#skypicker

[dudizx]

Flying home from the bootcamp

It's been a long time since I've written a post. The last one is from the bootcamp and I didn't even tell you about my mad journey back home - so let’s fix it:

17/1/2016, Airport Kuala Lumpur: Tried to get printed my Air Asia’s ticket from KL to India, where I had a connection to Dubai and later to Prague, Czech Republic. Was dismissed by their staff - 6 attempts with 6 different employees but the result stuck same: I can’t flight to India without having a visa even (doesn’t matter if I have a connection in a few hours to another country). 

The interesting thing is: When I had a flight to Malaysia, it was through India too and they allow me to go there without the visa (different company though).

- After the three months I spent in Malaysia my budget was very tight and I had to buy a new flight ticket to get home. The cheapest one: Through Brunei to Dubai.

Spent a night in KL airport...

18/1/2016: Aiport in Brunei: I’ve never heard about a country called Brunei. And here I am. Brunei airport at 10 pm. Next flight in 24 hours.

Spent a night in Brunei airport... (so comfortable, I was the only one sleeping there)

I had the chance to go to see the city before my next flight and although I was quite scared about the expectation as I read that for example Christmas is banned because of the strong Islamic faith etc... I had an amazing time and I’ve seen and heard so many new things + met a person to spent the day with me.

- The World’s largest water village - Sultan’s Palace: The largest single family residence ever built with 1788 rooms and 257 bathrooms.

19/1/2016: Airport in Dubai - arrived at 10 pm. I had again 24 hours before my next flight, finally, to my home.

Spent a night in Dubai airport...

I went to see the city for my first time, took an underground from airport to the last station and back - visited the tallest skyscraper in the World and the shopping centre. Too tired to do anything else so the rest of my time I spent watching movies in the airport.

20/1/2016: Airport in Prague - arrived at 11 pm

I thought it would be a good story to have a strike of fourth nights sleeping in the 4 different airports in a row but eventually, my friend woke me up from the dream and told me about the temperature in the Czech - about minus 10 degrees. So I finally had a comfortable bed in my friend’s flat. Thanks!

PS: I bought my tickets from Czech to Malaysia and return from SkyPicker. The search engine is powerful (sometimes) and the CEO Oliver Dlouhy everywhere says about their guarantee. Unfortunately, my attempt to get some compensation failed and the insurance was useless as well (read the story from Czech to Malaysia: My flight & the disaster started).

[malacademy]

My flight & the disaster started

I booked the flight ticket through SkyPicker - a czech company that is able to search through most of the flight companies and find the best variation regarding time, price or the combination of both.

For my trip across SE Asia I used Momondo.com and I also mentioned SkyScanner but none of them was able to offer better price / time than SkyPicker.

I booked my flight for 27th November and it included three different companies - just mentioned that from London to Czech I was flying a week before on 22nd November.

27th - 28 November

9:30 from PRAGUE to DUBAI at 18:30 - by SmartWings

22:15 from DUBAI to COCHIN at 03:55 - by IndiGo

08:15 from COCHIN to KUALA LUMPUR at 15:05 - by Air Asia

I wish to tell you how the 23 hours journey was amazing and smooth as it was by Emirates when I had a flight from Thailand. I WISH. But no... let’s start the story.

Ok first being positive. I did not buy any additional luggage, just the cabin one. The flight ticket was saying the size & weight and I did not pay attention to that.

When I put my cabin baggage in the airport in front of the girl from SmartWings who printed the ticket, it showed 7 kg. I told her I am taking it with me if it is okay. She said yes & asked me what was the weigh. I told her almost 5 kg - the 7 kg is almost 5 kg from the different point of view right? Luckily she was okay with that and the two other companies were more generous about the weight - one with 10 kg and the second 7 kg.

But back to the wish & the disaster. On the airport in Dubai the guy did not want to print me the ticket to India if I would not show him return ticket. I was arguing that I do not need it but he was such an idiot that he twisted the sentence “not holding a return/onward ticket  could be requested to purchase one or refused entry” to a sentence “people not holding return ticket have to be refuse to entry”. We were arguing for couple of mins and I asked to speak with someone else - his team leader came to the “stage”.

I was trying to explain him my situation, arguing about two hours, showing him my course, the length I rented the room, the reasons that I might have get working visa or going to travel after the period of three months where I do not need any visa... does not help.

I was so exhausted of it that I just told him that he is racist and he went for a security to persuaded me that he is not and he is just doing his job (that was funny). 

Well the story was much longer and many things happened but eventually I ended up with the return ticket on my hands - otherwise I would miss the connected flight. I have never bought a flight ticket so spontaneously without analyse it - and this return ticket cost me 280 pounds, breaking my budget I had...

In India I and two other people were asking if we are going to KL by the colour of our face (I guess) and we were holded about 2 hours before they scanned us and let us go for the free duty shop, where I finally ate since the flight from Prague to Dubai.

The flight was also disaster and I’d hate India. The people do not care about queuing or about personal space... they are just pushing you all the time & ignoring it. 

Well that’s my flight. My return ticket is sadly dated for 17th January. My course is ending 2nd January. Who knows if I will go back but on 80% yes as it was very costly.