Wrong Click

The cost of making a mistake in doing online booking:

1. Three hours and eight minutes stuck in a room full of equally desperate and restless people. - I arrived at the airline ticket office to process my rebooking at 3:02pm yesterday and managed to survive the longest wait I did for such a task. It was a good thing I brought a book and maximized the time reading instead of staring into space and absorbing the frustrations of the people around me. The irony of it all was, my entire transaction took only about 12 minutes. Finish time: 6:10pm


2. Php2,000 - Say what?!?!? "Can you please tell me again why I need to pay Php2,000?" was all I had to say to the airline crew/staff. She said that was for the upgrade and the rebooking fee. Good thing I had money in my wallet because I was naive enough to proceed to the ticketing office thinking I would be paying a minimal amount for that one lousy mistake I made with my online booking.


3. One more e-ticket that I need to make sure I do not lose. - "But why can't you just give me one ticket?", I said. And the staff said, "because if I do, you need to pay me the Php1,600 for the travel tax". Then I said, "but I have travel tax exemption, I just don't have it with me right now". To which she replied, "Sorry, but I can't give you just one ticket since I need to see the travel tax exemption first". That, I said to myself, I will just have to live with.

It has always been said that something good always come out of something bad. This entire exercise in patience and waiting taught me that lessons really need to be learned. Sometimes, it is better to suffer first to make the lesson stick. I most definitely learned mine. Next time I need to book online, no mistakes will be made, absolutely not if I can help it.