Adebelle

There are times no matter how much yoga you’ve been practising it just won’t help calming you down and you just wanna snap right there and then. There are times when your heart beats so fast, your ears feel so hot, your blood is boiling beyond the boiling point and you feel like steam is coming out from every part of your body. There are also times when you can’t be bothered to be civilized and polite, needless to mention you care the slightest bit looking like a rude, loud and obnoxious nutcase in public. Oh well, I had those moments last Saturday!!

In order not to overwork my poor heart, I really should just skip the utterly ‘pleasant’ encouter I had before Saturday with this so called one and only ‘fantabulous’ budget airline in Malaysia. The naked truth is, they SUCK big, big time!!! Goosh, 2 days have passed and I’m still so jumpy when recalling back my virgin fly with this airline.

I finally came to term with the stupid facts that despite having a dedicated hotline for their customers to change their flight schedules, they couldn’t change mine; despite the fact that they pride themselves as the very customer centric airline, I waited more than half an hour to speak to their supposedly highly friendly and dedicated helpdesk operator and ended up yelling at the phone and almost got myself a heart attack; despite the fact that other airlines probably offer a refund, I couldn’t get mine (they were giving me some stupid 48 hours ball*****…)

Never mind, it’s not the end of the world, was it? If I had to fly on Saturday and so be it! I am not that unreasonable, afterall…

Saturday, 7.45am. Mum and I strolled into the airport and looking for the counter to get our boarding passes only to be told that the whatever stupid gate they called it was closed, yes, C.L.O.S.E.D, closed!!!!! What do they mean by closed?!?!?! We were a good half an hour EARLY before the boarding time!!! I looked at mum and she was completely panicked! I don’t think I was panicked, more like completely pissed off! I stormed to the customer service counter and greeted by a stuck-up officer. Speaking about having a bad day, are we?

Ade: Good morning. I am flying to JB and the flight is at 8.15am. Can I have my boarding pass now?
Stuck-up: Good morning, Mam. Where are you flying to, Mam? (Was she deaf?! Didn’t I tell her I was going to JB?!!!)
Ade: JB (close to yelling at her…)
Stuck-up: Sorry Mam, the gate is closed… (cut off her sentence right away)
Ade: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THE GATE IS CLOSED?!!!!!!! It’s only 7.45am and we still have half an hour! What kinda nonsense is this?! I can’t believe this. I have just had a bad experience with A**A*** and now this?! Now you are telling me that the gate is closed?! (I couldn’t be bothered all eyes were on me! I thought I could eat her alive or perhaps kill her with my super high pitched voice)
Stuck-up: Yes Mam, the gate is closed. Sorry mam, I can’t do anything. (I swear I would chew her lips off or cut her throat if she mention another word of ‘mam’… she was supposed to pacify me - the very irate customer, instead, she was adding oil to the burning flame! I thought I could explode right there! You should also look at her stupid expression!!! It’s not even apologetic!!!)
Ade: What is this??!! I’ve taken so many budget airlines in the UK in the past and there wasn’t any problem like this! I could still board the plane 5 minutes before it took off (this is true!!! I didn’t make it up!) and now we still have half a hour!!!
Stuck-up: That’s Europe, Mam. This is Malaysia, Mam. (from the angry scale 1-100, I scored 200 at that point. You should look at her stupid face!!! It’s soooo rude and patronizing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thinking of it now still makes me wanna give her 10 tight slaps! I’m not kidding! This is what they called customer centric service???? Are you supposed to talk to your customer that way? With that kinda stuck-up and beyond redemption tone and expression?! Hell no!!!!) I was this close of asking her to shutdup and bring her manager to me!)
Ade: THAAAANKS, YOUR CUSTOMER SERIVCE IS REALLY GOOD!!! This is the first and my very last time taking A**A***!!! (Even though what I really wanted to tell her is probably something like ‘go to hell’ or ‘you stupid cow’… I just couldn’t…)
Stuck-up: Thanks, mam. (again, if she had shown me her apologetic face, I probably wouldn’t yell at her and snap but… you really should see her stupid face! If her face were made of paper, I could just tear it in million pieces and not feeling guilty at all, not even a tiny bit! I paling pantang RUDENESS and RUDE cows!)

I can only remember standing there and looking every inch like a walking detonated bomb which would burn down the stupid counter and that stupid cow if she refused to do anything… Mum was playing the good customer role telling her that was our first time taking this airline and ya-dee-ya-da…

Few moments passed without anyone speaking except the cow with two other guys in the counter. I couldn’t understand what was being said because it was in Tamil! But I am hell sure she was bitching about me… not that I care! Minutes later she unwillingly produced two boarding passes, finally, and scribbled LMC (last minute check-in) on it. I didn’t realised until was asked at the boarding gate. At least that girl was smiling and looked really genuine when she asked… If I had known what it meant by then, I’d ask her to define ‘Last Minute’ to me!

At that rate, my angry simmered down a little since I’d gotten what I wanted by fighting tooth and nail for it. I remember so cleary saying thank you to her twice, twice!!! After all, I am a highly civilized and cultured person… and I didn’t want other people to think of me as some pariah… but really, I oughta thank her. I would have told her she did a great job if she didn’t have the stupid expression that pissed me off so crazily everytime I looked at her!

You see, they CAN do something about it. Something CAN always be done! It’s a matter of how you go about it! This time, I definitely chose the rough way. Besides, that stupid cow deserved it! I wonder what would happen if I didn’t snap and flare up would she still churn out the two boarding passes for us. This is the first time I lost it in the public. This is the first time I believe politeness is not for everyone under every circumstances. This is the first time my patience being tested to its fullest. This is the first time I fixed a problem by yelling my lungs out. (even though grandpa used to say the loudest person will always loss out and will always be a loser but I think he would have agreed with my problem solving skill in this case and maybe was clapping his hands in heaven!) This is the first time being so rude and coming out as a winner and feel so darn good about it.

The moral of the story? Fighting for your own right!