now, dear audience, this will be a major blog trying to put in everything that happened during the last week only, but there was SO much!!
maybe I will put it in more than 1 blog!! so here we go: SHANGHAIIIII
Well, most of you have allready done online booking sometime... and so have I. However this time it was a WHOLE NEW experience! For those of you who are in Asia and heard about Elong.com: forget that you ever heard about it and install a "beware of Elong" sign above your computer - for your own safety! Here's the story of a booking procedure in chinese way: As usual, you select your flight and itinerary, click on next step or whatever gets you forward, ... put in your contact information and credit card numberes and expiry date... and thats how I did... of course, I had also selected "E-ticket" for that. Now what is an eticket? usually i would have said its a number that you get in an email with which you can check in... but question: why does it say "delivery address" then on this weird semi-chinese page? well, I aint got a clue, so why not call them in China- skype makes it possible right. Slight problem: English!! So here am I, talkign to a chinese person and just saying "wo jiao ying yu" - I want someone who speaks English, and "wo tingbudong putoghua" I dont understand Putonghua (Chinese)... and, easy as it is... I get put through to someone who speaks some English... did you think now it was easy? well, wrong again... I gave this lady aaaall the info again... and she made a reservation for me. To confirm it, she would send me a "credit card authorisation form" which I had to print out (how good that I dont have a printer!) sign, and then fax (no fax here either) back, or (!!) take a digital pic of it and email that back. Together, I have to send a picture of my passport (which was at the travel agency around the corner at that time to get a visa for china) and a picture of the front (to compare the number) and back (to compare the signature) of my credit card! OH MY GOD!! but, its cheaper than anythign else.... so get over it and do it, right? ... only that this email did not come! time went by... 2 hrs, 3 hrs... 4 hrs... and I got slightly nervous to say the least!
So, why not call again... only minor difficulty this time: there was nobody who spoke english or even understood what I was saying... all that I got back from my tingbudong and ying yu?? was blablablalballbaalblalbalalbalaowieurpawoeir kbjaölfdkjasödfj putonghua oiweroaib k blbalablabllablablablabla... for like 20 minutes... also, I guess they put me through to every possible employee at this call center... ying yu xie xie.... bu putonghua..... tingbudong.... waaaaahaaaaa no chance.
that was Saturday and I wanted to fly Wednesday, so no worries - still 4 whole days, right? pfffff
sunday nobody could be reached and monday I finally talked to someone in English again... the email came (promised) only another 4 hrs later and then it was easy... just some rushing around back and forth to uni to print, copy, scan and send... and then: waiting for the confirmation. ... by now i was used to it so the next day I called again to tell them to send it and by Tuesday evening they had sent my confirmation! Its as easy as that!! Oh did I mention that this was only the confirmation of the booking and with this I could go to the China Eastern Airlines Counter at the airport to "pick up" my "e-ticket". Eticketing in China... the paper version I guess!
so, the next blog will be about Shanghai actually....
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