Two hours after my sister and I were told to get off a plane because of a hydraulic fuel leakage, we started to hammer the airport staff for answers. Were we going to meet our connecting flights in 9 hours?
They did not know.
They gave us an alternative: to re-route to another destination and then catch a flight from there to meet our connecting flight. Was the re-route paid for? Yes. Was the latter part of the flight paid for? No.
Was it a guarantee that we could catch the latter plane? They could not say so.
Smiling for a picture before boarding the plane
to be told to get off 20 minutes later...
...if I had only known.
Missing our connecting flights meant that my sister would have to wait another 8 hours and myself 24 hours on top of the already dramatic 13 hours. And miss out on work and meeting course deadlines.
With less than half an hour before the Clark to KL flight left the ground, we decided on the alternative without purchasing the plane tickets from KK to KL. Dumb mistake? Well, no since that was what the Clark staff advised us to do. To not purchase the tickets.
So there we were on a plane to KK without a plane ticket from KK to KL. With less than an hour to jump off the plane, get through immigration, buy a ticket, get through immigration and customs again and jump on a plane to KL, we both were in the hands of the airport/airplane staff.
What makes it the best story of my life so far?
We both discovered calmness in the whirlwind of calamity. At a point when all plans seemed to fail, we both stopped and prayed. We prayed for ourselves and for patience. We prayed for the airport staff and for their tolerance and understanding. We prayed at a time when we found it hard to move on.
And it was with prayer that we were able to find peace within ourselves. We were thankful for Joshua, the airport staff at Clark, for his patience and help. Throughout it all, he looked after us well. Although everyone who was inconvenienced by the delay of the flight received a free lunch, Joshua brought the lunch to us personally. Maybe he knew that we were not going to eat otherwise.
Two hours or so later and after much drama, we boarded the plane from KK to KL. And it was only because of the grace and understanding of the flight captain, airport staff at KK (lady in the yellow jacket and the guy who helped carry my bags in the rain) and the cabin crew, that we were on that plane. They said that they were going to try their best to help us and they did. And they even managed to smile through it all.
On the plane ride to KL, me and my sister were both still very tense because she could very well miss her connecting flight. And out of the blue, one of the cabin crew, the one who helped us from the start, came by to our seats and told us that they will do what they can to make sure my sister made it to her connecting flight. That was when my sister broke into tears. I admit, I did too but much later when I was contemplating on all that had happened on my own connecting flight back to Perth.
My sister and I wrote a long email to Air Asia thanking them for their efforts and for reminding us to do the same. To help and take care of strangers in times of need. To go the extra mile. To listen and understand. To remain calm when there is much cause for chaos. And to smile a real genuine smile even when times are hard.
Here's to Air Asia and its crew.
I learned how to play scales and practiced until the tips of my fingers were so sore that it took a couple of days to heal. I went the week after and then continued to go once every fortnight until the 30 October 2010 when the guitar savings ran out.
