next day, when it is less than 3 days to departure, I try again. Still fails. WTƒ?
It turns out, the "less than 3 days" limit means application must be done on a day that in local time is equal or less than 2 calendar days before the arrival in SIN-time. So one day before departure I finally manage to complete the arrival card application. Now I can add this code to Finnair pre-departure application. Finnair also asks for vaccination papers, which seems redundant since I can't get the SIN arrival card unless vaccination papers are presented. Anyway, it is easy to upload so that gets done too on the evening before take-off.
Hmm, even in this era with almost zero entry requirements it still is a hassle to check-in and get a boarding pass. Ease of travel has been and still is lost.
By the way, boarding-pass. I can't get a mobile boarding pass. After completing the pre-departure docs and check-in procedure the app tells me I need to collect boardingpass at the airport anyway. Which is bad news, mostly because having to walk all the way to LCC terminal where Finnair has desks at the far end is a major detour.
Arriving in silly good time, I find a priority desk but it is unmanned. Bag-drop is too. But there is a lady in the economy desk and there is only one customer in line, so it works well. She is even happy to get me a boarding pass!
(Last time I visited a Finnair manual desk in Copenhagen, the lady passively-aggressive referred me to the bag-drop of BA. In classic Kastrup employee style, handle boardingpasses to premium customers was not in her job description.)
So that was a pleasant surprise. Maybe some of the not-so good things about travel has also been lost along the way! That would be nice, thank you very much!
Priority security has gone the other way.
There is only one priority lane open, and the line is just as long as to normal security. I've never seen 10+ minute wait to CPH priority security before, so I ask an agent what has happened.
- These days everyone buys priority, so that is what you get!
is the answer, literally blaming customers for the airport's failures. In classic Kastrup employee style. Good to know some things haven't been lost in this new era! I ironically think to myself...
Finnair usually departs from the gate in the A-wing that is farthest away. Like A17 or A22. I guess they save a few euros on landing fees this way.
Today it is announced that the gate is A26. What? I don't even know where that is. I head for the wing where their usual A22 is located, even though I am pretty sure there are no gates beyond that.
There is. It seems Kastrup have opened a extra-low-cost wing attached to the low-cost-wing... So I walk and walk and walk and finally arrive at a ground-level gate, A22. Geez, is it bus-boarding? Nope, it is tarmac boarding!
Wow, I've never in 30 years had a tarmac boarding at CPH, not even when flying odd routes and equipment like Saab 340 BLE-CPH or Sikorsky helicopter on JHE-CPH-route. This is a brave new world!
Flying CPH-HEL isn't sensational in neither positive nor negative meaning. It is E90 - a plane I like flying - but with the down side that a rollaboard doesn't fit overhead. I signal to the cabin crew that I have an issue, and they gladly moves it to the front cupboards. Wow, there is something new, isn't there?
At Helsinki it couldn't be more clear that we're in a totally new era. The so called bank system with synchronised waves of arrivals/departures and extreme crowding between 3 and 11 pm are lost. Vanda airport is deserted.
I'm heading for the e-gates, the quick by-pass of immigration lines, only to find them closed. Every one of them. I turn around, looking for the manned gates, and stare right into a completely empty indoor square. A giant cobweb of belts making up the queue barriers, guiding exactly zero passengers to the tens and tens of unmanned immigration booths.
Being used to the need to avoid the masses, I look for the lane that handles EU citizens. In the corner I find the only manned both of the entire hall. The sign says it is serving air-crew (highest priority), citizens and others. One lonely guy to serve the onslaught of transferring passengers at Helsinki. And he has nothing to do.
He checks my passport and boarding pass and hands it back with a "Varsågod!" in Swedish. That might seem laconic to you, but let me tell you right there, that is one heck of a chatty Finnish border guard! At least not all of the transfer experience has been lost.
Is there a superlative to 'deserted'? Can one deserted thing be even more deserted than another? Such linguistic reflections goes through my mind when entering the non-schengen terminal. I conclude it can. This side is not only void of people, all business are also closed. It is 8 pm but feels like 4 am.
I get a flashback - this looks exactly like when ChongQing (CKG) opened the new terminal built with anticipation of becoming one of the larger chinese airports. Hint - It didn't.
The platinum wing is closed. The premium lounge, the one service that Finnair offers of value to their top-tier members. It used to be packed. There's some serious loss right there.
The business class lounge is open, but unfortunately the only other transfer passenger I've seen in the entire terminal beats me to the desk. He feels the need to chat with the staff instead of checking-in to the lounge. Already after a few seconds I realise this will take awhile and I'm not going to stand idle in a line, waiting to get lounge access in a terminal with only 2 passengers. I see there is an e-gate so I use it. In the corner of my eye, I see the lounge agent do a "I'm sorry for that" shrug. I guess he too felt that waiting to get into the lounge wasn't really acceptable considering the slow night.
Inside is empty. I realise I've never been to this lounge. The few times I have passed through Vanda non-schengen since the new lounge complex was built, I have only visited the platinum wing.
The 'don't bother' drink section
As I wander around trying to find something that is open in the lounge, I realise that it is really big. Further in I find the open section with some food and drinks. And I even see a few other passengers!
There are 2 staff members, in a lively discussion with each other, paying no attention to either customers or empty dishes in need of replenishing.
I grab some sparkling wine and some snacks and cookies. The food offered isn't to my taste, but the "salads" will do. I'm saving myself for the onboard dinner.
A small section of the very popular lounge
Nearing departure, the lounge fills up a bit, but I doubt there are more than 20 passengers at any time this evening. Capacity is likely 10x that or more.
Now is the first time I have a closer look at my boarding pass. The times listed does not fit with my mental image of when I need to go to the gate. It seems the information about "Boarding" has been lost along the way. Now it lists "Gates open" and "Gates closes" and it is a really narrow time span to fit into. And we are already a few minutes into this norrow time span, so I get a pulse and collects my stuff. I get to try the "Fast exit" door, which bypasses the front desk and lets you exit near gate 50A-M complex (which by the way looks to be completely closed down - another sign of the low utilisation of Vanda).
Walking to the gate, the only language heard is thai.
The departure gate is 45A. I wonder about the A-designator - on the Schengen side a letter designator usually means a ground level bus gate. Can it really be a bus gate for a Singapore flight?!
It turns out to be just a second access to gate 45 via a holding pen. They do document checks before letting people into the holding area. But they don't ask me for neither vaccination docs nor the Singapore arrival card. Interesting - so much anxiety on my part and they don't even check it.
After boarding I get a plat talk. A 'plat talk' is where the purser tells me they are glad to see me again and appreciate me and if there is anything... You know.
However, this purser can't be bothered with customers, so a FA approaches me with a not so personal message:
- On behalf of the purser and Finnair, I'd like to welcome you onboard!
It is not his fault, the onus is all on the purser, and he is a good flight attendant. But it does leave a not so positive impression, and some of the personal touch the old style pursers had seems to be lost.
A real dinner is served despite the late scheduled departure plus some 40 minutes delay. Full dinner fits my plan perfectly, as I do not want to adapt to Singapore Time for this short trip. The delay is annoying, but having excessive delay in the late evening departures apparently is a tradition Finnair has kept. I have planned for it, allowed myself a 3,5h connection time in SIN.
This dinner is my first experience with the new "Nordic bistro" concept that apparently have been rebranded as "Bistro-like meals". Which in reality is just same-same as always, just on a new set of china.
The "Herb tartlet with shredded chicken and mustard seeds" is on par with what previously was served as amuse-bouche. I like this one.
The yellow/green stuff I don't touch. Looks inedible to me, with colour scheme right out of the Windows 3.11 palette for colour blinds. Apparently it is "Corn purée with edamame and fava beans and dill oil". The menu description doesn't increase my "lust" for eating the dish one bit.
I was asked my preference for the main and I went with Rainbow trout, the salmon wannabe. (The cheaper, less nutritious salmon-wannabe, to be more specific...) The fish is OK, but again, puree has taken the place of ordinary staple food. I might be getting older, but I am not toothless just yet.
Some green oily stuff makes the mussel sauce, that looked good on paper, look not so good.
The ride to Singapore is extremely smooth - we don't encounter even the slightest turbulence on the entire route.
Despite the delay, I easily make the connection to KUL on MH. I did choose MH as it offered this 3,5 layover to make sure even if Finnair was delayed and even if I had to do a landside tour to check-in I would make it. We are delayed, but MH has a transfer desk and soon enough I can relax and eat in the Qantas First lounge.
Getting add-on tickets
By the way, the KUL detour came up late in the game. Late in the game means you pay the price, and this detour might qualify as two of my worst bookings ever, in financial and points terms.
SIN-KUL is on MH. And I'm not just late in the game, I am late in the game to fly the day before public holiday/election days. MH is booked solid except for Business class and I need to part with €400+ for essentially a zero service 50 minute flight. On the return I find award seats on SQ, but at 32 500 star-miles and 18€ it is just slightly less painful than the 400€ fare. Anyway, I get to try out two new airlines. Who knows when that chance comes again, so that must be worth something.
One thing that surely has been lost is routine.
After three relaxing nights in Kuala Lumpur I do an early breakfast at Hilton and head for check-out. It is 7.53 when I leave the front desk and I head for KLIA ekspress. Checking the clock - yes the planned 8.00 departure is within reach. I move a little quicker. Suddenly, and luckily, a thought hits me. Where is my passport?
Oh, now I remember, I put it in the shirt pocket. It is still in the shirt I arrived in.
... Which is still hanging in the closet of room 1622!!!
I do a 180, rush back to the reception and convince them to give me a key to 1622. Only 2-3 minutes have passed and the guy who did the check-out remembers me. So with no proof requested, I am issued a new card key. Into the room, get the forgotten clothes, puh.
But the passport is not in the shirt pocket. I check the other typical place I would put it and find it safely in the bag I am carrying. OK, good. I have rescued a perfectly good shirt even if the passport-fear was unfounded.
Back to the ekspress station, now in good time for the next departure 8.20.
So that loss of routine cost me 20 minutes of lounge time. But could easily have costed me the entire trip or a set of clothing, if I discovered the mistake only at the airport check-in, so I am not too unhappy with that.
- Do you want starbucks or lounge? asks the check-in lady.
- Lounge! I reply with confidence.
Why would anyone want to go to a starbucks?! I think to myself. Only to realise, but not until I've passed into the departure area, that the lounge is landside in another terminal. So now I am standing in front of the airside Malaysia Airlines lounge with a Singapore Airlines lounge invite that won't cut it. Ah, and isn't that a tiny Starbucks over there I see in the dark corner?
So now the entire rush to the airport was a lost cause. I could easily have stayed in bed one more hour and had a stress-less breakfast at the hotel. Call it rookie mistakes, I don't think the old-times me would have missed these details.
As for the transfer in SIN to Finnair, I have not bothered to research that since the last SIN airside-transfer went rather smoothly.
Uh oh, do you see another rookie mistake coming?
So when I arrive to the right transit desk at 13.30, I am told "Come back around 4-or-5-o'clock" as staff serving Finnair is not on all day. I make myself busy. I sit down, charge some gadgets and make some calls.
Around 16:30 I am back and more staff is on. Desk 1 tells me "Yes, go to desk 14"
At desk 14, big confusion. The lady doesn't know what Finnair is. She takes my passport and says
- So you are going to Denpasar, right?
- No! Helsinki! Finnair, you know.
- But I only serve this, she points up to be board, displaying "KLM"
So I return back to desk one, shrugging my shoulders:
- She says she doesn't do Finnair.
Desk one calls out across the floor to desk 14
- Your company handles Finnair! <and then stands up and shouts> FINNAIR IS DNATA!!!
With the lady in desk 14 still looking confused/unwilling, desk 1 continues shouting
- Call you company if you don't know. Finnair is DNATA, OK?
I walk back to desk 14 and do a repeat performance:
- Yes, I'd like a boarding pass for Finnair.
- But but, I only do KLM
- But your company does Finnair, says I pointing at her keychain ribbon, where big printed letters read DNATA DNATA DNATA. Oh clever me, how will she ever get out of this quagmire?
- Even if I call them, there is no one there. No one will come. They only come on at 3 hours before departure.
- SO... DNATA does Finnair, and DNATA hired you but you can't do DNATA work? That's just silly.
We have a short stand-off, but I am quickly assessed the loser of this chicken-race. I need to go to the toilet anyway, so I leave with head held high.
After the short break, I feel a bit happier. But now the passport is missing again?! Panic raises as it is not to be found in any of the usual locations. So now I am stuck without both boarding pass and passport in SIN airport?
Maybe I left it in the toilet? I rush back, flings the stall door open and there it .. isn't. The cleaner looks at me with wide eyes - these crazy Europeans...
Now serious panic. Check all pockets again. No luck. Maybe I flung the wrong stall door open? A lot of stalls are locked, but the stall next door is not. I get in and there on a shelf are all my vital documents. Wow.
Routine is certainly lost along the way. I have never misplaced any important item on any trip and I never even fret about doing it. And look at me now. I am really like a teenager-newbie-traveller, dropping stuff all over the place.
Dang, I need to get that boarding-pass and get into a lounge before I lose something else.
I walk back to the transit desk and decide to monitor how busy the lady in desk 14 really is. She has a few customers, but she is nowhere as busy as the 3 ladies doing the big boy airlines. I can't understand why she couldn't just produce a single Finnair boarding pass, even if it would be cumbersome to load new paper into the printer.
I even start to think that she at some point will just switch the sign to Finnair and pretend like we never met before and she never refused to handle Finnair. But she doesn't, and 40 minutes before the KLM flight to DenPasar departs, she closes shop. That is around 17.10
Disappointed, I am starting to think I will be better off going landside. While I ponder that, 2 new ladies arrives and at 17.30 they open desks for ... Jestar.
Well, lowcost Jestar has no departures until 22:10. That's almost 5 hours before departure! So apparently not all airlines keep to this silly 3h rule.. Now, standing there thinking about Finniar being worse than Jetstar, I also realise that Finnair departure is just 20 minutes after the JQ flight. So maybe I wait another 20 minutes and see what happens, before going landside and risk having to wait even more.
Just 5 minutes later, yet another DNATA lady appears. She's not in a hurry and certainly is taking her time arranging things in the desk area. Moving boxes, moving stationaries... It doesn't really look like she is opening a desk. Argh, maybe she's just some manager making the place look good.
But then she taps on a computer and Voilá! Desk 15 now opens as serving Emirates, Finnair, Air France and Bankkok Airways.
I line up at desk 15 before she even is sitting down.
I was originally set on starting my lounge-day in Qantas first, and then decide if and when to try something else. But with hands shaking of excitement holding tightly one passport and one boarding pass, I can't pace myself for even the 5 minutes it will take to walk to the Qantas lounge. I need a lounge, and I need it now! Qatar lounge is just upstairs from the transfer desk and I rush there pretty much like a maniac who misplaced his passport in a public restroom.
I am checked in to the lounge by a lady. Then another takes over and guides me through the first section. Then two other takes over and guides me into the dining area. Oh, they are really well staffed! I can see numerous staff and they outnumber the guests.
I am advised the menu is digital, so I need to scan a barcode. OK, i've seen that before.
However, the ordering isn't digital. The barcode leads to a pdf-menu! I download it. It is quite cumbersome to read a A4 pdf in a phone, but after a lot of scrolling and zooming I am ready to order.
I pick from the á-la carte a starter, and it looks like the waiter doesn't really understand my order. She jots something down and strangely mumbles a response like ".. something with shrimp..."
I move on to the main, a filet steak beef. Now she just says 'Excuse me', and disappears into the kitchen. Soon she returns with another employee, someone better versed in English. He explains that they have changed menu and the things I have chosen is not available.
Really very strange, it was they who directed me towards this menu, and now the items aren't available?! These are things that makes me go hmm... And it gets worse.
- We have instead the special Fifa-menu!
... which is just snack-food compared to the á-la carte. I give up on them, ask for the Fifa-burger and nothing else. No entrée, no drinks. Just give me your stinking burger and I'll be on my way to a better lounge!
While I wait for the burger I do some PMs with fellow FT'er @Teppo. As he is arriving soon to the QR lounge, I decide to stay for now. After downing the disappointing burger, I stumble into the bar. Not knowing if that will be disappointing too, I challenge the bartender with a Singapore Sling.
It is pretty well done, and I down it quickly. Bartender is a nice guy. I see a half full bottle of Bollinger Rosé and ask for a glass. It hits the right spot.
He re-stocks on the champagne, and I notice how he pops the corks on two new bottles, even before the others are finished. I am a bit surprised by that, but it only takes a few minutes of observations before I know why. Almost every order is for champagne and he just saved the time by opening the bottles slightly prematurely.
Like I said, the guy is nice and we get to talk and he keeps on offering refill and snacks and ask if I don't want to have dinner - they have such a great dinner here!
I kindly decline and focus on the Bollinger.
- Do you like it?
- Yes! It is good! I can't help noticing it seems others like it too!
- Absolutely! I spend a lot of bottles every night.
- Really?
- Yeah, like 7-8 bottles every shift!
As I alone already am responsible for downing one of those 7-8 bottles, I just smile. Thinking we should plan a Finnair Singapore DO in that lounge and his spend record would be gone in 60 seconds. For some reason, I stay put in the QR lounge the rest of the time.
I have a nice chat with @Teppo. It turns out, he was able to order from á-la carte. I guess they mistook me for a soccer-fan, going to the cup in Doha? If he likes Soccer he must like our Fifa menu!
Well, the old-me should have known not to enter a Qatar Premium lounge in leisure-wear in a rushed manner only fitting a maniac who misplaces his passport passim!
It seems the biggest loss is I've lost myself. Can someone offer me a ride back to 2017 when I knew how to travel?
Lost along the way
So we all know how the joy of travel has been lost over the last 3 years. Entry restrictions. Quarantine. Flight cancellations. Fleet down-sizing. Rebooking upon rebooking. Refund issues. Volatility in rules. Testing. Pre-departure documentation.
Benefiting from one of the world's most travelable passport it has been like someone just tossed all the rules of the game, and had them replaced by random nonsense. Everything I knew was lost. Every fare and every destination needed scrupulous research, every time. 18 months into this mess, I just gave up. I felt forced to retire from the game.
Not that the world seemed to care.
Spoiler
When Finnair announced the unlimited 3x tier-points promo earlier this year, I was mostly meh. I hadn't seen a tier point promo in a decade and normally would have jumped at a 2x one. But. Just meh.
Finnair wasn't flying any more to places I wanted to go. Or I could go, if I was hoping for easy entry rules. Or would go - I did not even trust them to actually fly what was in the schedules. What is a 3x tier points promo worth on flights that won't take off? And in the unlikely event that they'd actually take off per schedule, doing so without me onboard due to some missing form or test-result or documentation? Exactly. So, meh.
Sadly, there was a few months of optimism by the end of 2021. Closed borders started to open, vaccination documents started to become globally recognized. Maybe travel would soon return to something similar to pre-pandemic style? Spring fever started to thaw my frozen travel heart. I booked some flights, I bought some points, I made sure to renew my Platinum/Emerald status.
Besides trying to fix the backlog of Hanami-trips to Japan and family-reunion-trips to Australia, I also booked an award-flight to Singapore just before the next mess hit the fan - closure of Russian airspace leading to Finnair abandoning the Asian strategy entirely.
Finnair - the airline offering the not really shortest distance from Europe to South-East Asia
Of all the longhaul trips booked, only the award to Singapore survived this. And as I geared up for it, my first longhaul flight in almost 3 years (2 years, 10 months, 5 days , 1 hour and 25 minutes, but who's really counting?), I quickly realised that the ease of travelling was not all that had been lost along the way.
Clothes
I used to have prepared pack cubes with basic clothing ready 24/7. Socks, underware, T-shirts/shirts. Pants, short and long.
Now, that might sound like I used to be a professional traveller, but that is not the case. The real reason for having prepared pack cubes was that I many years ago had come to a realisation: I would always postpone packing to last minute. Literally, the last minute. Like the same minute when I was supposed to leave for the airport-train, I had to toss stuff together and run for the next departure. Pointless promises to my self to "never put myself in that situation again" eventually turned into a routine where I just didn't unpack after a trip. The pack-cubes with some clean clothes left inside just went back into the closet. There they stayed forgotten, but available for a quick grab the next time I was caught by surprise it was departure day already.
From then on, on departure day I was always already set. No thinking, no decisions. Grab 4 black pack cubes from closet and put in roll-aboard. If one of the bags felt suspiciously thin, then replenish. Otherwise, just trust it will be OK.
Done - packed in less than 5 minutes. No anxiety over what to bring and how much.
Well, since last departure day a lot of time had passed and I even moved house, so all that routine was gone. No pack-cubes waiting for me to grab. Doing it all from the ground up, I of-course ended up with 2 too many pants for a weekend away and some long-sleeves not really suitable for Singapore 30° high-humidity season.
Adapters
Panic - what kind of power outlet do they use?! I suddenly realise this is also lost knowledge. I used to know exactly what plug was used in most parts of the world. And now suddenly I needed to research online to know the standard plug of Singapore and Malaysia!? Silly me, of course the British standard socket is used, I say after shamefully refreshing this knowledge with the help of google.
I also used to keep a green Marimekko amenity bag with adapters - power socket converters and the Apple replaceable prongs and USB-chargers. Where the heck is that one now?! I only have a general idea where it might have ended up after moving house. I went to dig at that location. Not striking gold. Soon enough though, I find it at the second place I look.
The bag is half empty. I find a stock of various adapters and decide to just grab 2 converter plugs and one USB charger instead of the half-empty bag. But WTƒ, now I realise that most USB-fed gadgets have moved to a new generation of connector, so the USB type A charger with my well thought-out collection of adapter cables is antiquated.
Check-in
At this point I've already surrendered to the feeling of being a total newbie. But I quickly find out that it can still get worse. I no longer can remember passport numbers and dates. Frequent flyer numbers of secondary programs are lost too.
I used to be able to fill out any arrival card and check-in procedure without looking anything up. All important numbers and dates I knew by heart. Now I realise how tedious typing all this info is, when you need to read number by number and double check you type the correct info.
Money
I know exactly where my repository of foreign paper money is, so getting it and trawling through it is easy enough. I find a decent stash of Sing$ and Ringits. I just empty the euro-wallet into a desk-drawer and put the exotic money in. Ah! A pleasant surprise - there's that fallback credit card I forgot I had! Good, let's keep that in there!
Oh! Good catch, I tell myself as another brilliant thought strikes me: Let's go online to check if there are any regional blocks on that card!
Frequent Flyer-cards
I have a Finnair branded leather wallet (binder style) with physical FF cards and other what-nots needed for travel. All the cards in it are outdated. But the insurance card is valid I guess, let's salvage that one to the money-wallet and forget about the Finnair wallet. Sigh. That leather smell and soft touch brings back so many travel memories. OK, OK. no time to be sentimental now! Clock is ticking!
I trawl all drawers associated with travel, but can't find any physical FF-cards anywhere that are still valid. What to do? Download apps? I guess so.
Pre-departure documentation
7 days before departure I received a pre-departure mail from Finnair. I didn't pay much attention to it. They always were full of irrelevant and even incorrect info anyway. 3 days before departure, by chance, I opened it again and read a bit more carefully. It says I need to add pre-departure documents. A (not so tiny) bit of panic as the purported 3 day cut-off time is just a few hours away.
I drop everything and focus on this task and manages to find the Singapore arrival card service. It fails to accept my entry. Yikes.
Probably a browser thing, I think to myself, and quickly download the app instead. It too refuses to accept my entry. I take a deep breath and read the instruction in the app carefully. Aha, the three day threshold is a "less than" limit, not an "at least" 3 days before, as I interpreted the Finnair communication.
The next day, when it is less than 3 days to departure, I try again. Still fails. WTƒ?
It turns out, the "less than 3 days" limit means application must be done on a day that in local time is equal or less than 2 calendar days before the arrival in SIN-time. So one day before departure I finally manage to complete the arrival card application. Now I can add this code to Finnair pre-departure application. Finnair also asks for vaccination papers, which seems redundant since I can't get the SIN arrival card unless vaccination papers are presented. Anyway, it is easy to upload so that gets done too on the evening before take-off.
Hmm, even in this era with almost zero entry requirements it still is a hassle to check-in and get a boarding pass. Ease of travel has been and still is lost.
By the way, boarding-pass. I can't get a mobile boarding pass. After completing the pre-departure docs and check-in procedure the app tells me I need to collect boardingpass at the airport anyway. Which is bad news, mostly because having to walk all the way to LCC terminal where Finnair has desks at the far end is a major detour.
Arriving in silly good time, I find a priority desk but it is unmanned. Bag-drop is too. But there is a lady in the economy desk and there is only one customer in line, so it works well. She is even happy to get me a boarding pass!
(Last time I visited a Finnair manual desk in Copenhagen, the lady passively-aggressive referred me to the bag-drop of BA. In classic Kastrup employee style, handle boardingpasses to premium customers was not in her job description.)
So that was a pleasant surprise. Maybe some of the not-so good things about travel has also been lost along the way! That would be nice, thank you very much!
Priority security has gone the other way.
There is only one priority lane open, and the line is just as long as to normal security. I've never seen 10+ minute wait to CPH priority security before, so I ask an agent what has happened.
- These days everyone buys priority, so that is what you get!
is the answer, literally blaming customers for the airport's failures. In classic Kastrup employee style. Good to know some things haven't been lost in this new era! I ironically think to myself...
Finnair usually departs from the gate in the A-wing that is farthest away. Like A17 or A22. I guess they save a few euros on landing fees this way.
Today it is announced that the gate is A26. What? I don't even know where that is. I head for the wing where their usual A22 is located, even though I am pretty sure there are no gates beyond that.
There is. It seems Kastrup have opened a extra-low-cost wing attached to the low-cost-wing... So I walk and walk and walk and finally arrive at a ground-level gate, A22. Geez, is it bus-boarding? Nope, it is tarmac boarding!
Wow, I've never in 30 years had a tarmac boarding at CPH, not even when flying odd routes and equipment like Saab 340 BLE-CPH or Sikorsky helicopter on JHE-CPH-route. This is a brave new world!
Flying CPH-HEL isn't sensational in neither positive nor negative meaning. It is E90 - a plane I like flying - but with the down side that a rollaboard doesn't fit overhead. I signal to the cabin crew that I have an issue, and they gladly moves it to the front cupboards. Wow, there is something new, isn't there?
At Helsinki it couldn't be more clear that we're in a totally new era. The so called bank system with synchronised waves of arrivals/departures and extreme crowding between 3 and 11 pm are lost. Vanda airport is deserted.
I'm heading for the e-gates, the quick by-pass of immigration lines, only to find them closed. Every one of them. I turn around, looking for the manned gates, and stare right into a completely empty indoor square. A giant cobweb of belts making up the queue barriers, guiding exactly zero passengers to the tens and tens of unmanned immigration booths.
Being used to the need to avoid the masses, I look for the lane that handles EU citizens. In the corner I find the only manned both of the entire hall. The sign says it is serving air-crew (highest priority), citizens and others. One lonely guy to serve the onslaught of transferring passengers at Helsinki. And he has nothing to do.
He checks my passport and boarding pass and hands it back with a "Varsågod!" in Swedish. That might seem laconic to you, but let me tell you right there, that is one heck of a chatty Finnish border guard! At least not all of the transfer experience has been lost.
Is there a superlative to 'deserted'? Can one deserted thing be even more deserted than another? Such linguistic reflections goes through my mind when entering the non-schengen terminal. I conclude it can. This side is not only void of people, all business are also closed. It is 8 pm but feels like 4 am.
I get a flashback - this looks exactly like when ChongQing (CKG) opened the new terminal built with anticipation of becoming one of the larger chinese airports. Hint - It didn't.
The platinum wing is closed. The premium lounge, the one service that Finnair offers of value to their top-tier members. It used to be packed. There's some serious loss right there.
The business class lounge is open, but unfortunately the only other transfer passenger I've seen in the entire terminal beats me to the desk. He feels the need to chat with the staff instead of checking-in to the lounge. Already after a few seconds I realise this will take awhile and I'm not going to stand idle in a line, waiting to get lounge access in a terminal with only 2 passengers. I see there is an e-gate so I use it. In the corner of my eye, I see the lounge agent do a "I'm sorry for that" shrug. I guess he too felt that waiting to get into the lounge wasn't really acceptable considering the slow night.
Inside is empty. I realise I've never been to this lounge. The few times I have passed through Vanda non-schengen since the new lounge complex was built, I have only visited the platinum wing.
The 'don't bother' drink section
As I wander around trying to find something that is open in the lounge, I realise that it is really big. Further in I find the open section with some food and drinks. And I even see a few other passengers!
There are 2 staff members, in a lively discussion with each other, paying no attention to either customers or empty dishes in need of replenishing.
I grab some sparkling wine and some snacks and cookies. The food offered isn't to my taste, but the "salads" will do. I'm saving myself for the onboard dinner.
A small section of the very popular lounge
Nearing departure, the lounge fills up a bit, but I doubt there are more than 20 passengers at any time this evening. Capacity is likely 10x that or more.
Now is the first time I have a closer look at my boarding pass. The times listed does not fit with my mental image of when I need to go to the gate. It seems the information about "Boarding" has been lost along the way. Now it lists "Gates open" and "Gates closes" and it is a really narrow time span to fit into. And we are already a few minutes into this norrow time span, so I get a pulse and collects my stuff. I get to try the "Fast exit" door, which bypasses the front desk and lets you exit near gate 50A-M complex (which by the way looks to be completely closed down - another sign of the low utilisation of Vanda).
Walking to the gate, the only language heard is thai.
The departure gate is 45A. I wonder about the A-designator - on the Schengen side a letter designator usually means a ground level bus gate. Can it really be a bus gate for a Singapore flight?!
It turns out to be just a second access to gate 45 via a holding pen. They do document checks before letting people into the holding area. But they don't ask me for neither vaccination docs nor the Singapore arrival card. Interesting - so much anxiety on my part and they don't even check it.
After boarding I get a plat talk. A 'plat talk' is where the purser tells me they are glad to see me again and appreciate me and if there is anything... You know.
However, this purser can't be bothered with customers, so a FA approaches me with a not so personal message:
- On behalf of the purser and Finnair, I'd like to welcome you onboard!
It is not his fault, the onus is all on the purser, and he is a good flight attendant. But it does leave a not so positive impression, and some of the personal touch the old style pursers had seems to be lost.
A real dinner is served despite the late scheduled departure plus some 40 minutes delay. Full dinner fits my plan perfectly, as I do not want to adapt to Singapore Time for this short trip. The delay is annoying, but having excessive delay in the late evening departures apparently is a tradition Finnair has kept. I have planned for it, allowed myself a 3,5h connection time in SIN.
This dinner is my first experience with the new "Nordic bistro" concept that apparently have been rebranded as "Bistro-like meals". Which in reality is just same-same as always, just on a new set of china.
The "Herb tartlet with shredded chicken and mustard seeds" is on par with what previously was served as amuse-bouche. I like this one.
The yellow/green stuff I don't touch. Looks inedible to me, with colour scheme right out of the Windows 3.11 palette for colour blinds. Apparently it is "Corn purée with edamame and fava beans and dill oil". The menu description doesn't increase my "lust" for eating the dish one bit.
I was asked my preference for the main and I went with Rainbow trout, the salmon wannabe. (The cheaper, less nutritious salmon-wannabe, to be more specific...) The fish is OK, but again, puree has taken the place of ordinary staple food. I might be getting older, but I am not toothless just yet.
Some green oily stuff makes the mussel sauce, that looked good on paper, look not so good.
The ride to Singapore is extremely smooth - we don't encounter even the slightest turbulence on the entire route.
Despite the delay, I easily make the connection to KUL on MH. I did choose MH as it offered this 3,5 layover to make sure even if Finnair was delayed and even if I had to do a landside tour to check-in I would make it. We are delayed, but MH has a transfer desk and soon enough I can relax and eat in the Qantas First lounge.
Getting add-on tickets
By the way, the KUL detour came up late in the game. Late in the game means you pay the price, and this detour might qualify as two of my worst bookings ever, in financial and points terms.
SIN-KUL is on MH. And I'm not just late in the game, I am late in the game to fly the day before public holiday/election days. MH is booked solid except for Business class and I need to part with €400+ for essentially a zero service 50 minute flight. On the return I find award seats on SQ, but at 32 500 star-miles and 18€ it is just slightly less painful than the 400€ fare. Anyway, I get to try out two new airlines. Who knows when that chance comes again, so that must be worth something.
One thing that surely has been lost is routine.
After three relaxing nights in Kuala Lumpur I do an early breakfast at Hilton and head for check-out. It is 7.53 when I leave the front desk and I head for KLIA ekspress. Checking the clock - yes the planned 8.00 departure is within reach. I move a little quicker. Suddenly, and luckily, a thought hits me. Where is my passport?
Oh, now I remember, I put it in the shirt pocket. It is still in the shirt I arrived in.
... Which is still hanging in the closet of room 1622!!!
I do a 180, rush back to the reception and convince them to give me a key to 1622. Only 2-3 minutes have passed and the guy who did the check-out remembers me. So with no proof requested, I am issued a new card key. Into the room, get the forgotten clothes, puh.
But the passport is not in the shirt pocket. I check the other typical place I would put it and find it safely in the bag I am carrying. OK, good. I have rescued a perfectly good shirt even if the passport-fear was unfounded.
Back to the ekspress station, now in good time for the next departure 8.20.
So that loss of routine cost me 20 minutes of lounge time. But could easily have costed me the entire trip or a set of clothing, if I discovered the mistake only at the airport check-in, so I am not too unhappy with that.
- Do you want starbucks or lounge? asks the check-in lady.
- Lounge! I reply with confidence.
Why would anyone want to go to a starbucks?! I think to myself. Only to realise, but not until I've passed into the departure area, that the lounge is landside in another terminal. So now I am standing in front of the airside Malaysia Airlines lounge with a Singapore Airlines lounge invite that won't cut it. Ah, and isn't that a tiny Starbucks over there I see in the dark corner?
So now the entire rush to the airport was a lost cause. I could easily have stayed in bed one more hour and had a stress-less breakfast at the hotel. Call it rookie mistakes, I don't think the old-times me would have missed these details.
As for the transfer in SIN to Finnair, I have not bothered to research that since the last SIN airside-transfer went rather smoothly.
Uh oh, do you see another rookie mistake coming?
So when I arrive to the right transit desk at 13.30, I am told "Come back around 4-or-5-o'clock" as staff serving Finnair is not on all day. I make myself busy. I sit down, charge some gadgets and make some calls.
Around 16:30 I am back and more staff is on. Desk 1 tells me "Yes, go to desk 14"
At desk 14, big confusion. The lady doesn't know what Finnair is. She takes my passport and says
- So you are going to Denpasar, right?
- No! Helsinki! Finnair, you know.
- But I only serve this, she points up to be board, displaying "KLM"
So I return back to desk one, shrugging my shoulders:
- She says she doesn't do Finnair.
Desk one calls out across the floor to desk 14
- Your company handles Finnair! <and then stands up and shouts> FINNAIR IS DNATA!!!
With the lady in desk 14 still looking confused/unwilling, desk 1 continues shouting
- Call you company if you don't know. Finnair is DNATA, OK?
I walk back to desk 14 and do a repeat performance:
- Yes, I'd like a boarding pass for Finnair.
- But but, I only do KLM
- But your company does Finnair, says I pointing at her keychain ribbon, where big printed letters read DNATA DNATA DNATA. Oh clever me, how will she ever get out of this quagmire?
- Even if I call them, there is no one there. No one will come. They only come on at 3 hours before departure.
- SO... DNATA does Finnair, and DNATA hired you but you can't do DNATA work? That's just silly.
We have a short stand-off, but I am quickly assessed the loser of this chicken-race. I need to go to the toilet anyway, so I leave with head held high.
After the short break, I feel a bit happier. But now the passport is missing again?! Panic raises as it is not to be found in any of the usual locations. So now I am stuck without both boarding pass and passport in SIN airport?
Maybe I left it in the toilet? I rush back, flings the stall door open and there it .. isn't. The cleaner looks at me with wide eyes - these crazy Europeans...
Now serious panic. Check all pockets again. No luck. Maybe I flung the wrong stall door open? A lot of stalls are locked, but the stall next door is not. I get in and there on a shelf are all my vital documents. Wow.
Routine is certainly lost along the way. I have never misplaced any important item on any trip and I never even fret about doing it. And look at me now. I am really like a teenager-newbie-traveller, dropping stuff all over the place.
Dang, I need to get that boarding-pass and get into a lounge before I lose something else.
I walk back to the transit desk and decide to monitor how busy the lady in desk 14 really is. She has a few customers, but she is nowhere as busy as the 3 ladies doing the big boy airlines. I can't understand why she couldn't just produce a single Finnair boarding pass, even if it would be cumbersome to load new paper into the printer.
I even start to think that she at some point will just switch the sign to Finnair and pretend like we never met before and she never refused to handle Finnair. But she doesn't, and 40 minutes before the KLM flight to DenPasar departs, she closes shop. That is around 17.10
Disappointed, I am starting to think I will be better off going landside. While I ponder that, 2 new ladies arrives and at 17.30 they open desks for ... Jestar.
Well, lowcost Jestar has no departures until 22:10. That's almost 5 hours before departure! So apparently not all airlines keep to this silly 3h rule.. Now, standing there thinking about Finniar being worse than Jetstar, I also realise that Finnair departure is just 20 minutes after the JQ flight. So maybe I wait another 20 minutes and see what happens, before going landside and risk having to wait even more.
Just 5 minutes later, yet another DNATA lady appears. She's not in a hurry and certainly is taking her time arranging things in the desk area. Moving boxes, moving stationaries... It doesn't really look like she is opening a desk. Argh, maybe she's just some manager making the place look good.
But then she taps on a computer and Voilá! Desk 15 now opens as serving Emirates, Finnair, Air France and Bankkok Airways.
I line up at desk 15 before she even is sitting down.
I was originally set on starting my lounge-day in Qantas first, and then decide if and when to try something else. But with hands shaking of excitement holding tightly one passport and one boarding pass, I can't pace myself for even the 5 minutes it will take to walk to the Qantas lounge. I need a lounge, and I need it now! Qatar lounge is just upstairs from the transfer desk and I rush there pretty much like a maniac who misplaced his passport in a public restroom.
I am checked in to the lounge by a lady. Then another takes over and guides me through the first section. Then two other takes over and guides me into the dining area. Oh, they are really well staffed! I can see numerous staff and they outnumber the guests.
I am advised the menu is digital, so I need to scan a barcode. OK, i've seen that before.
However, the ordering isn't digital. The barcode leads to a pdf-menu! I download it. It is quite cumbersome to read a A4 pdf in a phone, but after a lot of scrolling and zooming I am ready to order.
I pick from the á-la carte a starter, and it looks like the waiter doesn't really understand my order. She jots something down and strangely mumbles a response like ".. something with shrimp..."
I move on to the main, a filet steak beef. Now she just says 'Excuse me', and disappears into the kitchen. Soon she returns with another employee, someone better versed in English. He explains that they have changed menu and the things I have chosen is not available.
Really very strange, it was they who directed me towards this menu, and now the items aren't available?! These are things that makes me go hmm... And it gets worse.
- We have instead the special Fifa-menu!
... which is just snack-food compared to the á-la carte. I give up on them, ask for the Fifa-burger and nothing else. No entrée, no drinks. Just give me your stinking burger and I'll be on my way to a better lounge!
While I wait for the burger I do some PMs with fellow FT'er @Teppo. As he is arriving soon to the QR lounge, I decide to stay for now. After downing the disappointing burger, I stumble into the bar. Not knowing if that will be disappointing too, I challenge the bartender with a Singapore Sling.
It is pretty well done, and I down it quickly. Bartender is a nice guy. I see a half full bottle of Bollinger Rosé and ask for a glass. It hits the right spot.
He re-stocks on the champagne, and I notice how he pops the corks on two new bottles, even before the others are finished. I am a bit surprised by that, but it only takes a few minutes of observations before I know why. Almost every order is for champagne and he just saved the time by opening the bottles slightly prematurely.
Like I said, the guy is nice and we get to talk and he keeps on offering refill and snacks and ask if I don't want to have dinner - they have such a great dinner here!
I kindly decline and focus on the Bollinger.
- Do you like it?
- Yes! It is good! I can't help noticing it seems others like it too!
- Absolutely! I spend a lot of bottles every night.
- Really?
- Yeah, like 7-8 bottles every shift!
As I alone already am responsible for downing one of those 7-8 bottles, I just smile. Thinking we should plan a Finnair Singapore DO in that lounge and his spend record would be gone in 60 seconds. For some reason, I stay put in the QR lounge the rest of the time.
I have a nice chat with @Teppo. It turns out, he was able to order from á-la carte. I guess they mistook me for a soccer-fan, going to the cup in Doha? If he likes Soccer he must like our Fifa menu!
Well, the old-me should have known not to enter a Qatar Premium lounge in leisure-wear in a rushed manner only fitting a maniac who misplaces his passport passim!
It seems the biggest loss is I've lost myself. Can someone offer me a ride back to 2017 when I knew how to travel?
Last edited by intuition; Dec 13, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Dec 13, 2022, 7:26 pm
#3
Join Date: May 2015
Location: ATL/MCO
Programs: Costco Executive, RaceTrac Sultan of Soda, Chick-fil-A Red
Posts: 5,663
Yes, the above is also what has frustrated the hell out of me. These days I can’t sleep the night before my trip, worrying about if I forgot to fill in some passenger locator form not only for my destination but also for the transit country… Glad to see things are improving despite OLCI still being a debacle.
LOL 😂
AY does at times have some decent J fares ex-US to Asia so if we ever plan this I’m tempted to join y’all on drinking the QF Lounge dry!
Dec 14, 2022, 3:02 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592
Reading this makes me physically ill! You entitle it "Lost along the way". I just hope that you find it again soon! Travelling on autopilot as you evidently do is now a thing of the past. Concentration and focus are needed! Since travel opened up again for me in mid-2021 I have learned so many new things....
Dec 16, 2022, 7:53 am
#6
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 72
Thanks for the report 
I believe SQ lets you use the Plaza Premium Lounge, which is in the satellite building in KLIA. It's airside, you can get there (and come back) by taking the Aerotrain.
- Do you want starbucks or lounge? asks the check-in lady.
- Lounge! I reply with confidence.
Why would anyone want to go to a starbucks?! I think to myself. Only to realise, but not until I've passed into the departure area, that the lounge is landside in another terminal. So now I am standing in front of the airside Malaysia Airlines lounge with a Singapore Airlines lounge invite that won't cut it. Ah, and isn't that a tiny Starbucks over there I see in the dark corner?
- Lounge! I reply with confidence.
Why would anyone want to go to a starbucks?! I think to myself. Only to realise, but not until I've passed into the departure area, that the lounge is landside in another terminal. So now I am standing in front of the airside Malaysia Airlines lounge with a Singapore Airlines lounge invite that won't cut it. Ah, and isn't that a tiny Starbucks over there I see in the dark corner?