Kuala Lumpur International Airport
The taxi driver, who drove me from the Westin to the Sentral Station, where the KLIA Expres leaves charged not only the first 2 km – they should be included in the base fare of MYR 2.00, but also gave me no money back as I handled him MYR 10.00 and told him to give change on 8.00 MYR on the fare of MYR 6.90, put my luggage out of the bump get in his taxi an drove away. Okay, this is not a matter of money (1 EUR = 4.70 MYR or 3.80 USD) but a matter of fact.
And another question I will not understand, why the round fare trip Airport – Sentral – Airport is as expensive as two
single tickets?
The ride in the KLIA Express was nevertheless nice and convenient.
At KLIA I headed to the Check In counter of SQ in row L. The guy at the counter was a little bit confused as I handled him three tickets, a ticket SIN – KUL – SIN, a ticket FRA – NYC – SIN – FRA and a ticket QKL – FRA – QKL, as I want to check my luggage the whole was to QKL.
What happened now was still a bit amazing and funny. First he pointed out that I was a bit too early to check in for the 21.45 flight
(it was 17.30 at this time) and there was no flight out of Singapore booked for me. I told him, I came early, because it could be little bit complicated to get all this tickets issued, but if I can catch the SQ 117 at 18.50 this would also be fine. My outgoing flight, I told him also, was the flight FRA – NYC – SIN – FRA. It seems, that he now realised for the first time, that this was no usual return ticket. The ticket QKL – FRA – QKL was then too much. He called a supervisor, I think, that he should tell me,
to come back later as I was booked on a later flight, but unfortunately to him, he advised to rebook me on the earlier flight. So he worked on. Next problem, he could not find the airport code for Frankfurt, but a colleague pointed on my ticket where the code was printed and showed him also in his check in screen where to look after airport codes. So he worked on, but get only printed a baggage sign to SIN. He wanted to put this to my luggage, but I advised him, to check my luggage to QKL, not only to SIN. At
this moment, another colleague, switched to his seat and handled the rest of the check in. She also marked several mistakes he had made, by ignoring that the last segment was in Business (Priority Sticker), I had a seat preselected (new boarding pass for the segment SIN – FRA) and Cologne City would not be Cologne Airport. But a this time she asked me again, if I know the airport code for Cologne City, which I told her (I told this the guy three times during check in) and she rechecked it in the computer. She
told me, the computer only showed them CGN as airport for Cologne but as she put QKL the result was Cologne City. The young guy looked a little bit worried, but I was told by her colleague that he is new and not as firm to such a complicated itinerary.
By this moment we had 18:05 and I passed security and customs and headed to the Satellite with the gates A-B-C where I arrived at 18:20. The waiting area was opened so I skipped the Priority Pass lounge and went to the waiting area.
25
October 2004
KUL – SIN
[Kuala Lumpur – Singapore]
SQ 117 (Singapore Airlines); Boeing 777 – 200
18:45 – 19:45
Economy Class
Seat 47 K
Boarding was announced to begin at 18:20, but began a little bit late at 18:30, as usual with Star Alliance Gold, PPS and families but the announcement for the last rows in Economy was made only a few seconds later.
The flight was only two third full, the two seats beside me remain empty, but as this is only a short flight, I did not care for it as much as I would do on a longer flight. I still hoped at this
time, that also the following flight would not be fully booked, but the late night flight to FRA is mostly fully booked.
The captain came over the microphone just after the last passenger boarded the aircraft and announced flying time with 40 minutes due to heavy traffic over Singapore and expected turbulences due to thunderstorm at the coast south of Singapore. We were airborne at 19.05 and soon the seat belts signs were switched off the crew began the beverage service. A hot tea for me and I continued reading the newspaper, I picked up boarding the plane.
We landed at 19.45 and had quite a way to our Gate. We exit the plane through
the first class, this time it was not the new Raffles Class, but an old Business Class Cabin.
So again nothing spectacular to report about this flight, just economy as usual.