What a day…

No Timor-Leste For You!

Recall, my goal was to reach Dili and I had a very short connection in Bail in order to connect to my Aero Dili flight.

My Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur left KUL on time and was very pleasant, but it is chronically late and this Sunday was no exception. We touched down at 12:05 pm, on time, but taxied for several minutes and by the time we pulled up to the gate and the jetbridge had been connected, it was 12:25 pm…I was now one hour from departure and I had no boarding pass for my connecting international flight on a different airline.

I raced off the plane, ran down the arrivals corridor, and made a beeline for the transit counter, hoping that someone might be able to help. I find it so odd that Indonesian airports have international transit counters yet everyone seems clueless about what an international transit is.

“Do you have your boarding for your next flight?” asked one of the staff members at the transit desk.

“No, that’s why I’m here.”

“We can’t help you. You have to go out through immigration and go to the airline check-in desk.”

Had they just let me up the escalator beside them, I could have gone to the Aero Dili gate and I’m pretty sure they could have issued my boarding pass right there.

But that’s not the way it works and so I retreated to the immigration line, where thankfully there was not much of a line at all. Within five minutes, I was out and running again.

It was now 12:35 pm. At Denpasar International Airport, you run through a labyrinth of currency exchanges, e-sim shops, and food places before you empty out into the real arrivals area. From there, I bolted for an escalator, taking it two levels up to the arrivals area.

I wasn’t sure where to go, but I located the Aero Dili check-in area on the departure board and ran over, by this time panting heavily.

There was still an agent at the desk!

I told her I was on the flight and she said, “You are too late.”

I said, “Please. I have no bags and I tried to check in online.”

She took my passport and set it down next to her.

She made a call on her phone, presumably to the gate. After a moment, she put down the phone, shook her head, and said, “Sorry, you are too late. Would you like me to rebook you for tomorrow?”

Crestfallen, I shook my head and thanked her.

I was thankful that I had purchased the $90 travel insurance from trip.com, which would allow me to get a full refund on my $600 ticket.

The thought crossed my mind to skip Jakarta altogether so I could do Timor-Leste the next day, but I already had the Park Hyatt in Jakarta booked and I did not want to risk missing my Singapore Airlines flights from Jakarta.

Well, so much for that…

I’ll share about my Malaysia Airlines flight later…now I’m going to book myself at the Grand Hyatt and fly to Jakarta tomorrow.

I’m sharing about my whirlwind trip through Asia.