The story is short and simple. It was about S$1.1~1.3K to book a direct flight to Korea via Asiana Airlines, and yes it's so expensive wth. And as I was having a hard time deciding what to do, my work boss recommended me that I could go Korea via Transfer. I have never done that before as I have been blessed with nice parents and grandma to let me take direct flights all the time, so I decided to give it a try.
From a website called kiwi.com which my dad recommended, I managed to book a flight to Korea with Transfer via Qingdao Airport, at S$787.45. Yup I saved at least S$300.
My flight was on 9th Dec 2.10 a.m.(Singapore time) to Qingdao, arriving at 7.50 a.m.(Qingdao time). Then with 2 hours 45 minutes of waiting time, my Transfer flight was at 10.35 a.m. to Korea (Incheon International Airport), arriving at 12.50 p.m.(Korea time), supposed-ly.
Just to explain what happened before the disaster, I was having a nice dinner with my dad and my cousin. Calm before the Storm huh. I left my house at about 10 p.m.
Safely booked the ticket to Qingdao, whereas I needed to book the Transfer ticket from Qingdao to Seoul again separately. How troublesome 😒
I got into the departure gate safely and bought a drink. And as I was walking over to my gate E20 a few minutes after my boarding time, I knew something was completely wrong when there was no queue, and a bunch of people were sitting outside.
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| This is a true story |
To my horror, my 2.10 a.m. flight was delayed to 4 a.m.. Really???!?!?
I was obviously going to miss my 10.35 a.m. Transfer flight like this. But what could I do?
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| gotta_be_positive_w_life.jpg |
So, my homeless life started in Changi Airport, from 1.30 a.m. to 3.10 a.m.
What did I do? Just used my laptop and played Tsum Tsum. Yes it's pathetic I know, don't sympathise me 😂
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| This was picture of me at the HALF of the queue FK HAHA |
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| Can someone pls tell me how is this 4.5 years ago |
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| Random throwback; I remember queuing quite a bit for this and I clearly remember Sandara Park's fan service was trash after which, I no longer supported Sandara Park as a fan. |
So when I finally boarded the plane and texted my cousin who have ignored me and just went ahead to sleep willingly, it was 4.59 a.m.. So, I took 1 hour 50 minutes to enter the gate and plane. A big shoutout to the dear Scoot Airlines, who not only delayed the flight by 1h 50mins, but also made me take 1h 50mins to board the fking plane.
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| Good job, Scoot Airlines Oh btw, your seats are small as fk |
When I landed, it was about 10.50 a.m.(Qingdao time). Bye to my 10.35 Transfer flight
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| Hey Qingdao ^_^ (being positive) |
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| So basically I had to use this "Foreigner Fingerprint Self-collection" machine to obtain some "OK" pass to proceed to immigration checkpoint |
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| And I had to write this thing as someone visiting Qingdao for a Transfer |
Another problem started when the officers(?) working at the immigration checkpoint couldn't speak English.. And here was me who could only speak baby Chinese. The problem was that the officers' English was worse than my Chinese.
Still, I somehow got off well by using universal body languages(?), mixed with baby English & Chinese. It literally went something like;
"I Transfer to Korea, Incheon Airport. I missed my flight. Shi dian ban plane méi yǒu. How??" (fml)
"You first time China?" (Can someone tell me how is this something relevant)
"Bù shì. Second time✌" (fml 2)
"Ni qù something something (I don't understand). Erm.. you go outside. Book other flight."
And yes, the ticketing booth uncle also couldn't speak English, as hopeless as my Chinese. He literally wrote down 5.35 p.m. on a piece of paper and said that it is the next flight to Incheon Airport. It went something like;
"Don't have any earlier flight?" I asked.
"Méi yǒu.."
"Méi bàn fǎ??" (means "No choice" which I learned before)
"Duì ah, méi bàn fǎ!" (this was just so funny for both of us)
Then he suddenly wrote "3.45 p.m. 1440 Yuan" on the piece of paper. Then he used his phone to translate his Chinese into English, which stated something like, "5.35 p.m. is rescheduled flight. 3.45 p.m. is other airlines at new scheduled flight. So more expensive."
1440 Yuan is about S$288, and obviously it'd have been dumb for me to book that flight which is just 2 hours earlier, and I'd be spending the S$300 which I saved to go through all this shit. So, here it goes, my 6 hours of painful homelessness at Qingdao.
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| Can someone tell me how to use this? I wanted to use it but they only had some QR code scanner which I never ended up finding out how it's used |
So I just walked around until I could print out my new ticket, 2 hours before my flight. I exchanged S$30 and got 133 Yuan (pretty damn sure I got scammed)
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| Things you do when you have nothing else better to do (I became temporarily slimmer at this point) |
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| Ate here |
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| This beef and beef noodle costed like 90+ Yuan but I was just too tired and hungry to bother so |
I'll skip other details of how I spent 6 hours there, as it gets more and more depressing.
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| Shandong* airline |
Finally got my boarding pass at about 3.50 p.m., and I did not checked in my luggage so as to not go through the trouble of finding it once I land Korea. Then here came another problem. Remember the annoying document that I had to write at the immigration checkpoint because I was Transferring? After queuing for 20 minutes to enter the departure gate, the officer told me I had to write it again.
So I had to leave my queue, and go out to write that document, then queue again. Wow. How else could my life become more drama?
And just when I thought everything was finally over, my final problem came in. After the departure gate, there was an item & body check, where they stopped me and said I am not allowed to bring my Johnnie Walker Double Black into the plane. So I was telling them how I bought it from Singapore, and that it is fking sealed. Then they used their phone again to translate Chinese into English, which stated;
"Liquor bought from Singapore Airport, cannot be brought into the plane. It must be checked-in with the luggage."
Ok, I know there is a saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". So fine. But I just couldn't understand the difference between bringing a SEALED DUTY FREE LIQUOR into the plane and checking it in into the luggage. What's the difference? Sigh whatever, let's all just take this as a piece of information when visiting China.
How can my life be such a drama
So..I had to quickly put that fking sealed Johnnie Walker Double Black into my luggage then use the special route to exit the departure gate & check in my luggage. My gosh. Really wished someone could step in and save me from all this shit, but I guess in life, we stand alone if we're not with our family or girlfriend/boyfriend.
I couldn't even take any pictures of the two final disasters above as I was just done with everything and was rushing to just get out of there.
Took bus to Shandong Airlines airplane
FINALLY BOARDED THE PLANE oh my gosh why was it so hard to just take the freaking plane
Thanks to Shandong Airlines, for at least giving something to eat, unlike the amazing Scoot Airlines who literally gave nothing. Even though the food was bad enough for me to not finish it, they have put in the effort.
When I reached Incheon Airport and collected my luggage, it was about 8.30 p.m.(Korea time).
I took bus 6003 to go to my house, where my mom was waiting for me somewhere near the bus stop. And when we walked back to our house, my grandma was waiting for me at the first floor. Because I messaged my mom that my plane will land at 8.30+, they both managed to meet me outside on time, but I honestly didn't expect to see my mom at the bus stop area.
I'm not that angry over the whole experience, but I'm just angry that this whole event made my grandma worried for me, and made her wait at the first floor. 😤
So when I reached my home, it was almost 10 p.m.. So here it is, my 24 hours trip to Korea from Singapore.
To end off, of course this trip was a very good experience overall. I believe whatever I went through could be one of the worst possible scenario that could happen in a Transfer flight. But I am just honestly glad that nothing bad happened to me, and that I reached home safe. That's what matters (feat. cringy diary)
Actually fk it, everything was just fucking bullshit why did I even go through all this wtf
If you can afford it, just take direct flights guys, unless it's necessary like going USA from Singapore. My gosh this whole event is just funny the more I think about it
Cheers,
BlackjackBoy
Heath Ledger's Joker Clap gif taken from:
https://tenor.com/view/joker-sarcastic-clap-gif-9872650