When I booked our tickets through our travel agent, I was a bit apprehensive when I saw our return flight booking which is as follows:
Toronto- Hong Kong 1040-1355
Hong Kong- Manila 1445- 1645
We have less than an hour to connect to our Manila flight. What if our flight in Toronto was delayed... My worst fear has happened and something else happened to top that.
We arrived around 8 am for our 10:40 am flight. We got in the "online check-in" line and was asked by a personnel if we want to be a volunteer. "Volunteer for what?" I ask. I learned that if we give away our plane seat for the day, we will be paid CAD 400 per pax CASH and we get to fly out the very next day. Hmm... not bad, we decided to grab the opportunity. But wait, there's more... we still have to wait for them to fill up the plane and only then will we know if we are the "winner" of the CAD 400 hehe In the meantime, the employee gave us CAD 20 voucher for our breakfast while we while our time in the small cafe near the check in counters.
We waited until it's 10 am but still no response from them. When only thirty minutes was left for the departure time, I was beginning to be a bit anxious and when they called our name to come over the counter and told us that they still have seats for us, I panicked *geez* how I hate Cathay * grrrrrrrrrrr* We have a 10 to 15 minutes leeway time to enter the security area and have our carry on baggage checked. When we arrived at the boarding area, passengers were still being frisked by security officers and luggage were being sniffed by dogs, uh-oh is this really necessary? Later, we found out that the King (?) of Cambodia was in the first class cabin of the plane so that explains the heightened security level.
Inside the plane, the pilot announced my fear- the plane will be delayed for a few minutes and therefore will only give us around less than 30 minutes to board our connecting flight *darn it* Throughout the entire flight several men came over to the man seated beside us on the aisle seat asking for documents, gold drinking cup which DH saw, etc. And when landing time came, as if to add delay to our connecting flight, we were asked to wait until the king and his entourage left our plane. Until then we have to stay put in our seat.
It's like amazing race minus the cash rewards after all is over and done. We were running really, really late and still have to go through those x- ray machines for our connecting flight. We thought arriving in the nick of time for our Manila flight was the end of our woes but when we arrived in Manila around 4 pm and got through the immigration and into the conveyor waiting for our luggage, several passengers were dumbfounded as their luggage where nowhere to be found including 4pcs. of ours.
Cathay had a mock counter beside the conveyor and this made me wonder if this incident must have happened to them a lot of times. We found out that our bags will be on the next flight which will be two hours more waiting time before it will arrive. We have the option to wait or to have our luggage delivered in their own time *duh* We chose to wait which proved to be the right choice. While waiting in their office, I heard a call asking for a follow up on their missing luggage which the personnel answered she will make a follow up but can't give a definite time as to when the luggage will arrive at its destination. The poor passenger was already in the hotel and who knows how can he/she relax if the luggage is not with him/her. I didn't hear Cathay personnel make a follow up on the luggage. I wonder when can the poor passenger have his/her luggage with her.
Finally, upon the landing of the next Manila- bound plane, we were informed that our luggage were there. Again, we waited in the conveyor and we were happy to see our four bags hehe we found RUSH stickers on our bags thank goodness. We can now breath a sigh of relief. It's one hell of a bad experience if you ask me. I hope Cathay cancels its less than an hour connecting flight so that no incident like this can happen ever again. * rolling my eyes*
