Travel Story - A SIM the Easy Way

Location: Singapore

My mobile phone works internationally, but my international voice and data plan has confiscatory rates. I don't want to change carriers, so the answer is to get a local SIM card.

I previously had bad experiences trying to buy a SIM card in the UK and actually buying one in Italy and Aruba, so I was not optimistic when I decided to get one in Singapore. The experience could not be more different.

I went in to the Singtel store and came out 5 minutes later with a tourist SIM card (pictured below):

• 100 Gb data
• 500 minutes local calls
• 30 minutes international calls
• 100 texts
• 5 day usage period
• $15 Singapore dollars (about $10.50 USD)

What a great buying experience, and what a great deal!

Travel Story - Another Up and Down Travel Day

Location: RDU, JFK and Hong Kong Airports

The more I travel, the more I understand that you need to be ready for anything, and that you never know how things will turn out.  Today was a good example.

I was on the first leg of my round-the-world trip, traveling to from Raleigh-Durham to Singapore via New York JFK and Hong Kong. I don’t like having two stops because of the opportunity for travel disruptions, but it’s hard to avoid when going from RDU to Asia.

Disaster, Part 1

I got to the RDU airport in good time for my 6:05 AM to JFK. As I was eating a light breakfast I got a text on my phone. My flight to JFK was delayed by 45 minutes, but that was OK.  I still had 90 minutes for my connection. Then the wheels fell off.  I got another text saying my flight to JFK was now delayed to 10:00 AM - past my departure from JFK. Time for Plan B.

Recovery, Part 1

I called the airline hotline and got myself rebooked through Dallas-Fort Worth. I had originally booked a premium economy ticket, which gives some extra legroom and seat width. Hey, it’s a 16 hour flight, so every little bit helps. The bad news is that now I would be in regular coach.  Also, I would get in to Singapore 4 hours later than planned, but I would get in. All seemed well until I went to the counter for the DFW flight to get my new boarding passes.

Disaster, Part 2

The online agent had mistakenly booked the second leg (DFW to Hong Kong) for the following day, which would mean spending the night in Dallas, and getting to Singapore a day late. Not Good.

Recovery, Part 2 - Maybe
However, my local gate agent pointed out that my original flight to New York was going out at 7:30 AM, not 10:00 AM as reported by phone and the gate.  She apologized for the misinformation and was able to rebook me on my flight to JFK. There was a question of whether I could get to the gate on time at JFK with the reduced connection time. Also, there was some question as to whether my seat on my original flight was reconfirmed, as reported by the airline partner program.  I would have to go to JFK and see.

A Close Call

We were further delayed getting out of RDU, so when I got off the plane at JFK they had already started boarding my Hong Kong flight.  Sadly, I had arrived in terminal 8, and my flight was departing from terminal 7. Transferring between those two terminals meant going out of security, catching the JFK AirTrain to terminal 8, and going back through security. I have TSA pre-check, but it didn’t apply to this flight.  I did get through security and to the gate before the door was closed, but then there was the problem of my seat. The gate agents were expecting, but it eventually took 3 gate agents to sort out the de-booking and re-booking.  

A Very Pleasant Surprise

The bad news was that the premium economy section was full. The good news was that they bumped me up to business class.  Newly printed boarding pass in hand, I was the last person to board the plane.

One Last Bonus
I arrived in Hong Kong in good time and was able to take an earlier flight to Singapore. That was really good because my original flight wound up being delayed by 2 hours due to the typhoon Mujigae.

Keep Calm and Carry On
I was pleased with the upgrade and with the service that I got from the airline folks. For my part, I didn’t panic, and I was very polite and respectful. Not sure that helped, but I am sure it didn’t hurt. Finally, this was on one of the times that having priority status on partner airlines helped make the process go better for me.

What started out looking like a disrupted travel day would up going better than planned. You just never know.

Travel Story - Around the World

Location: Home

Tomorrow I embark on my first trip around the world.  My itinerary:

Leg 1 / October 3-4: Raleigh-Durham -> New York JFK -> Hong Kong -> Singapore
Leg 2 / October 7: Singapore -> Bangalore, India
Leg 3 / October 10: Bangalore -> London Heathrow -> Dusseldorf, Germany
Leg 4 / October 16: Dusseldorf -> London Heathrow -> RDU

Below is a map showing my route.  Here are some posts related to this trip:

• Travel Story - A SIM the Easy Way
• Travel Story - Another Up and Down Travel Day

Travel Humor - Could be a Rough Ride

Location: A taxi in Chicago, traveling to the McCormick Center

I saw this sign posted in a taxi in Chicago.  Having never before seen the line item charge for "Vomit Clean-up Fee," it made me wonder if I was in for a rough ride.

Travel Humor - A New Low For Apostrophe Abuse

Location: London, near the Imperial War Museum, British Museum and Shepherd's Bush

I am constantly being irritated by the use of apostrophes to create plurals.  Most of these are garden variety offenses, like this sign seen near the British Museum.

Here is another where the original building painter got "eels" right, but whoever did the awning felt the need for a random apostrophe.  Despite that, A. Cooke's serves a very tasty pie with mash and liquor (sauce, not booze).  I didn't try the eels.

Bad as they may be, they are very commonplace abuses.  However, I saw an example in the Imperial War Museum that takes the cake - two apostrophes in the same word!

It hurts ... make it stop!

 

Travel Story - Who needs FitBit when you have FitBrit?

Location: London for the Network Virtualization and SDN World show

I was spending this Memorial Day in London, so I went to the Imperial War Museum to see some new exhibits. I decided to walk back before dinner to help shake off the jet lag. On my preprandial perambulation I passed the London Eye, Westminster, Big Ben, St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Hyde Park, the Victoria and Albert Museum. Not every day you can have a stroll like that!

Travel Story - Keep Calm and Carry On

Location: Flying from Raleigh-Durham to Chicago

Three interesting events happened on my flight today.  All were minor, but all could have escalated and/or caused disproportionate mental anguish.  The fact that they didn't was a testament to the crews involved.

Medical Event - About a third of the way through the flight the flight attendant came on and calmly asked that any doctors or nurses on the flight make their way to the back of the plane.  Apparently some passenger had a medical incident.  The issue was resolved quickly, and there was no need to make an emergency landing.

Bird Event - We were making our approach to O'Hare airport and were close enough to have the landing gear down.  We then pulled the gear up and climbed back up and started circling.  The change was done so smooth that I didn't realize it had happened.  The pilot came on announced that we had to divert from our approach due to birds on the runway, and that we were going to use a different runway.  Air Traffic Control quickly sorted out the issue and we landed ahead of schedule.

Pushback Event - After landing we stopped just short of the gate. The pilot came on announced that the gate was still occupied.  The plane there was being pushed when the tug's towbar broke.  The ground crew found another very quickly and got the plane pshed back.  We were able to maintain our early arrival.

The TakeawayThree events, none of which was a big deal - but they could have been, or at least seemed like it.  Instead, the various staff sorted out the issue and kept things moving. My personal takeaway was that it is not just how you handle an issue, but also how you appear to others.