Dynasty
Space Core
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2004
- Messages
- 4,976
- Reaction score
- 17
What a ***king emotional rollercoaster these past few days.
Having booked my ticket to Cape Town, stopping off in Dubai after departing from a certain run-down African country, back on October 11th, Emirates told me that they had cancelled my ticket...on Dec the 14th and I was due to fly on the 18th.
Sooo...okay that sucks, got a ticket with Etihad (basically the Abu Dhabi version of the Dubai Emirates), due to fly this morning at 6:25am. So I was up at 4, got to the airport at just before 5. Maybe cutting it close but hey, the queue wasnt that long, and I had ages left.
Followed the 'banners' for Etihad, and stood in the queue of about 30 people trying to get through 2 desks being manned by 2 very bored looking staff. So I thought 'thats not alot of desks for a flight, but hey its damn early and its kind of expected to have skeleton staff I guess'.
I then noticed alot of Egypt Air tickets around me in people's hands.
45 minutes later, and theres still about 15 people ahead of me (they still have to hand-write your boarding pass, hand-write your passport number and details down, hand-write your baggage labels etc..yeah, that backward of a country), I glance at my watch and realise I have less than an hour to get through and get on the plane.
I shove myself through, and say 'excuse me, I have less than an hour to get on my Etihad flight, can you get me through first?', which is fair enough in my opinion, if the guy infront of you has a 2 hour wait, and I have a 1 hour rush, I think its fair I get through first.
He gives me a strange look and says 'Etihad?', 'Yes, Etihad to Abu Dhabi at 6:25', he shrugged and said 'Etihad desk closed 10 minutes ago'.
Ive never felt my heart sink so much. After demanding to see the supervisor, who apparently wasnt there as it was too early anad they refused to call him, I was 30 minutes away from 'leaving' and was ***ked.
God damn it, how ***ked up a country is this? The people here are so unbelievably naive and retarded.
So after a tearful drive back to the house with my dad, I crashed on the bed for a few hours.
A trip to our trusted flight agent in the city, he said he'd find me a ticket if it killed him, before or after xmas day.
An extremely tearful call to my mum afterward who has been in Cape Town for the past 2 weeks or so as she likes to help her sister sort the house out for the upcoming chaos that comes with all the family arriving in such a short period of time, didnt help.
She just broke down at the thought of me being the only family member not being there xmas day (of the 12 or so members of family making the trip).
Just now I got a call from my dad saying that I had a flight arriving and leaving on teh 24th..xmas eve. Which ironically lands 50 minutes after his flight arives in Cape Town.
Downside is its Ethiopian Airways, have to go to Addis Ababa (Aladdin anyone?), then to Jo'berg, then to Cape Town. Who the ***k are Ethiopian Airways...
Ive been flying to 2-3 countries almost every year since I was 7, and this is the first time Ive ever 'missed a flight'.
We use Emirates almost every trip, for example Im 23 and I already have a silver membership, as does my mum, and my dad has gold...so he gets treated like a god (free upgrades to first class, free hotel rooms, free courtesy car, entry to first class lounge..god i hate him).
This is the first time Emirates has ***ked us over, and they havent even given us an excuse.
So thanks Emirates, for ALMOST completely ruining xmas and newyear's 09 for me. Because if it wasnt for you, I wouldnt have been put in the situation that caused me to miss my flight due to incompetent African staff.
Having booked my ticket to Cape Town, stopping off in Dubai after departing from a certain run-down African country, back on October 11th, Emirates told me that they had cancelled my ticket...on Dec the 14th and I was due to fly on the 18th.
Sooo...okay that sucks, got a ticket with Etihad (basically the Abu Dhabi version of the Dubai Emirates), due to fly this morning at 6:25am. So I was up at 4, got to the airport at just before 5. Maybe cutting it close but hey, the queue wasnt that long, and I had ages left.
Followed the 'banners' for Etihad, and stood in the queue of about 30 people trying to get through 2 desks being manned by 2 very bored looking staff. So I thought 'thats not alot of desks for a flight, but hey its damn early and its kind of expected to have skeleton staff I guess'.
I then noticed alot of Egypt Air tickets around me in people's hands.
45 minutes later, and theres still about 15 people ahead of me (they still have to hand-write your boarding pass, hand-write your passport number and details down, hand-write your baggage labels etc..yeah, that backward of a country), I glance at my watch and realise I have less than an hour to get through and get on the plane.
I shove myself through, and say 'excuse me, I have less than an hour to get on my Etihad flight, can you get me through first?', which is fair enough in my opinion, if the guy infront of you has a 2 hour wait, and I have a 1 hour rush, I think its fair I get through first.
He gives me a strange look and says 'Etihad?', 'Yes, Etihad to Abu Dhabi at 6:25', he shrugged and said 'Etihad desk closed 10 minutes ago'.
Ive never felt my heart sink so much. After demanding to see the supervisor, who apparently wasnt there as it was too early anad they refused to call him, I was 30 minutes away from 'leaving' and was ***ked.
God damn it, how ***ked up a country is this? The people here are so unbelievably naive and retarded.
So after a tearful drive back to the house with my dad, I crashed on the bed for a few hours.
A trip to our trusted flight agent in the city, he said he'd find me a ticket if it killed him, before or after xmas day.
An extremely tearful call to my mum afterward who has been in Cape Town for the past 2 weeks or so as she likes to help her sister sort the house out for the upcoming chaos that comes with all the family arriving in such a short period of time, didnt help.
She just broke down at the thought of me being the only family member not being there xmas day (of the 12 or so members of family making the trip).
Just now I got a call from my dad saying that I had a flight arriving and leaving on teh 24th..xmas eve. Which ironically lands 50 minutes after his flight arives in Cape Town.
Downside is its Ethiopian Airways, have to go to Addis Ababa (Aladdin anyone?), then to Jo'berg, then to Cape Town. Who the ***k are Ethiopian Airways...
Ive been flying to 2-3 countries almost every year since I was 7, and this is the first time Ive ever 'missed a flight'.
We use Emirates almost every trip, for example Im 23 and I already have a silver membership, as does my mum, and my dad has gold...so he gets treated like a god (free upgrades to first class, free hotel rooms, free courtesy car, entry to first class lounge..god i hate him).
This is the first time Emirates has ***ked us over, and they havent even given us an excuse.
So thanks Emirates, for ALMOST completely ruining xmas and newyear's 09 for me. Because if it wasnt for you, I wouldnt have been put in the situation that caused me to miss my flight due to incompetent African staff.
