FeR

On Wednesday, drama at work! I think she’s Vietnamese(?) because she wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh. *hehe*

So. Like I asked Leech, where’s Ho Chi Minh? And where’s Phnom Penh?

If you don’t know, nevermind. Google it. It’s not a crime to not know but it’s a crime to not know and yet make as if you are soooooo sure! Can make people cry, yea? And this was what literally happened.

Suddenly this officer approached AhLeng to ask her to tell this sobbing lady that her ticket is to Phnom Penh (the lady calls it “pon pon”) and not to Ho Chi Minh because AirAsia doesn’t fly there. Ah! She said a friend booked it for her, that she paid RM1k(???!!!) for her tickets from JB to KL to “Ho Chi Minh”. Initially we thought, “Ah! Kena con ady!”

She was crying her eyeballs out! She’s very fair and you could see how hard she was crying judging from the redness of her cheeks, eyes, nose and lips. Poor girl! She was all alone, wearing a cap sleeved t-shirt and denim miniskirt! How to tahan the cold if she has to stay overnight in the terminal

Right. It all started when she asked Kamal about her ticket. She asked the right person because he’s very nice. When he told her that her ticket goes to Phnom Penh (CAMBODIA!) and not Ho Chi Minh (VIETNAM!), she started crying. That’s when those people came to look for help lah! They asked her if she wanted to board the flight. Apparently when she reaches Phnom Penh, she could take a bus (about 3 hours’ ride) to Ho Chi Minh (or was it just to Vietnam only? *shrugs*).
The catch is this – that AA lady told her, “You want to go on this flight or not? If you don’t want to, I’ll take you out and get your bag back.”
Thereafter, the plan was to take her to the main terminal building to get a MAS ticket to Ho Chi Minh. She’d rather pay extra to take MAS rather than going to Phnom Penh because she’s not familiar with the place (and does not speak their language!).
She was asked again, “So are you sure? You don’t want to go on this Phnom Penh flight?” (Note : It’s only ONE flight a day, if she misses this one, no more later flights. Furthermore, they won’t refund her ticket.)
Of course with that promise that she could go to the main terminal building to catch a DIRECT flight back to her desired destination, who wouldn’t take it?

NOW! After she said she’s definitely not going to Phnom Penh, the AA lady took her out just to be stopped at the immigration counter. Hoik! Her passport was stamped “out” of Malaysia already, how to suddenly be free walking around in Malaysia again?! She was taken back into the waiting area and what else? Cry lah!
The other disadvantage was that she couldn’t speak fluent English. If not sure AA kena taruh already.

In the end, she was told she would still have to go to Phnom Penh. That her previous ticket is “burnt”. She’d have to buy another ticket to Phnom Penh(!!!) and it’ll cost her RM300+ AND she’d have to stay overnight in the waiting area because she cannot go back “into” Malaysia and cannot leave for anywhere else!!! Phnom Penh was the nearest she could get to Ho Chi Minh. In the end, she would STILL have to go to Phnom Penh.
If they didn’t promise that she could CHOOSE where to go, she wouldn’t need to spend extra money, to waste extra time. Poor thing! She could’ve just gone on that flight. The best thing is, they took her “luggage” out from the Wednesday flight. This other AA guy came to ask me to tell her that they now need to check her bag for any besi.
When she went to the bag scanner, she shook her head violently and cried!
Again! We were thinking was it that she’s been cheated to carry drugs or something! *hehe* So the drama, right?
Turned out that they took the WRONG BAG! No clothes to wear. Her bag is in Phnom Penh and the owner of the bag that’s sitting in front of her is in Phnom Penh. How nice.
AhLeng and the LancomeGirl gave her a denim jacket and sweater each. The jacket was for her to wear and the sweater was for her to cover her legs. AhLeng even made her a cup of Milo. She had no choice.
Actually, she would have a choice if she could speak better English. Kamal told us that if the immigration side says “OK” for her to go to main terminal building to fly by MAS, she could go. The thing is, the AA lady told us that people from AA would need to accompany her there and makes 100% sure that she gets on her Ho Chi Minh flight…and that AA does not provide such a service! They say that it’s the girl’s fault for trusting this “friend” and it wasn’t their fault she got the wrong ticket!
WAH!!! This is what you call “customer service officer”?!!! Pfffft!

If they told her earlier that she couldn’t leave the waiting area, that she couldn’t take the MAS flight…she would have taken the Phnom Penh flight. They gave her a choice. A choice any sane person would take instead of going to somewhere strange and foreign!

Heh-lo?!
AFTER the flight has gone, another scene emerges.
Apadah!!!

I was so pissed on her behalf that I cut my own hand while cutting up some boxes for display.

Why I asked where’s Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh? Apparently this girl is not all that daft lah! She actually saw her ticket and asked the person at the check in counter (this is what she told me after she paid for her second ticket to Phnom Penh!)…”This says Phnom Penh. I want to go to Ho Chi Minh…Vietnam. Would this get me to Vietnam?”

The person said, “Yes! Phnom Penh, Vietnam…same!”

So she continued and walked to the international departure gate and asked the security, “Does this go to Ho Chi Minh international airport?”

“Yes!”

Finally, she asked the person at the immigration counter, “I want to go to Vietnam, is this ticket to Vietnam?”

“Yes.”

She still felt dubious and finally asked Kamal, “Does this go to Ho Chi Minh?”

“No. This goes to Phnom Penh. It’s Cambodia, we don’t fly to Vietnam.”

AH! See? There’s even this lady from the duty free store, “Eh! Phnom Penh, correct lah! In Vietnam mah! Same country as Ho Chi Minh! Like KL and JB, both in Malaysia.”

???????

I told AhLeng (because she was the one who told me what this lady said), “Penang also a few hours away from Bangkok. Does that mean Penang and Bangkok in the same country?”

I guess this lady made that comment when she heard about the bus ride from Phnom Penh being 3 hours away from Ho Chi Minh. Man! My geography is bad! At least I ask again to know where’s where. These people all taruh only!

Ah! Drama at work.

On a different note, I’m going to miss this person when I go back to MTB. She’s one of my favourite if not the only favourite person to work with. *hehe*