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On January 15th, I turned my computer on and was staring at Google Maps. I wasn't looking at Europe, Africa or America but somewhere within 3 hours flight time from ICN. After a few minutes of looking at Google Maps, the destination was decided, that is Shanghai.
I initially booked with China Southern Airlines (ICN-PVG) however a few days later, I realized that I had to change the departure date, only to avail that my ticket with CZ doesn't allow any departure date change.
I phoned CZ office in Seoul to ask for a refund minus refund penalty however Seoul office tells me that because I booked online on cz.com, I have to call Guangzhou headquarter to get a refund.
SEL CZ Agent says:
"You booked your ticket on cz.com, so you have to call Guangzhou"
Me says:
"I booked cz.co.kr (CZ's korean website), so you should be able to take care of this, besides this ticket is ex-ICN"
SEL CZ Agent says:
"No, because you booked on cz.com, you have to call Guangzhou HQ. This is the same for every other airlines"
Me says:
"So what you are saying is, if I booked my ex-ICN SQ ticket from SQ.com, I have to call SIN HQ? I have always been able to solve my problems with SQ SEL office"
This goes on for a few minutes and I gave up. I picked up my phone to call Guangzhou HQ only to find out automated answering machine says "The line is busy, Please call back later" for hours and hours. Next day, a miracle happened. I got through to a living person !!
CZ HQ agent says:
"This is reservation department, you have to call Refund Department"
I was like
, so I called Refund Department.
CZ HQ Refund Department says:
"Send an e-mail to rfd.czair blah blah"
So, a lesson learned, DON'T BOOK CZ TICKET FROM CZ WEBSITE !!! BOOK WITH A TA. BUT DON'T FLY WITH CZ IN THE FIRST PLACE !!
So finally, I booked a MU ticket, departing from Gimpo to Hongqiao. I seriously wish SQ has a flight to GMP like it does to HND. Yes, the airport interior is bad, lounge is bad, there's nothing but duty free pick up desk in the airside but who cares, this is just amazingly convenient !!
Please pardon me, I only took a few photos during flight because there was nothing spectacular.
Here I am sitting in A321 of MU posing with my sexy legs like Jessica of Malaysia.
My seat was next to an emergency seat however I could turn my head to right hand side by 160 degrees to get this picture. All Nippon Airways from HND arriving late. If you look at the background, you can see a B737BBJ of Samsung.
I appreciated a very generous pitch of my seat.
OK, talking about the food, it is just bad. There's no other word to describe but just bad. I found out that this meal is served on all ICN-PVG and GMP-SHA vice versa. They load this nonsense from Shanghai and serve on PVG/SHA-ICN/GMP on both sectors. Rice was hard, bread tasted like rubber, the only saving grace was fruit.
Talking about IFE, we can never expect something like SQ IFE. The IFE on MU on ICN/GMP-PVG/SHA consists of commercial advertisements.
So I arrived in SHA, grabbed a taxi to Pullman Shanghai. It was just a pain in my butt to communicate with this taxi driver.
I asked "Let's go to Pullman Skyway Shanghai"
His reply "Pu-Te-Man?"
Oh jeez, I should have found out how to pronounce Pullman Skyway in Mandarin. Anyway, he called the hotel number and found out how to get there. Ok folks, FYI Pullman Skyway is pronounced as "Pu-Er-Man Se-Ke-wei" in Mandarin.
I arrived at the lobby, handed hotel voucher printed from expedia.com.
Hotel Guy: "We upgraded you to Junior Suite however your rate doesn't include breakfast"
So I pointed out "Breakfast - Included" on my voucher, he calls his supervisor and came up with this reply.
Hotel Guy: "Sometimes Expedia information is wrong", he also pointed my next say at Grand Mercure Zhongya Shanghai voucher that doesn't say anything about breakfast.
Me says: "Of course dude, look, it's executive room, it automatically comes with breakfast. Stop this nonsense man".
After a few minutes of blah blah, they decided to honor the rate.
FYI, this is the welcome gift they are talking about on a-club.com.
I also received green apples instead of red apples at Grand Mercure as well.
I initially booked with China Southern Airlines (ICN-PVG) however a few days later, I realized that I had to change the departure date, only to avail that my ticket with CZ doesn't allow any departure date change.
I phoned CZ office in Seoul to ask for a refund minus refund penalty however Seoul office tells me that because I booked online on cz.com, I have to call Guangzhou headquarter to get a refund.
SEL CZ Agent says:
"You booked your ticket on cz.com, so you have to call Guangzhou"
Me says:
"I booked cz.co.kr (CZ's korean website), so you should be able to take care of this, besides this ticket is ex-ICN"
SEL CZ Agent says:
"No, because you booked on cz.com, you have to call Guangzhou HQ. This is the same for every other airlines"
Me says:
"So what you are saying is, if I booked my ex-ICN SQ ticket from SQ.com, I have to call SIN HQ? I have always been able to solve my problems with SQ SEL office"
This goes on for a few minutes and I gave up. I picked up my phone to call Guangzhou HQ only to find out automated answering machine says "The line is busy, Please call back later" for hours and hours. Next day, a miracle happened. I got through to a living person !!
CZ HQ agent says:
"This is reservation department, you have to call Refund Department"
I was like
, so I called Refund Department.CZ HQ Refund Department says:
"Send an e-mail to rfd.czair blah blah"
So, a lesson learned, DON'T BOOK CZ TICKET FROM CZ WEBSITE !!! BOOK WITH A TA. BUT DON'T FLY WITH CZ IN THE FIRST PLACE !!
So finally, I booked a MU ticket, departing from Gimpo to Hongqiao. I seriously wish SQ has a flight to GMP like it does to HND. Yes, the airport interior is bad, lounge is bad, there's nothing but duty free pick up desk in the airside but who cares, this is just amazingly convenient !!
Please pardon me, I only took a few photos during flight because there was nothing spectacular.
Here I am sitting in A321 of MU posing with my sexy legs like Jessica of Malaysia.
My seat was next to an emergency seat however I could turn my head to right hand side by 160 degrees to get this picture. All Nippon Airways from HND arriving late. If you look at the background, you can see a B737BBJ of Samsung.
I appreciated a very generous pitch of my seat.
OK, talking about the food, it is just bad. There's no other word to describe but just bad. I found out that this meal is served on all ICN-PVG and GMP-SHA vice versa. They load this nonsense from Shanghai and serve on PVG/SHA-ICN/GMP on both sectors. Rice was hard, bread tasted like rubber, the only saving grace was fruit.
Talking about IFE, we can never expect something like SQ IFE. The IFE on MU on ICN/GMP-PVG/SHA consists of commercial advertisements.
So I arrived in SHA, grabbed a taxi to Pullman Shanghai. It was just a pain in my butt to communicate with this taxi driver.
I asked "Let's go to Pullman Skyway Shanghai"
His reply "Pu-Te-Man?"
Oh jeez, I should have found out how to pronounce Pullman Skyway in Mandarin. Anyway, he called the hotel number and found out how to get there. Ok folks, FYI Pullman Skyway is pronounced as "Pu-Er-Man Se-Ke-wei" in Mandarin.
I arrived at the lobby, handed hotel voucher printed from expedia.com.
Hotel Guy: "We upgraded you to Junior Suite however your rate doesn't include breakfast"
So I pointed out "Breakfast - Included" on my voucher, he calls his supervisor and came up with this reply.
Hotel Guy: "Sometimes Expedia information is wrong", he also pointed my next say at Grand Mercure Zhongya Shanghai voucher that doesn't say anything about breakfast.
Me says: "Of course dude, look, it's executive room, it automatically comes with breakfast. Stop this nonsense man".
After a few minutes of blah blah, they decided to honor the rate.
FYI, this is the welcome gift they are talking about on a-club.com.
I also received green apples instead of red apples at Grand Mercure as well.
We grabbed a taxi at 8:05PM, we arrived at T3 at 8:30PM, got myself into a quick shower at 8:40PM, got to the gate at 9:00PM sharp. 
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