Cost of a Reliance

One of the crazy thing about the missed flight is that I could have stopped it.
The day before the flight, we were on walking Paris tour, the weather wasn't particularly friendly that day, the sun was on its super power mode. I probably get dehydrated and got very sick by the end of the day.

SIGN 1
That night, after puking and several pops of medicine, I had a restless night, kept on waking up
forced myself back to sleep, I know I need more stamina for the next day. I also had a DREAM, a dream about MISSING a FLIGHT - in the dream, I missed the flight because I saw my staffs in the airport slacking off, and I took care of the matter thus missing the flight in the dream.
I woke up from the dream but wasn't alarmed at all, I know weird dream can occur when one's body is unwell. Back to sleep.

SIGN 2
When I woke up in the morning, I arranged all my paper and tickets for my domestic flight (straight after Paris and Jakarta, I am going back to Padang)
I still checked all the timing and the Jakarta hotel voucher validity. I notice that our Paris to Jakarta flight is at 1600 hours.
That morning, we went to Gallery Lafayette for shopping, I even make a mental note: The shopping won't be long, the most we gonna spend 2-3 hours if we start early. Cos we need to be in airport around 1200 noon

SIGN 3
At the bus before Gallery Lafayette, the tourleader reminded us to be ontime! That means we need to be at airport before 1600 hrs.
I was puzzled, "At airport at 1600? I thought our flight is at 1600?"
And I didn't make a noise at all. Because none complained about the timing, so I thought maybe I saw the ticket wrongly. How can a tourleader make a mistake?

We left Gallery Lafayette at 1500hrs. Once we arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, the tourleader herd us to the tax refund counter. I kinda feel odd, cos we usually get our tax refund money back when we already passing the immigration check. But I still think, maybe they change the sequence again.
I haven't been to CDG for sometime. Other people told me that our flight is at 1900hrs as it was stated at the itinerary.

GUESS WHAT!!!
There was a typo in the itinerary, not only the printed itinerary booklet, but also in the emails and fax, etc. None notice about the typo... 1600hrs to 1900hrs.
We missed our flight, ran here and there checking whatever flights available to get back home. Our group of 17 was separated in 3 groups, flying different airline, different timing. some of us (incld me) also spent another night at the airport hotel

Lucky that I didn't spend a dime on my credit card, I also upgrade my limit for the trip. I helped out buying 7(out of 17) of the international flight and all the hotels fee.
Lucky lucky lucky that I was reluctant to visit Hermes boutique. Hahahaha...

But I do regret the whole thing, with all the signs stated above, I could have stopped the whole thing, if only I am not so reliant, or maybe I should say "The whole mess can be stopped if I were not so IGNORANT"

Shocking Start, Surprising End

Originally, I planned to go for a seclusive 'holiday' (I dont dare to say 'retreat') for this year's Eid Festive; but just a few weeks before the the holiday mood kicked in, I got an invitation from a supplier. It's a France trip for EUFA 2016! Yippieee...

START

So, we depart on 28th June using Turkish Airlines. When I was on board, I was told that there is a bombing at Ataturk Airport, Istanbul - that's where we gonna have our transit before embarking to Nice, France. I was watching the inflight live news, wondering if we can catch the next flight.
When we landed, the airport was in chaos, so many people, stranded and confused people. Planes were cancelled or delayed, leaving people (including me and my group) in dismay. We were stranded for 6 hours from the original 3 hour transit. Lucky us!

So, this is what I considered as a shocking start. We were lucky to miss the bombing (if only we were there a few hours earlier - Can't imagine it)

END
Now, about the end of the trip. Our last day in Paris was a full day of Gallery Lafayette day. We supposed to reach airport before 4pm, so that we have enough time for tax refund. I don't have to worry about it, because I didn't shop much, and my refund is only about EUR20.

When we reached the airport, my tourleader take us to take refunds. And not long after we finished all the refund, I finally realised that my tour leader was panicking, I still didn't know what's going on. Later I found out that we miss our flights from Paris to Jakarta.
 The reason was so trivial, it was a typo on our travel itinerary. The flight was supposed to be on 16pm, but it was written 19pm; though the tickets were written correctly. No one checked the ticket!!! (except me, will tell story later) Sucks, isn't it?
Turkish Airline staffs wasn't helpful at all. We end up running to each and every airline desk that available at CDG. Flights to Jakarta were FULL, which is expected, it was the END of the Festive Eid holiday. I have to admit that people for Skyteam and Star Alliance have sympathetic gesture. They might not be able to fix it for you, but at least they can give valid advice.

We were trying to grab any flights available to reach South East Asia (by that time we didn't aim for Jakarta anymore), so we then separated into 3 groups. First 2 groups was booked on the spot on 2 different flights. I was left on the 3rd group, cos I am young and single.. ahhahaha the other 2 groups have kids and elders. Anyway, the 3rd group finally able to get some tickets through online booking.  Pure luck.

Long story short, all 17 of us finally reach home safe and sound. Damn tired, but at least we were saved.  So there it is shocking start and surprising end.