Tuesday 11 to Thursday 13 July 2017 Going Home
Tuesday 11 July 2017 - Paris
Yesterday whilst we were at Lafayette I got a message from our travel agent, in Adelaide, letting us know there was some difficulty with our flight arrangement to get home today.
Thought I’d ring this morning only to find I have no credit on my phone. I’ll top up the sim card. But no. I could only top up €20 per month for the first 2 months. What! how is that a benefit to the customer or the carrier. I had to inset my Telstra sim to make a call.
It turns out that because we were coming home early the dates on the original authorisation for Dea’s medical machine was no longer valid and had to be reapplied for.
Our transfer to the Paris airport was leaving at 8 am, our flight out was at 12. There was a possibility we would not be able to leave for 9 days as there were no business class seats to Singapore until then. I was under a little bit of stress. Even if we turned up at the airport the booking counter would refuse us boarding. After several phone calls to Adelaide I decided we would go to the airport with the transfer. This would mean we would be there if good news came through. I’d advised our travel agent in Adelaide this was my plan, she states under no circumstances was we to approach the Singapore Air booking counter until she advised me otherwise.
So here we are on the bus to the airport not knowing if we’re going home today, or we’d be staying another 9 days, or travelling by train to Frankfurt to possibly catch another Singapore Air flight tomorrow. The hotel we were staying at was nice but very expensive. If we had to stay, where?, and it could be on a day by day basis as a seat could be come available on a day by day basis.
15 minutes from the airport, about a kilometre, I got a phone call from our travel agent advising we had authorisation to fly, however this may not show up at the check in counter yet. If we are refused boarding then ring her immediately (it’s getting close to end of business in Australia) and we could possibly get on the flight tomorrow.
Fortunately all went well at check in and we had our boarding passes for the whole trip to Adelaide.
Wednesday 12 July 2017 - Singapore
Arrived in Singapore at about 6am after a 12 and half hour flight.I can feel the start of a cold coming on, someone in the plane has been spreading their germs.
I had decided we were not going to be extending our stay in Singapore as originally planned but there was 16 hour layover. I booked us into the Crowne Plaza Transit Hotel at the airport. Crashed for about 4 hours and then we went for lunch in the airport food court. Starting really feel the cold taking hold. Hope Dea doesn’t catch it.
Spent an hour or so in the Business class lounge before our 7 hour flight to Adelaide.
Thursday 13 July 2017 - Adelaide
Flight got in about an hour early to Adelaide 6:30am . Had an easy run through immigration and customs.
Our driver wasn’t to be seen when we got out. Well we are early. Waited about 30 minutes until he turned up. Adelaide is a lot colder than what we’ve been used to.
We rolled up to our driveway about 8:30am and there were our daughters and grandchildren waiting for us. They’d turned the heater on in the house and bought some basic groceries.
It’s good to be home.
When Dea’s back is better we plan to continue the trip next year, So until then happy travels.