In My Hands Today…

Posted on October 6, 2011 by memoriesandsuch

BBC – India: One Man’s Personal Journey Round the Subcontinent – Sanjeev Bhaskar

As a young British Asian growing up in the 1960s west London, writer and actor Sanjeev Bhaskar was fed stories of exotic, old India – of cobras and leopards, trapping fireflies and riding in rickshaws. But his childhood visits to the old country revealed stifling heat, powercuts and the pervasive aroma of cow dung – baffling to a young boy brought up in an England of fish and chips and light drizzle. Now, years later, Sanjeev embarks on a uniquely personal journey through the heart of India, where he is reunited with old relatives with traumatic stories of the Partition – but also discovers a shiny new India of high-tech industry and glittering Bollywood kitsch. Sanjeev paints a unique picture of this chaotic, beautiful and remarkable country – this is India as you’ve never seen it before.

Ticketing tales

Posted on September 30, 2011 by memoriesandsuch

On Tuesday I finally booked our tickets for our holidays this year. We’re going to Chennai this year as opposed to Mumbai since my sister is there and my parents will come there from Mumbai. Also since we’re going on a very short trip, we just don’t have the time to do two cities. We are going on a very truncated holiday this year for a couple of reasons – one, since I just joined this new position, I do not have many days of leave and two, GG has her ballet concert in the third week of December and she wanted to be a part of it so we leave the day after the concert.

The concert is on a Sunday and so we wanted to leave on the first available flight on Monday morning. That happened to be Jet Airways. I have flown this airline before and have liked the service they provide although both I was not too crazy to fly this particular airline to Chennai as it is a single aisle aircraft. Both S and BB didn’t want to fly this airline, but because it was the only one with a flight in the morning, we decided to go for it. Now the fun starts in my story. I checked the prices around 2 pm and it should me around S$ 2200 for 4 tickets. When I got home and tried buying the tickets around 6 pm, it had increased to S$ 2700. I was angry but still went through the online reservations system as I didn’t want to waste one day of the 13 we were going to have. Then there was some issue with my credit card and the transaction didn’t go through. When I redid the booking, the cost was now more than S$ 3000! I got angry and checked the fares for Singapore Airlines. The fares there were only S$ 2400, but the flight was at night. That was it, I decided to go with SIA and booked my tickets. I then wrote to Jet Airways about my experiences and so far, they’ve still not given me a reasonable explanation (one that I can understand) for this whole fiasco. Initially I thought of not blogging about this, but given what happened, I think I should do it so if there is anyone out there reading this blog (the one or two people maybe, hopefully?), it’s a lesson to them.

Image courtesy airlines.net

Image courtesy of airliners.net

Below are my two emails to Jet and their responses:

My initial note to them using the feedback form on their website

Hi,

I tried reserving tickets to Chennai yesterday. When I checked the fares around 2 pm, I found a figure which was acceptable to me. Then when I tried booking the tickets around 6 pm, the rate had increased by around $500 compared to 2 pm. During the transaction, I had a query for which I tried calling your office here in Singapore, but was on hold for 15 minutes during which my transaction time had exceeded and I could not make the booking. Then when I tried again, this time the rate increased by another S$200. This means that between 2 pm and 6 pm, the rate for 4 tickets increased by S$700! This inspite of not having icon near the rates to show that they are increasing or even letting me know before I book the tickets that the rates will be increasing! When I tried your office at that point (it was around 6:10 pm), I got a recorded message saying that the office is closed for the day. I got fed up and booked my tickets using another carrier. I then see an email which came to me at 8:15 pm saying that my tickets are on hold. I had already booked my tickets with another airline by then so this was of no use to me. I do not think this is the right thing to do. I would appreciate if someone called me or wrote to me with an explanation on why this happened. I have flown Jet many times and have always had a good time with the airline, but when something like this happens even before you fly, it makes you want to rethink using the airline.

The first response from Jet

Thank you for your mail and contacting Jet Airways.

We would like to mention that fares are dynamic and can change based on flight loads, seasonality and promotions.

With regard to the contents of your communication, kindly allow us to mention that we have various classes / levels of fares loaded in our system taking into account different factors such as demand, season, traffic on any given route, cancellations etc.

May we assure you that we are not in any way trying to discourage our passengers as a matter of fact these fares are designed to benefit our passengers.

We look forward to your support and apologize for all the inconvenience caused.

Huh? Maybe I am thick, but I don’t think they actually answered what I asked them

My response to this email:

Thank you for your email. I don’t think that there were so many people trying to book the exact same date combination as I was within that 4 hour period that the prices increased by S$ 700. I don’t see how the prices can be adjusted so much in such a short period of time. If what you say is correct, then the prices should have stayed at that increased rate of about S$ 3000+ for 4 tickets to Chennai on the same dates that I booked. I just checked your website for the same dates and the prices are in the range of S$ 2600, which is about S$ 400 lower than what was quoted to me when I tried to book the ticket. Does this mean that the time we book the ticket has a bearing on the prices? I would like a response from you since if this is true, the next time I fly the airline, I will know the best time to book my tickets.

Their reply

Thank you for your mail and contacting Jet Airways.

With regards to the same, the Online Booking Engine on jetairways.com quotes fares from a pricing database, which is delinked from the actual system where the booking is made. The reason why we have used this approach, is to optimize the speed of the system, so that our guests do not experience delayed responses.

Once the guest confirms his purchase, as a check point, the system then reconfirms the actual fare in the backend reservation system. If it is a match, it goes ahead with ticketing and if not, the repricing page is shown, where the guest needs to reconfirm the new price to proceed. Note, at this point in time, the guest can withdraw his willingness to purchase the ticket.

The probability of the reprice page to show up is less than 1% as we have automated mechanisms to pick up the fares dynamically from the system based on an internal logic flow. Note, there can be times where the guest cancels the reprice page request and tries again from the start. The probability of the old fare being shown is very high as the system takes time to then update the new fare into the database.

I am not going to reply to this email, but will think multiple times the next time I fly this airline. I used to be such a fan, but now, they’ve lost a paying passenger! C’est la vie…

Traffic Travails and the need for a set of wheels

Posted on September 29, 2011 by memoriesandsuch

This post was supposed to be posted on Tuesday, but for some reason, I didn’t do it then. The traffic that day was was the worst I have seen in my 2.5 months of commute. In about 30 mins, the bus that I was on moved the distance which would not have taken 5-7 minutes to cover on a normal day! The best part, there is no reason for this heavy traffic. If there was a major accident somewhere on the route, it would seem understandable but this is ridiculous. Maybe there was an accident, but I didn’t see anything that seemed to indicate any accident on the way. I think something should be done and soon. The BKE which in normal traffic conditions take around 10 minutes and during the morning peak hours take around 15-20 minutes to cover took about 40 minutes to cover on Tuesday! Yesterday S dropped me to work since he had some work in his Head Office which is not very far from my office. It took us around 35 minutes to reach my office! It is times like this I really want to have a car. But the costs really deter me. Add to the cost of the car and the COE (Certificate of Entitlement) which is ‘Uniquely Singapore’, I also will have to pay roughly around S$3 in ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) every day. This in addition to the S$100 for carpark charges per month. I don’t think I earn that much to justify this spending. Now I am dreading the office moving to the other end of Singapore and my commute will be from one end of Singapore to the other end (the longer end as I keep reminding my colleagues).

On the work front, another of my colleagues has decided to quit. He told us in confidence yesterday that he feels the organisation is going nowhere and so he wants out before it is too late. I am really concerned about the turnover of staff in this organisation. I am not sure what to do. Maybe I should work on my CV this weekend and see if I get some interview calls in the next month or so. If I get something by early December, then it would be ideal. Since I am in my probation period right now, I need to give them only two weeks notice. So if I get a new position soon, then I quit in the first week of December and give notice before I go on my holiday and then come back and join the new company. Will this work for me? God, if you are up there, listening and reading this, please do something, willya?

The World in Sixty Seconds

Posted on September 20, 2011 by memoriesandsuch

This amazing video which I got from the MSN website is a series of time lapse images taken from the front of the International Space Station at on it’s orbit around the world at night. The video, done by science educator James Drake can also be seen in his website Infinity Imagined. From the website:

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy.

Would you like to live in a Palace?

Posted on September 17, 2011 by memoriesandsuch

Albeit for a fee and for a few days? Who wouldn’t right? Well if you have the moolah, here is Tripadvisor’s top ten Palace hotels. For more details click the tripadvisor report.

Bussaco Palace Hotel, Luso, Portugal – Built in the 19th century for the last Portuguese Kings, the Bussaco Palace Hotel is one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. It is located in the lush Bussaco National Forest, which was once the grounds of a Carmelite convent established in 1628.
Palazzo Magnani Feroni, Florence, Italy – Dating back to the 16th Century, the luxurious palace once belonged to the artistocratic Feroni family. With breathtaking views of downtown Florence, the Palazzo Magnani Feroni Hotel is located in the historical San Frediano neighbourhood.
Parador de Lerma, Castilla y Leon – Located high above the town, The Parador de Lerma offers once-secret columned arcades. The first Duke of Lerma ordered the construction of this castle for King Philip III in the early 17th century. It served as a place of enjoyment for the King.
Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, India – The Taj Lake Palace was built as a summer retreat for Maharana Jagat Singh II, the 62nd successor to the royal dynasty of Mewa, between 1743-1746. The extravagant white-marble hotel is located directly on Lake Pichola, and appears to be floating.
Kempinski Hybernska Prague, Prague – Kempinski Hybernska Prague was once a 17th century baroque palace. Now completely reconstructed, the luxury hotel combines modern design with traditional elements, including a private baroque garden and original double entrance doors.
Ciragan Palace Kempinski, Istanbul, Turkey – The Ciragan Palace Kempinski was once an Ottoman palace built by Sultan Abdülaziz between 1863 and 1867. In the early 1900’s, the palace became the meeting place for the parliament, however it suffered a devastating fire in 1910. It has since been restored as this luxury hotel with breathtaking views of the Bosphorus.
Taj Rambagh Palace, Jaipur, India – Today, Taj Rambagh Palace is an exquisite hotel with stunning suites and ornamental gardens. The palace was originally built in 1835 for the queen’s handmaiden, and was eventually turned into a royal guesthouse and hunting lodge. In 1925, the palace became the home of the Maharaja of Jaipur and remained with Jaipur royalty until 1957.
Gritti Palace, Venice, Italy – The opulent palace on the Grand Canal was built in 1525 as the home of the Doge of Venice, Andrea Gritti. It was later the residence of Vatican Ambassadors. The Gritti Palace became part of the Luxury Collection for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 1994. It still possesses the original ceilings and entrance flooring.
Hotel Du Palais, Biarritz, France – Hotel Du Palais was the summer retreat of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenia. Empress Eugenia was said to have fallen in love with the beaches and landscape of Biarritz as a child, so Napoleon III had the summer residence built for her in 1855. Presently, the elegant hotel still displays the style of the Second Empire.
Hotel de Crillon, Paris, France – One of two identical palaces, King Louis the XV directed the Crillon to be built in 1758. It was once the home to the Duc d’Aumont and the Comte de Crillon. Located in the famous Place de la Concorde, the prestigious Hotel de Crillon is honoured with 18th century classical French decor.