Yongfook is a web producer and usability consultant based in Tokyo

And so the journey began.

With the skip in my step weighed down by my luggage, I dragged my way to the bus stop, from the ’safe’ looking gravel car park I left my k-car in. I would be travelling to Fukuoka by bus, and from there flying to Tokyo, then onto Singapore. In my mind I could see myself being at my final destination within the next 12 hours, although God had entirely different plans for me.

The oppressive rain and grey of Fukuoka made me want to leave all the more quickly. The preceding weeks had been utterly chaotic and my body was crying out for a holiday. How ironic then, that my flight to Tokyo Narita was delayed.

In fact it was delayed so much that I missed my flight to Singapore. On the flight to Narita, the crew falsely reassured me, saying that the ground crew at Narita was ready to take me to my plane personally. However, when we landed I found I was shepherded onto the same transit bus as everyone else and it became clear that they had given up on trying to get me to the next flight. The shower of bastards. I went to collect my luggage.

All was lost. I had spent the entire connecting flight praying, hypothesising and rhythmically leaning forwards and backwards in my chair in an effort to make the plane go faster, but it was all for nothing. Thankfully, ANA didn’t leave me and the other 12 gaijin who missed our flights totally floundering. We were booked into a hotel free of charge (the ANA Hotel - no doubt the one they use for all their cock ups) and were fed and given a fresh ticket for the next day.

Underneath the glib satisfaction of getting quite a swanky freebie was the depressing truth that all of this was occurring on Christmas Day.

Fast-forward to Boxing Day. After checking-in I was informed I didn’t have a seat number, but was assured with a “just keep smiling and he wont get angry” grin that they were ’sure’ I would get a seat if I just went to the gate. Basically this was the lady at the check-in counter palming off responsibility to the poor cabin crew, who might have to say “there’s no room at the Inn”.

Waiting until all the people had boarded, I prepared an award-worthy puppy-dog expression and presented my boarding pass to the lady. She frowned. Then faffed. I could see them preparing to close the gate.

Looking quite vexed, the lady started,

“I’m sorry, but- ”

I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth.

“- we have had to upgrade you”

After a few seconds of stunned silence, I did my best to look disappointed and understanding, as for some perverse reason she saw fit to bring this news to me in the form of an apology. I skipped down the boarding tunnel and climbed to the top deck - Club Class.

I very much enjoyed the next 7 hours of luxury flying. They put a table cloth on your little fold-out table for dinner. A TABLECLOTH. Although, all the perks in the world couldn’t shut out the irritating suspicion that the stewardesses were secretly spitting in my food because I wasn’t supposed to be there.

Next entry - Singapore and Cheryl.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 7th, 2003 at 3:48 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.