Nate

Now, let’s see if I can write about my recent flight experience as faithful as possible. Last weekend we took a flight to Langkawi (dengan Air Asia lah apa lagi) – masa dah nak boarding, they asked whether I dah isi borang pengakuan pregnant (which I haven’t, but we have surat doctor just in case. Lagipun I was almost 27 weeks pregnant last week and letter is upon request only). Pada awal-nya kami kiasu nak berebut seats, but end up we were the last (nasib baik flight tak penuh). Mana taknye, the staff yang janji nak bagi form kepada kami hilang entah ke mana and end up kami terpaksa tanya sendiri at a different counter for the borang. Fine. We didn’t miss the flight or anything.

Sampai ke Langkawi, we had lots of fun under the sun – tour de Kilim Geoforest, naik cable car, makan di The Loft, lepak di pantai, shopping chocolates etc. Then hari Isnin datang, oh masa untuk pulang ke KL!

Sampai di airport untuk check-in, aku tanya siap2 for the borang pengakuan pregnant. Puan berapa bulan? 27 weeks. Ada surat doctor? Ada. The staff tengok the surat doctor and geleng kepala. She said surat doctor kena ada 7 days validity (mine was written 2 weeks before) and asked my doctor to fax a new one to Langkawi – or else tak boleh board.

Okay, fine. Except for one problem – KL tengah cuti Thaipusam! So we ask them, what’s the big deal, masa nak fly from KL nobody asked for a freaking surat doctor. Tambahan pula, kalau ikut regulations Air Asia, if you’re 27 weeks pregnant, you can still fly with them without doctor’s letter pun takpe. Bollocks. They asked me to go to counter customer service to sort out this matter.

You know, saat2 genting macam ni (I really don’t want to miss my flight) one would expect the staff to be supportive to help us. Instead ini yang terjadi (dengan staf Air Asia Si Muka Kelat yang mungkin gaji tak cukup):
1. Still tak boleh fly – tambahan pula apabila borang pengakuan mengandung dari KL tiada di tangan kami
2. Surat doctor tetap kena reject
3. Kena cari doctor di Langkawi to get a new letter
4. Oh, naik je teksi yang ada kat luar airport tu – tapi kena drag luggage sekali sbb AA tak offer nak tolong jagakan barang
5. Kalau miss flight, kena bayar penalty (walaupun kami gila kiasu sampai di airport awal)
6. Dan oh, oh, bayar the difference ya kalau the next flight is more expensive than the flight we’re supposed to board
Wow, rasa macam masuk Amazing Race pula. Aku sudah mula meninggikan suara apabila dia memberitahu kami tetap tak boleh fly: “So what are you going to do to help us here?!?”.

Tapi kami bukan jenis yang agresif – I know some of you would probably throw a hissy fit by then. Baby dalam perut mula stress seperti ibu-nya. Nak tak nak, terpaksa kami cari doctor di luar (thank God we still have our rented car masa tu) and found Klinik Delima. Doctor Yus kata this is not the first time orang kena macam ni – mmg susah nak fly back to KL without the right documentation (adakah ini satu sindiket untuk memaksa orang KL jadi orang Langkawi?). Dapat surat, terus rush balik ke airport.


This is our rented car. Gila p0rny!

But our misery didn’t end there. Si Muka Kelat itu masih mahu charge kami penalty dan pay for the cost difference – unless we have the letter from KL. Penat aku geledah luggage yang confirm tiada surat itu. Saat itu aku sudah raise my voice sekali lagi pada Si Muka Kelat itu “Kot ye pun nak kami bayar, you don’t have to be rude!!!”

What happened next was a blur. Si Muka Kelat asked me to quickly follow him, and minta R scan bags (walaupun kami dah scan the bags masa mula2 sampai tadi). Aku fikir, oh great, now he’s sending me to deal with his superior pula. Instead, we’re now back at the check-in counter, bags ditimbang semula, dan was asked to isi bukan 1, tapi 2 borang pengakuan mengandung. Tanpa apa2 explanation atau apologitika atau a clue whatsoever of what’s gonna happen next, kami diminta ke Gate 4 dengan cepat. Eh? Didn’t we miss our 9:50 am flight already? (it was already close to 11am ketika itu). Even the police kat departure gate thought the 950 plane dah blah.

Next thing we knew we were back in line untuk board flight – the 9:50am flight was delayed! Syukur pada Tuhan. Sungguh ajaib. Cuma masa nak masuk dalam aircraft aku kena tahan lagi. Air Asia lupa nak mintak RM10 from us for the luggages! Banyak betul dugaan (and cikadak).

Itu jelah pengalaman saya untuk kali ini. Should we lodge a report? We could, considering all the crap we had to go through. Tapi Air Asia adalah satu-satunya aircraft yang bukan sahaja no frills, but NON-APOLOGETIC either. A little common courtesy would be nice. Is that too much to ask? Tak mengapa. I’ll just post it here, for everyone to read and learn. I really hope they'll improve their customer service in Langkawi because honestly, they all suck.

[by the way, tiba di KL, aku sangkut lagi dan terpaksa bermalam di rumah in-laws : BATERI KERETA AKU MATI!!! Aergh!]