When You're About to Fly Up but the System is Way Down

What happens when the airline system is down and you have a scheduled flight during the down time? It's an adventure and spiritual journey rolled into one experience.

This happened earlier this December. It's my first time to go to Siargao, a domestic destination in the Philippines, that is making waves right now (pun intended) with the local and international tourists due to its white beaches, fantastic lagoons, and waves perfect for surfers. This post is NOT about Siargao and how beautiful and vulnerable the place is. Siargao and all the places I have visited deserve their own posts - which I pray I get to write about real soon.

Manila

Our flight was around 530AM SGT* and when we were trying to do web check-in (you know, just in case traffic was really bad at 3AM), surprise! The transaction was not pushing through and it's the same thing with my friends who tried to check-in earlier than we tried. We also tried to purchase prepaid luggage like I always do just the day before the flight and to no avail. I had a back-up plan to just stuff my toiletries in my friends' bags for check-in but luckily my other friend, Kathy, who was sharing the booking details with me was able to purchase a prepaid luggage just before the site went bonkers.

We arrived at NAIA Terminal 3 and the line was heck long. It was like a stationary parade of cars going up the terminal. You can't just go down and walk so you had to wait for your turn. It was a way to kill 15 minutes of your life. All lines were crazy long so we opted to alight at the farthest gate (we'll all meet at the check-in counter anyway). When we entered the airport - OH DAMN. 

THE AIRPORT WAS UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE. It was just before 4AM, mind you. When we were walking crawling towards Cebu Pacific's counters, it was like a physical manifestation of CebPac's Piso Fare Seat Sale. You cannot get inside. There was no information if the counter is open or not. There were no self check-in counters outside the "gate" and the staff was obviously overwhelmed and ready to call in sick.

Is there a concert we didn't know about?

I'm pretty sure there is a protocol when servers are down, right? So when we finally saw our counter, ground crew asked us if we have luggage because our printed itinerary didn't show prepaid luggage. We said that we were able to purchase before the site went kaput but we didn't receive any updated itinerary. We only have our confidence, faith in humanity, and a screenshot of successful transaction to prove that we gave them our money.

Ground crew was also distressed, my bag was beyond the limit (but I can just remove some stuff and hand-carry it) and check-in lady couldn't care less. She has more problems than my 1kg excess luggage. Here's the catch: our flight has a connecting flight from Cebu. So instead of flying straight to Siargao, we need to fly to Cebu first, wait for a while, then CHECK-IN again for our Siargao flight. Of course, my concern then is my excess 1kg. I was so naive.

After getting our boarding pass, surprise no surprise. The gate number printed in our boarding pass got changed. We also learned our flight got delayed and that there are no ways we can know if our flight was there or if our gate is about to be moved again. We had to be really alert, set aside some of our stories, and listen for ALL kinds of announcements. I was thinking about the hearing impaired and the senior citizens who were flying solo. No visual announcements and no mercy for those who were not able to sleep before their flight. There was also a commotion wherein a lady was complaining that she missed her flight due to the airline's negligence. She was really loud and irate and the ground crew acted like a sounding board and a helpless fish.

What a day to be alive! The sun is just about to rise!

Cebu

We were able to board our plane and the moment I sat down, I practiced again my newfound skill - to sleep immediately. I can't do this in water or land transportation even if I want to, but for some reason, I can snap and fall asleep inside an airplane. I have missed meals and immigration cards due to this. Haha. Still foolishly proud of this.

Since our Manila-Cebu flight was delayed, we only had a smaller window now to board our Cebu-Siargao flight. We went straight to connecting flights area and again, there were long lines. We sincerely thought all those folks are flying to Siargao as well, but nopes. When a friend used his authoritative voice, that's the only time we were entertained. So now we were manually checked-in again and surprise! Apparently, we're the only ones left! We got an unwelcome committee - a ground crew with a walkie talkie who was running the entire time. "Bilisan na po natin, kayo na lang po hinihintay." We had to go through the x-rays again and our names were called individually - my first time to get called. One tick off my bucket list! Tadah. And true enough, we were the only ones pending for the flight. I hate those folks - anyone who happens to be the cause of delay. And yeah, sometimes you become the people you hate the most. </3

It was an unwanted version of Amazing Race all because the system was completely down for more than half a day. What a perfect start for our Siargao escape!


*I just use SGT more than PST probably for work reasons since it's more recognizable. In any case, Singapore officially share the same timezone with us.