I was traveling back to DC from Vientiane via BKK and here is how amusingly conversations went with various airlines personnel.
SCENE 1
SCENE 1
Check-in counter at Wattay Intl Airport, Vientiane: Ma’am, your luggage will be checked in until BKK only
Me: But I connect on Qatar later tonight, cant the luggage be transferred?
Check-in counter at Wattay: Sorry ma’am. Thai Smile does not provide transfer services. You will need to collect your luggage at Suvarnabhumi airport and check in again
Me: !!!!! Does this make sense? I don’t need to get into Bangkok
Check-in counter at Wattay: Please check with Thai Airways personnel in Bangkok.
Me: But I connect on Qatar later tonight, cant the luggage be transferred?
Check-in counter at Wattay: Sorry ma’am. Thai Smile does not provide transfer services. You will need to collect your luggage at Suvarnabhumi airport and check in again
Me: !!!!! Does this make sense? I don’t need to get into Bangkok
Check-in counter at Wattay: Please check with Thai Airways personnel in Bangkok.
SCENE 2
Me: Sir, I need to have my luggage transferred. I was asked by Thai Smile to contact Thai personnel
Information center in BKK airport: Ma’am you need to clear immigration to collect your luggage
Me: (Oh….I didn’t know that – in my mind). Thank you, but I don’t want to clear immigration. I want the luggage to be transferred. I prefer to stay in the airport terminal.
Information counter in BKK airport: Please go speak to Qatar Airways personnel on level 2.
Information center in BKK airport: Ma’am you need to clear immigration to collect your luggage
Me: (Oh….I didn’t know that – in my mind). Thank you, but I don’t want to clear immigration. I want the luggage to be transferred. I prefer to stay in the airport terminal.
Information counter in BKK airport: Please go speak to Qatar Airways personnel on level 2.
SCENE 3
I walk 15 mins, clear security to get to transfer area on level 2. I find no one at the Qatar counter.
Thai Airways counter: Ma’am can I help you?
Me: Please! I just need to have my luggage transferred, having arrived from Vientiane on Thai Smile.
Thai Airways counter: Oh sorry ma’am, but Thai Smile does not provide the service
Me: I thought Thai Smile was part of Thai Airways?
Thai Airways counter: yes, ma’am but we are yet to sign some MOUs
Me: (HA HA HA – in my mind). OKAY……I cannot find anyone from Qatar in the transfer area
Thai Airways counter: They will come 3-4 hours before flight time. You see, today is a Saturday
Me: Doesn’t the airport have any paid service to have the luggage transferred?
Thai Airways counter: No ma’am sorry
Me: So how do I speak to a Qatar representative?
Thai Airways counter: Maybe you can find someone in the departure terminal
Me: (God, please give me patience!). But that means I must clear immigration???
Thai Airways counter: Yes ma’am. There is no other option
Me: Okay, I can get a visa on entry. But what if I couldn’t, then how should I get my luggage?
Thai Airways counter: In that case ma’am, I need to check with my manager
Me: Can you check now assuming I cannot get a visa?
Thai Airways counter: You will need to wait ma’am. The manager is not around currently.
Me: Thank you very much, I will get a visa.
Thai Airways counter: Ma’am can I help you?
Me: Please! I just need to have my luggage transferred, having arrived from Vientiane on Thai Smile.
Thai Airways counter: Oh sorry ma’am, but Thai Smile does not provide the service
Me: I thought Thai Smile was part of Thai Airways?
Thai Airways counter: yes, ma’am but we are yet to sign some MOUs
Me: (HA HA HA – in my mind). OKAY……I cannot find anyone from Qatar in the transfer area
Thai Airways counter: They will come 3-4 hours before flight time. You see, today is a Saturday
Me: Doesn’t the airport have any paid service to have the luggage transferred?
Thai Airways counter: No ma’am sorry
Me: So how do I speak to a Qatar representative?
Thai Airways counter: Maybe you can find someone in the departure terminal
Me: (God, please give me patience!). But that means I must clear immigration???
Thai Airways counter: Yes ma’am. There is no other option
Me: Okay, I can get a visa on entry. But what if I couldn’t, then how should I get my luggage?
Thai Airways counter: In that case ma’am, I need to check with my manager
Me: Can you check now assuming I cannot get a visa?
Thai Airways counter: You will need to wait ma’am. The manager is not around currently.
Me: Thank you very much, I will get a visa.
So, I end up paying for a visa (using the fast track as the regular line was way too long) just so that I can collect my luggage. Cost apart, such a waste of time and effort. Well, Thai Smile, you definitely didn’t make me smile! Maybe BKK airport could think of something similar like the Marhaba in Dubai. Even if expensive, atleast the service is available. I hope the drama quota for this trip is over, please!
Now it’s a different matter altogether that I was not going to let the visa go waste. So, I take the airport link train to get to the city for 3 hours to do some quick shopping at Platinum. This doesn’t rate very well on the cost benefit analysis though, just saying.....
1 comment:
Higher the complexity of life, higher will be the nature of problems associated with it. The layers and strata of human society is much like how layers of software have developed. Initially there were was the machine language - the bits and bytes - and then some simple programming that we did on it. As things advanced, the programming went higher and higher having built upon the foundations of machine language codes that were in use. Today, we have plug and play apps which are several layers above the programming that we did a decade ago. Similarly, the hierarchies of our urban life have grown as layers above the natural life that we lived centuries ago. The flows of authority and control are too complication to get transparent and accountable functioning anymore. The locus gets lost in translation between the manifold layers of interaction. In short, they translate into the problems that you faced. I think it is inevitable, given the way our society has grown.
- Vikas.
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