Sunday 24 February 2019

On the (delayed) road again

I'm not sure if this is a common occurrence with professional chess players, but it seems that one typhoon can ruin your whole day. In the case of players heading home from the Oceania Zonal in Guam, Typhoon Wutip has thrown a lot of travel arrangements into chaos. There were a few scheduled flights that were cancelled today (the designated departure date), some justified, and some not justified. Flights heading to Manilla were the most affected, as the flight path crossed the typhoon's path, but the decision to cancel the flight to Taiwan by China Airlines made little sense. Every other airline flying to the same part of the world managed to leave Guam without difficulty, something that was noticed by a few of us who decided to deal with Typhoon Wutip by going swimming in the ocean.
The scramble for re-booking flights and accommodation was easy for some, and somewhat more difficult for others. In my case I made the mistake of booking with Expedia (never again) and it took 4 separate conversations before they were able to reschedule my flights. My favourite agent was the guy who helpfully told me I could fly on the 25th, and then confirmed I was still booked on a connecting flight that left on the 24th. Even then the re-booking now has me flying to Sydney (rather than Melbourne) where I catch a Qantas flight to Melbourne, so I can then fly from Melbourne to Canberra. The obvious change to a single Sydney-Canberra flight was rejected by the agent on the grounds "it wasn't allowed"

1 comment:

Adamski said...

"Not allowed" makes no sense. Hope you are safely home now, Shaun!