My Honeymoon Diary : An Unexpected Start

Previous: My Honeymoon Diary: Getting Ready to Fly

Got all the last minute office work done over the night...do the packing simply and quickly.....and with few hours of insomnia....

the next day morning 6.30am...our pre-booked taxi driver is arriving at my doorstep ready to send me to the airport!

heres our transportation from KL to Athens

 the Airbus 330-200

Checked in at 7.30am for 10.20am flight....we still have plenty of times to ease around the airport. First thing in mind ~~ Breakfast!


From the privileges of our credit card...we may have our breakfast here at the lounge
FOC
keke

 not really big area....but its finely equipped with sofa chairs, tv corner, internet booth, 

toilets and bath and also the food serving area

 yeah...free breakfast buffet

cereal, cakes, porridge, eggs and plenty of breads

 the drinks & dessert corner

coffee, tea, cappucino, espresso, and ice-cream

 and also the unlimited flow of beer from the tap !!!

my friend Amrit sure very happy to see this

various soft drinks, and mineral water

take all you can

 just a few dining tables..when it get crowded..you really got no where to sit n eat

 the sofa seating area

 and also massage chair 

 and the 2 pc with internet access

me and hubby each occupy 1 since nobody is using it..hehe

we were checking on the weather of our coming destination...very excited! 

After our breakfast.....10.20am we are on the flight d yuuhuuu!

 menu for the day

 beef or fish

me and hubby take the 2 different set so that we can taste on both of it

 with our red and white wine ~ nice!

 beef in sweet soya sauce with rice and vegetables

taste quite weird to me..

 butter fish in creamy leak sauce with mashed potatoes and vegetables

*****

7 hours flight to Doha for transit

There's really nothing much to do in the cabin
except

Eating -->  Sleeping --> Movie-ing --> Eating --> Sleeping --> Movie-ing

2 hours after the lunch

here comes the tea break

 a creative design in the paper cup

got a butterfly 

 pull the butterfly wings together...its the cup holder haha

good when its serving hot tea/coffee

snack for tea break

Chicken Herbs Calzone

*****

7 hours 30 minutes later.........local time at Doha 13.12.

We reach Doha and then happily heading to the next departure gate for flight to Athens.....while checking-in...the office at the gate said to us " Oh....you flight already departure!"

Both of us were stunned for a moment.."What?"

Office:" Yes sir, your flight to Athens already fly away. You may go the transit department office for further details."

"Oh My Gosh!" What the hell is going on here???!!!"

We immediately rushed to the transit counter to check ....the officer there replied to us: "Oh sir, its the mis-connection flight. We will issue you the voucher for overnight stay at our appointed hotel and then transit you by the flight next morning at 8.20am to Athens."

A shade of pale is all across both of our faces, as per our plan we suppose to transit to Athens by today then we will catch another flight from Athens to Budapest at 5am.

If now we were to accept this offer from Qatar Air, meaning that we will have to overnight 1 day at Doha here, and reaching Athens tomorrow 12pm ...we will wasted for the hotel booking at Athens and definitely missed our flight to Budepest!

"No Way! No Way!" hubby said to the officer, "We must reach Athens today...we already booked our hotel and we got the next flight to catch! Today i must go to Athens! You check for the next available flight from Doha to Athens! Transfer us to that flight!"

Officer: "Sorry sir, the earliest flight to Athens is only available by tomorrow morning 8.20am"

Hubby: "Cannot! I don't care!....you must find me a solutions. No matter how i must have to reach Athens today!"

Officer: "Sorry sir, we can do nothing about that, perhaps you may try to check with the Customer Services"

We were just cant accept to be late to Athens
and also late to Budapest which will spoil the overall plan of our honeymoon!

So we go around the airport seeking for help and solutions

Arrival Hall....... 

Hotel........................

Departure Hall.................

Customer Services Counter....................

Ticketing Office.............................................

*****

Time: 9pm
Location: Customer Service Counter

We was once went to the appointed hotel, thinking haih..since there is no other options, we will just have to take it lor. Gotta sacrifice the hotel booked at Athens and the air tickets to Budapest too. No choice but to buy a new tickets from Athens to Budapest tomorrow.

We went to the business center for internet access, checked for the flight to Budepest. Oh gosh, its will cost us RM3k per ticket 1 way from Athens to Budapest! That is too much man!!!

After all we check there were flights available from Doha to Budapest tomorrow. We then came up with an idea, why not we request to change our flight instead from Doha to Athens than from Doha to Budepest directly!

Such a brilliant idea! We then went back to the airport and keep communicating with the customer service officer about this options...

Ding dong ding dong....1 hour later....

Officer: "Ok sir, there were flight from Doha to Budapest tomorrow morning. I've checked with my superior, we can transfer you to that flight, so now you can go back to the hotel and then please come again tomorrow 6am, i will talk the next shift colleague to issue you the new ticket!"

Oh..finally we relief!

Head back to the hotel and catch the last call for buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant.

 Mediterranean Food

 finally he can smile after exhausted for about 9 hours 

to settle this issues

 there is no body except us

caused it already 10.30pm

luckily there were still food for us

After the late dinner or so-called supper, back to the room for shower and take quick nap be ready to wake up tomorrow 5am and reaching the airport before 6am.

*****

Time: 6am
Location: Customer Service Department

A new officer at the counter....

Officer: "Sorry sir, we cant just transfer you for the flight to Budapest directly, the miles from Doha to Budapest is way too much compare to miles from Doha to Athens, Our company will have loss on it."

Hubby: "What? Not Again @$*&# ........" * explaining on what happened last night....

Officer: "Sir, i've talked to my superior, there is no way we can change the flight like that"

I was looking to the officer full of hatred and almost wanna kill him!!

Hubby: "How about we pay extra to transit the flight to Budapest??"

Officer: "Sorry sir, it cannot be done other than issuing a new tickets"

We were both totally break down with all this nonsense thing happened to us.....

Very naive to believe that they will be able to transfer our flight....after been slapped twice on the face...we woke up.....life and business is always realistic...they will definitely wont do anything that count to their loss...and yet ..."Your Loss is your loss...NOT MY PROBLEM!" ...no point for begging or arguing....at the end still our head will be chopped down!

Looking at the time its getting late, we discuss among ourself, for the best options to do now is only by buying a new tickets from Doha to Budapest, since we already missed the flight from Athens to Budapest, its better than we save our time to fly from here directly to Budapest than wasting another day at Athens waiting to transit to budapest....no more time wasting and waiting and then delaying our whole schedule!

Finally, we paid RM2k each for the 1 way tickets flying from Doha to Budapest!

*****

Lesson learnt: Never plan the transit flight too close....just to avoid flight delayed or MIS-CONNECTION like we had!

Well...planned what we can plan...and expect things we unexpected. Its kinda shocking and tiring but isn't it the fun-fill of backpacking? Be calm, be independent and get ready to face any challenge....as the Chinese said 塞翁失马，焉知非福, Hopefully after this terrible incident we will have a better tomorrow!