What a day…
No Timor-Leste For You!
Recall, my goal was to reach Dili and I had a very short connection in Bail in order to connect to my Aero Dili flight.
My Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur left KUL on time and was very pleasant, but it is chronically late and this Sunday was no exception. We touched down at 12:05 pm, on time, but taxied for several minutes and by the time we pulled up to the gate and the jetbridge had been connected, it was 12:25 pm…I was now one hour from departure and I had no boarding pass for my connecting international flight on a different airline.
I raced off the plane, ran down the arrivals corridor, and made a beeline for the transit counter, hoping that someone might be able to help. I find it so odd that Indonesian airports have international transit counters yet everyone seems clueless about what an international transit is.
“Do you have your boarding for your next flight?” asked one of the staff members at the transit desk.
“No, that’s why I’m here.”
“We can’t help you. You have to go out through immigration and go to the airline check-in desk.”
Had they just let me up the escalator beside them, I could have gone to the Aero Dili gate and I’m pretty sure they could have issued my boarding pass right there.
But that’s not the way it works and so I retreated to the immigration line, where thankfully there was not much of a line at all. Within five minutes, I was out and running again.
It was now 12:35 pm. At Denpasar International Airport, you run through a labyrinth of currency exchanges, e-sim shops, and food places before you empty out into the real arrivals area. From there, I bolted for an escalator, taking it two levels up to the arrivals area.
I wasn’t sure where to go, but I located the Aero Dili check-in area on the departure board and ran over, by this time panting heavily.
There was still an agent at the desk!
I told her I was on the flight and she said, “You are too late.”
I said, “Please. I have no bags and I tried to check in online.”
She took my passport and set it down next to her.
She made a call on her phone, presumably to the gate. After a moment, she put down the phone, shook her head, and said, “Sorry, you are too late. Would you like me to rebook you for tomorrow?”
Crestfallen, I shook my head and thanked her.
I was thankful that I had purchased the $90 travel insurance from trip.com, which would allow me to get a full refund on my $600 ticket.
The thought crossed my mind to skip Jakarta altogether so I could do Timor-Leste the next day, but I already had the Park Hyatt in Jakarta booked and I did not want to risk missing my Singapore Airlines flights from Jakarta.
Well, so much for that…
I’ll share about my Malaysia Airlines flight later…now I’m going to book myself at the Grand Hyatt and fly to Jakarta tomorrow.
UPDATE: Unbelievable! Aero Dili Calls Me Back, Lets Me Board Flight To Timor-Leste
I’m sharing about my whirlwind trip through Asia.
You win some, you lose some. Good on you for getting the insurance; hopefully, they actually pay out.
Assuming it pays out, a $90 option that failed. As they say, no big Dili-o.
Zing!
Just wondering, if Timor Lest was so high in your bucket list, why did you spend another night in KL staying at a nothing special Hyatt Centric? Why didn’t you go a day earlier to avoid this issue of missing the connection? I mean, you had already spent a night in KL at a much nicer hotel, you had been there before many times so why spend more time there?
Because the MH A330-900neo flight to DPS leaves at 9:00 am, which would have meant no breakfast at the Park Hyatt, making that review very incomplete. Skipping breakfast at the Hyatt Centric was less of an issue.
Got it. So the review of that specific plane was a higher priority than visiting Timor Leste. Nothing wrong with that but there were many later flights (not on that specific plane) that would have placed you in DPS later in the day allowing you to have breakfast at the PH.
Correct, the highest priorty was the MH review.
https://www.kekebrestaurant.com/
^ Would recommend that place for Balinese duck if you’re still there, it’s walking distance from the GH
1st world problems in the 3rd world.
Guess I was wrong about the insurance….this time. Still a suckers play in most cases.
So sad. I was very much looking forward for an article related to Timor Leste.
Matthew has more guts that I do. I find flying nerve-racking. I’m not nervous about plane safety. I just worry about something happening and screwing up a connection. Thus, on an upcoming international trip, I leave earlier than necessary from home and get back home later. I purposely scheduled long layovers at the hub. I get access to the international J lounge. There is no usable time lost for me doing this, but the reducing in pressure is worth it.
What a loser!
Take your pills for your “issues” a$$ clown.
Dave, @This comes to mind is a notorious conservative commenter on this and the other blogs; friendly-fire, much?
Sorry you missed it, I was looking forward to hearing more about the country.
Also will you be doing BKK airport lounge reviews, from this trip
Yes, I’ll publish full reviews of all BKK lounges.
@Matt – usually what I do in these situations is buy a fully refundable ticket on another airline just for the purposes of getting it through that transit counter. Then head to the ‘correct’ airline desk. Have you considered that?
That’s actually quite a smart idea that I did not think of. Apparently, in Indoenisa international-internaitonl tranist is only allowed on Garuda. I could have booked a Garuda ticket, thoguh, and used that. Very good point.
“international-internaitonl tranist is only allowed on Garuda” … woah, good to know. That’d be an odd itinerary, anyway. Like, who would book SIN-CGK-KUL or BKK-DPS-SGN, etc.
I used to have to sprint through Istanbul sabiha gokcken airport to make the London flight as I had come from Turkish Cyprus which is classed as international. It was cheaper to buy two separate tickets from Pegasus Airlines.
By the way, I love your site Mr K !