Home for CNY

Just got my plane tickets for Chinese New Year.. :) :)

Went online to several websites, including airlines and tour agencies, to look for cheap air tickets.. After comparing prices, I realised that it would be better to book the tickets through a tour agencies as they would have access to all airlines.. So in the end, I went to a H.I.S. branch in Shibuya on my way home from class today..

Before going to the branch, I've found out that the cheapest air tickets to Malaysia is not, ironically, from MAS, but ANA (All Nippon Airways). Call me unpatriotic, but I don't really care which airline it is as long as it is the cheapest... I need to save as much money as possible, as I am now a poor student.. :p :p :p So armed with the information about a few possible flights, I went looking for the tour agency..

I got out of the South Exit at Shibuya Station and was kinda lost. This is not the part of the Station that I am familiar with.. so after walking up and down, and in circles in the station building several times looking for the agency, I realised that it is located at the building opposite the road!! what a sotong.. :p Once I got the right building, I found the tour agency easily..

Once I got into the agency, I was immediately approached by an employee of the agency. He asked me where do I wanna go, and I told him Penang and also added that I am not fluent in Japanese.. He quickly showed me to one of the empty seats at the counters, and asked a lady colleague to attend to me. I told her in simple English that I wanna go to Penang, the dates I wanna go and also the cheapest airlines I've checked on their website is by ANA. She quickly went back to her seat and started searching.. In about 10 min, she came back and told me that there are seats available on ANA and I would need to transit in KL for both trips. The ticket price would be 74,350yen. As it was really the cheapest I've heard (from my fellow Malaysians that I've met) and found out so far (from the Internet), I told her those dates and flights are okay, and do proceed to book me those flights..

Then it was a long long long wait.. At first, I thought that it was just the way things are done in Japan, where everything has to be double-checked, triple-checked by more than 2 person, etc.. I saw this lady, Ms Kittaka, kept asking her colleagues for help, and I thought (again) to myself that she must have been a new employee since she is still unsure about things.. But I am okay with her taking a long time, as I wanna make sure there is no problem with my tickets.. She kept apologizing for making me wait, but I told her don't worry about it.. I asked her what seems to be the problem, she said that she is having problem booking those tickets, especially the one transiting from KL to Penang.

I waited almost an hour when she finally got back to me. Seems like she is not able to book the transit flights (between KL and Penang) from MAS. The only flights possible is on ANA, even for the transit flights. Looking at the time between the transits, I was speechless.. For the transit from KL to Penang, I had to wait at KLIA for more than 5 hours, while the transit from Penang to KL on my way back to Tokyo would be more than 12 hours!! Then I told her to try searching for other transiting cities, maybe Singapore or Bangkok. Maybe the transiting hours would not be so long.. After a while, she came back with another option of transiting in Bangkok, and the transit hours are not much shorter. :( :(

Then I told her to look for the cheapest flight from Tokyo to KL instead. That might be cheaper. But in the end, my guess was incorrect. The cheapest flight is still the same ANA flight and with the same fare!! After much thought, I decided to take the ANA flight with the 5+ hour transit in KL (for the to-trip) and board the flight at KL (for the back-trip). So my flight would be on 3rd Feb (Sunday) at 10:30hrs, reaching KL at 17:05hrs with the transit flight to Penang at 22:10hrs and reach Penang at 23:00hrs... And my return flight would be from KL at 11:00hrs and reach Narita around 18:40hrs. As I will be boarding from KL, there is a small savings in the fuel charges, so in the end, I'm paying 72,100yen for the tickets. Since these are e-Tickets, Ms.Kittaka will be sending me the details/instructions and the e-Tickets via email. That was the main reason why the tickets were that cheap.. :) :) Compared to buying the tickets through the website myself, I would prefer to go through the tour agency as I do not want to bear the full responsibility of any error/problem that might arise during booking, especially when it involves quite a huge amount of money.. :p :p It is not that I do not advocate e-Commerce, but sometimes it is better to have a person to do it instead.. Maybe next time I will just book it over the Net myself. Previously, I've booked several plane tickets through SIA website to go back Malaysia from Singapore. Maybe that's because I have more confidence in SIA and its website reliability, than ANA or H.I.S.'s.

Anyway, I am set to go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year!! :) :) :) Can't wait to eat all the local food... :p :p not to mention the warm weather...