YAY!! We've been upgraded!

Wondering what this is all about? Well, we're going back to Malaysia for a 3 week break in September and I've managed to get ourselved upgraded to Business class! Tickets are courtesy of hubby's company, part and parcel of him being an expat, so we get one free ticket back to our home country each year. Of course, like everything else, we're only entitled to economy class seats but since there was nothing which I could get hubby for his birthday (except making him that fabulous carrot cake), I decided to upgrade his seats as a present - more comfortable and since he's NEVER traveled in business class before! It's also a present for moi!

We'll be traveling on Emirates Airlines, so it's Nairobi-Dubai (approximately 5 hours) and Dubai-Singapore (approximately 8 hours) with couple of hours of transit. I've traveled on business class a couple of times before and I think I've gotten use to the comfort of business class. Honestly, for 8 hours? I'd pay to upgrade myself to business which I did. After the few times I have been on business class and then switching back to economy class, you can feel the difference especially for flights longer than 5 hours! So I'm working towards upgrading myself everytime my flight is longer than 5 hours. It's not cheap, granted but it's not healthy either to be confined to that small seat! You get to sleep better which is again good for you! It's honestly money well spent!!

But just to get this upgrade, (I paid for the trip back to Nairobi but used my miles for Nairobi to Singapore) I was at Emirate Airlines' office for a full 2 hours! Can you believe it? For a simple thing? Well problem was my ticket's issued by a travel agent and a policy with all airlines is that they try not to touch any bookings which ticket has been issued by a travel agent. You're supposed to make any changes to that booking with the agent as long as you're still in that country. I initiated this upgrade since last week and whenever I call the agent, she'll give me a whole load of crap saying she's still waiting for Emirates Airlines to mail her with confirmation to go ahead and price I have to pay for this upgrade. She was supposed to call me back but never did so I took matters into my own hand by calling Emirates again yesterday (they were the ones who confirmed that I had to go through my agent when I spoke to them the first time) and explained the situation to them asking them to allow me to by-pass the agent this time. They were nice enough to tell me to come by the office and they'll do this favour for me.

So I went to the office this morning - very early and I was greeted by the lady at the desk saying no they cannot do that for me! I explained that the lady I spoke to yesterday has agreed which is why I gave up my beauty sleep! Thank goodness I remembered the name of the lady whom I spoke to. (Remember, always take the name of the person you're speaking to!) Anyway, Emirates called my agent to find out why they refuse to issue for me and my agent gave a load of bullshit even to her saying she didn't know she was allowed to do that bla bla bla bla..... Huh so my agent hasn't even started the process for me! She was lying to my this whole time saying she was waiting for Emirates' email!!! LIAR!!!! OK, a note, I can't choose who my agent is because this ticket is booked via the company hubby works at and they are the agent for the company nominated by the HQ in Denmark. It's a global nomination so yeah, this agent is not a local company. Anyway, the kind lady at Emirates agreed to do this as a one-off because I started giving her poor Ann story then I met with another problem - credit card wouldn't let the transaction through!!!! WTF?!!? Luckily I brought 2 cards with me - called both banks and both banks told me the main problem is with that payment, my credit limit would have been exceeded.

Begged Direct Access to let this one transaction pass through - WTH, I was only USD300 short and it's not my fault that Maybank takes 2 days to clear my direct bank transfer! Otherwise I wouldn't even be short of USD300! They said it will take at least a couple of hours because they have to submit the request to credit department. Fine, fair enough but I said it's an emergency and only one transaction! I don't need a permanent increase. Well sorry mam we can't do it. But I'm here at the ticketing office! Sorry mam......OK I'll go to another bank. Public Bank was so nice! The lady I was speaking to told me my limit is RMXXXX which is why transaction was declined. I said but it was RMXXXX before but she couldn't tell me why. Anyway told her the same story and asked if she could just increase the limit for this transaction. Asked me when can I pay-off this extra amount, told her by today via bank transfer. She told me to hold for a minute or 2 and taa-daaa settled!!!! Wow!!!! And finally, payment went through, upgrade done. So choose Public Bank!!!

Hubby's laptop has gone cranky today and internet is slow (using my trusted USB modem again) so will not be uploading any food pics today. Will, instead, hehehe, upload "proof" of my business class ticket and also new flowers I got for our house this week! I've decided against the usual roses and went for carnations instead. I think it looks really pretty (and more expensive too!)