An Evening with Air Asia at Soekarno-Hatta Airport

Jakarta, December 27, 2009

We flew from Jakarta to Ho Chi Minh City with Air Asia. Flight number QZ7736.

First delay

which I actually rejoiced for, because taking off on 17:55 instead of 16:35 would provide me a better chance of capturing the sunset sky. Indeed, the evening sky behind the airport window glass was lovely.

However...
the moment I shot this, it was 17:48, and actually our flight had already been delayed (2nd delay) to 18:50 since an hour ago. People stood confused in front of the boarding gate, because on the screen was still written "17:55".

The screen said the gate was opened for the flight to Singapore which was scheduled to take off on 17:30. But at that time it was already 17:48!! So are these people lining up to Singapore or to Vietnam??

Me, and apparently some others also, approached the security guys in front of the boarding gate. Tired of answering questions, he shouted, "Singapore! Singapore!!" Udah bener2 kayak naik angkot aja :P

I was still hoping against hope that my flight might take off at 17:55 so that I could capture the obviously awesome sky spreading in front of my eyes through the glass. "Bu, kalau yang ke Vietnam jam berapa?" I asked a lady in uniform by the boarding gate.

"Oh kalo ke Vietnam sih jam 7."

"Tapi koq di layarnya ditulis 17:55?"

"Oh ya? Masa'?"

"Iya. Makanya nih orang-orang pada bingung."

"Oh gitu."

!@#$%^&*!!

This is the 2nd time I got misleaded by the inaccuracy of Soekarno-Hatta Airport's screens. The previous one was when I was looking for my baggage. I flew from HCMC, but our baggage were placed on a conveyor belt under the sign "Guangzhou". A Chinese tourist was panicked because he couldn't find his belongings there. Of course!

10 minutes after my complaint to the lady in uniform, I found that the screen had been revised to "18:50". They revised the time for Vietnam flight, but not for the Singapore flight. "17:30" it says, but people were still lining up into the plane at 17:56. If their plane did take off at 17:30, they must have entered their plane with a parachute... I bet.

Air Asia paid for their "sin" with these.

And finally... the remnants of the sin: