Tale of a Stalker

Once upon a time, during the MIRC era in the early 00's, I chatted with a guy named Taufiq (bukan nama sebenar. *wink*) I had a HUGE crush on him because:

a. He's CUTE. Totally my type. (I've seen his picture. He's photogenic, at least. ;p)

b. His name is TAUFIQ. ("Taufiq & Hidayah" does have a nice ring to it, kan? Aiyooo.. berangan!) 

c. His English is superb. (My kryptonite)

After 1 year of knowing him online, we lost contact with each other. Bummer.

I would be lying if I were to tell you that I have never tried searching his name on facebook/twitter, once in awhile.

Just 10 minutes ago, I tried googling his name. 22,400 results came up and I clicked the third link randomly. 

Lo' and behold, the elusive Taufiq. I FOUND HIM!

But the blog post is about his wedding. *cue thunderstorm and heavy rain*

AAX debacle update

I don't want to relive the horrible attempts to get the attention of AAX, it'll just spike my blood pressure.

To cut things short, I called their "premium line" (that's just their fancy term for "fucking expensive call charges"), went through their incompetent live web chat, sent 3 emails and all of them failed to get them to move their ass, do their job and settle my urgent problem.

My travel buddy Faiza, called their premium line as well and on the second call, she managed to get them to give us the new destination itinerary. Phew~

Can you believe it? I had to go through all the available channels and none worked. It seems they will only pay attention to us with a little bit of scolding over the phone. To say that I was frustrated would be the understatement of the year.

Alas, they managed to settle the recovery options and we were given another destination at no extra charge. I just wish they are more organised in handling their customers and not brushing them off easily, just transferring the customers from one channel to the other. We know, you are a budget carrier and you did offer cheap price for the airfares but we did pay with our hard earned money. Please respect and value your customer.

"Thank you", AAX.

One of many first world problems

I noticed, these past few weeks.. the things people post on social network sites are annoying the hell out of me. I will not go into details because I have about umm.. 34678 reasons for feeling so. 


Social networks are double-edged sword, for example:
a) helps you to keep in touch with strangers (hello, stalker generation!);
b) serves as public diary for people to air their dirty laundry;
c) are effective tools to spread mundane news such as how terrible government servants' English is. (Ok, now I am just being mean. SOME government servants' English. Sorry.)


Full disclosure, I have done the aforementioned. 


Now that I have established the pros and cons, here's the tricky part. Moving forward, what is the best step?


Here are my limited options:
a) Delete my fb and twitter account and stop inflicting harm to myself;
b) Delete all strangers on both accounts and use the sites to communicate with ONLY the people that I actually like; OR
c) Let it be and continue to be annoyed on a daily basis.


Hmm...

"Smart" move, AAX

Last Wednesday, I was scrolling my fb news feed and suddenly stumbled across an announcement from Air Asia X. They are cancelling a few routes "due to soaring taxes and higher jet fuel prices". Unfortunately my flight to Mumbai on 16 February 2012 is affected. Bummer. 


Well, all is not bad. Air Asia X promised to give three alternatives  "including a full refund, a reroute to another AirAsia X destination (e.g, in Australia and North Asia), or a move to an alternative carrier where available" and all these " at no additional cost".


Air Asia X, I sure do hope you keep your promise this time.


FYI, I purchased my flight tickets a year ago during the RM0.10 promo and I bagged the return ticket to Mumbai at RM260. Sounds like a pretty good deal at that time but why oh why must you make a drastic change without much earlier notice?


The route to Mumbai is cancelled from 1 February 2012 onwards but this announcement was only made on 11 January 2012. Come on, it's common sense that ample time of notice must be in order before you simply cancel your customers' flights.

Mass email from Air Asia X

According to the email, they are going to send another email to individual customers to inform  the options available to them. Well, today is the 14th and I see no email from you, AAX! Nak cancel flight cepat aje.. nak remedy the situation lembab pulak kan?


Lady Luck is on my side as I have not made any accommodation arrangements yet and have yet to apply for my visa. Phew!


The only silver lining I can see out of this shenanigan is that I have the option to travel to other countries with no extra cost. I am definitely picking somewhere far, somewhere expensive. Hahaha! I really want to go to New Zealand so, fingers crossed! :)