This post is going to be a little different than some of my others. I’m not going to talk about the amazing destination we were headed to (Greece) or the incredible month we just spent in Australia. Instead, I hope to help someone else forego a little heartache caused by poor decision in making their travel arrangements.
Contents
The Scenario
Here’s the thing. We’d been traveling for over 6 months at this point and I felt pretty good about my capabilities with Google Flights and coordinating buses and ferries and trains, “Oh My!”. It was that, and an overinflated sense of security that we were in an English speaking developed country, and they must, therefore, have reliable transportation. So let me set the stage.
We had just spent 4 weeks in Australia, and half of it in amazing, beautiful Tasmania. After Australia came our highly anticipated 3 months of Schengen access, mostly to be spent in Italy. It turns out that flights from Australia to just about anywhere are super expensive. Enter Singapore. With Scoot (ok, you can roll your eyes now), we could get tickets from Melbourne to Athens for about half the price of flying anywhere else remotely close to Italy. And besides, who doesn’t want to take a few days to visit the Parthenon? So I booked the flight. Trouble is, we were in Hobart, Tasmania, not Melbourne. After careful consideration and consultation with my husband (This is my disclaimer, because I swear we talked about it together before I hit the button to book), we decided to go ahead and book a Jetstar flight from Hobart to Melbourne in the morning of the same day as our flight to Athens via Singapore. We would have a healthy 3 hours between flights in Melbourne. I think my exact words, were, “Even if we get delayed or something, we should still have plenty of time to make our flight.”
Fast forward to the day of travel. As we sat at the Hobart airport I noticed that a bunch of flights to Sydney were showing up on the board as delayed. Ok, no big, we’re going to Melbourne. It was some sort of weather issue. But, then they realized that the weather was also bad in Melbourne, so those flights started showing delays too. Just little delays. Now comes a pivotal moment. Over the loudspeaker, they announced that one of the Jetstar flights was delayed due to an internal computer issue. The next announcement was that all Jetstar flights were delayed with a network outage. But good news is the weather has cleared.
To me a network outage means they need to reboot the router and all will be well in a few minutes. To Justin, the guy who sold IT networks to large businesses, this meant armageddon. The only problem was, he was on the phone and didn’t hear the message.
So to spare you the next 2 hours of palm sweating, pulse pounding, anxiety, frustration, and agony, I’ll jump to the end and tell you that the networks were finally restored. We did finally make our flight, three hours after it was scheduled to depart, putting us in Melbourne in time to wave at our outbound flight to Singapore as it took off.
So now that you’ve lived through this experience with me, let me share the lessons learned and what NOT to do.
Lessons Learned
Book Everything With One Ticket
So since we were flying JetStar to Melbourne and Scoot to Singapore and then Athens, the two airlines were not super sympathetic to our plight. Jetstar gave us each a $7 meal voucher, and eventually, after a lot of bother, two $50 travel vouchers valid only for 6 month. Scoot was even less accommodating. They had nothing for us unless we wanted to wait a few days for their next flight and pay some ridiculous change fee. To Scoot’s credit, they did allow us to still keep the second leg of our ticket, if we could find an alternative way to get to Singapore in time to catch the second flight. This is important. If you ever miss the first leg of a trip, make sure you talk to airline, because they often won’t let you just pick up at the next stop.
For Goodness Sakes, Give Yourself More Time
If you’re ever scheduling flights with connections, make sure you have a backup plan if you somehow get delayed. This is where I had gotten cocky. I had scheduled several tight connections before, but none of them involved being on an island hours away from the next stop with no alternative method of travel, and a very expensive trans-continental flight. So, like, if I was doing this again, I’d fly to Melbourne the night before and stay the night there, or at least put us on the absolute earliest flight out in the morning (yep the early flight made it, no problem).
Be Assertive As Soon As It Goes Sideways
Remember how I said Justin was on the phone when they announced the network outage issue? Well I was sitting there feeling pretty confident until he got off the phone and I told him what was going on. He was less confident than I was and we decided we needed to go talk to the airline employees and figure out an alternative plan. There was a Quantas flight leaving for Melbourne that we tried to switch to, but since our bags were checked with Jetstar and the Quantas checkin time was closing, they wouldn’t let us switch. Had we made the decision to talk to the gate agents a little sooner, we would have been on that Quantas flight for an extra $100, instead of what ended up happening and costing us about $900.
Sometimes Budget Isn’t Better
This isn’t exactly lesson to live by, but definitely a reminder that sometimes price isn’t everything. As long term travelers, every penny counts, but sometimes what you get for your dollar is so much greater that the extra money is worth it. In order to get to Singapore in time for the second leg of our flight to Greece, we had to buy last minute tickets on a Quantas flight from Melbourne to Singapore for about $900. They were kind enough to put us in an exit row for free since Justin is 6’4″ (almost 2 meters) and legroom is a must on a long flight. We had water bottles, blankets and pillows, movies to watch and a nice meal to make the flight go by more quickly and pleasantly.
By contrast, the second leg of our flight, from Singapore to Athens, was not as pleasant. The time in the air was about the same for both flights, but Scoot does not even provide free water for their passengers. If we wanted them, we would have to pay for a blanket, pillow, entertainment, $4 for water, and $12 for the use of the power outlet. Our meal that we pre-paid for came only 40 minutes after takeoff, leaving us hungry for the next 9 hours and fell into the category of 90s standup comedian material for being such awful food.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, we made it to Athens, and everything worked out. Money is just money and even though we are carefully watching where every penny goes, it is ok when emergencies come up. If something like this happens to you, don’t let it derail your travels. Maybe it’ll be a funny story someday. In the meantime, think hard about scheduling those tight connections and when choosing budget airlines. Buon Viaggio!
