Saturday, August 13, 2011

Another Lesson On Flight Booking Learnt

A couple of days ago, KS and I decided we really needed a holiday before the end of the year. We settled for Japan. Before we had time to sort out the details as to when we'd be travelling, where exactly we'd like to go within Japan, the AirAsia launched their maiden flight deals to Osaka and local travel fair descended upon us.

Flight prices were slashed and suddenly, travelling with a non-budget airline became a fairly affordable option. I was on the verge of booking a return flight to Osaka when KS told me to hang on and I remembered my last mistake of buying an air flight to Perth on the spur of the moment.

So instead, what happened this time? I bought a one way ticket to Osaka with MAS and as I was going to buy a one way ticket back from Tokyo, I realized there wasn't a promotion for the flight back. Instead, I would be paying more than two times the amount for my flight there! So, for a few hours while I waited for the MAS helpline to call me back, there was a general panic and I had with me a one way ticket to Japan.

Unfortunately, MAS does not allow an upgrade of their sold tickets, which I think is ridiculous. I was trying to convert my one way ticket into a return flight but with the deal that was currently being offered. Instead, I was forced to buy an AirAsia ticket back from Tokyo, which, thankfully was only a few hundred Ringgit more than the promotional price for MAS.

Sigh. All in all, we're on for Japan at last. Now to go hunt for what on earth we're supposed to do there!

On a side note, KS actually Googled "should I go to Japan?" when we were about to decide buying our flight tickets. Whatever happened to the good ol' flip the coin to make your life decisions?!

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