Zen travelling - why it makes so much sense.

[juddles]

Hi all, for those that do not know me, I travel a fair bit.

This site is a frequent recourse for travellers that have been aggrieved, and so they "rant" here. I often attack such posters, but I do get their frustration and pain.

Anyway, despite all the desires of travellers, the feeling of status, and the non-forgiveness of airline staff who are having a "bad day" (as though we do not all suffer such), I wish to share my latest travel experience, in case it helps some fellow traveller keep calm and suffer less.

I was travelling from Medellin Colombia to La Serena Chile. MDE-BOG-SCL-LSC. Unfortunately, due to Life, I bought these as three separate tickets ( a points thing). Should have taken off from MDE at 7am, and arrived in La Serena about 12 hrs later, all on the 26th June.

I have a friend who believes in astrology, and they warned me in advance that my travel would fall to pieces (something about the stars and a retrograde Mars or similar). I laughed. But I kept the warning in mind.

They were right. The day before, the main ATC tower in BOG collapsed (electronically) which caused chaos through Colombia. I arrived the next day at dawn to see lines of pax asleep on the floor with airline-issued bedding. Not a good sign.

I travel enough to not risk close connections, and between my MDE-BOG flight (Avianca) on one ticket and my departure BOG to SCL on another (Latam) I had left "ample" room - 3 hours.

Due to the chaos of the previous day the aircraft coming to pick me up in MDE was late - but this was compounded by fog. I sat there in the lounge watching flightradar which showed my aircraft doing incessant circles above . I started to know this would be a bad day. But I was calm.

Sure enough, by the time the fog cleared and my plane landed, I knew my stopover in BOG had reduced from 3 hrs to 30 minutes - clearly not enough to manage to collect bags and checkin with Latam.

I arrived at BOG and rushed to the Latam counter - and of course the flight was closed. This is where my mindset was important. I KNEW it was not Latam's fault I was late. I KNEW that technically they could just put me as a no-show and I lose my ticket. End of story.

I also got there in the full circumstance of chaos remaining from the previous airport problem, so there were queues at every help desk, staff stressed, pax yelling/screaming/crying/threatening.

I managed to remain "Zen", calm. When I got to talk to the staff, I was polite, if upset, but friendly. That won so many points for me. They could have immediately told me to sod off, but they didn't. They could have discarded me from their backlog of work on the justifiable technicality of my situation. But despite the crowds of other angry pax, with probably more reason for leniency than me, I got good treatment. After a couple of hours they managed to get me rebooked to a flight the next day, something way beyond their terms and conditions.

If I had tried the DYKWIA card, or ranted, no doubt I would still be in Colombia, and trying desperately to get a ticket at last-minute / one-way prices. But no. I sucked in a deep breath of air, acknowledged the universe, and made it to SCL.

Zen worked for me. And what could have been a horrible memory, a long battle, expensive both financially and emotionally, was not.

Juddles.

 

[drron]

It is hard sometimes but often a necessity.Well done and enjoy that bottle of carmenere.

 

[kookaburra75]

It was one of those things I was taught a long time ago - "Will stressing out affect the outcome?" If the answer is no, then don't stress. Not easy sometimes, and full credit to you Juddles. But life is too short to worry about these sort of things.

 

[craven morehead]

Hi all, for those that do not know me, I travel a fair bit.

This site is a frequent recourse for travellers that have been aggrieved, and so they "rant" here. I often attack such posters, but I do get their frustration and pain.

Anyway, despite all the desires of travellers, the feeling of status, and the non-forgiveness of airline staff who are having a "bad day" (as though we do not all suffer such), I wish to share my latest travel experience, in case it helps some fellow traveller keep calm and suffer less.

I was travelling from Medellin Colombia to La Serena Chile. MDE-BOG-SCL-LSC. Unfortunately, due to Life, I bought these as three separate tickets ( a points thing). Should have taken off from MDE at 7am, and arrived in La Serena about 12 hrs later, all on the 26th June.

I have a friend who believes in astrology, and they warned me in advance that my travel would fall to pieces (something about the stars and a retrograde Mars or similar). I laughed. But I kept the warning in mind.

They were right. The day before, the main ATC tower in BOG collapsed (electronically) which caused chaos through Colombia. I arrived the next day at dawn to see lines of pax asleep on the floor with airline-issued bedding. Not a good sign.

I travel enough to not risk close connections, and between my MDE-BOG flight (Avianca) on one ticket and my departure BOG to SCL on another (Latam) I had left "ample" room - 3 hours.

Due to the chaos of the previous day the aircraft coming to pick me up in MDE was late - but this was compounded by fog. I sat there in the lounge watching flightradar which showed my aircraft doing incessant circles above . I started to know this would be a bad day. But I was calm.

Sure enough, by the time the fog cleared and my plane landed, I knew my stopover in BOG had reduced from 3 hrs to 30 minutes - clearly not enough to manage to collect bags and checkin with Latam.

I arrived at BOG and rushed to the Latam counter - and of course the flight was closed. This is where my mindset was important. I KNEW it was not Latam's fault I was late. I KNEW that technically they could just put me as a no-show and I lose my ticket. End of story.

I also got there in the full circumstance of chaos remaining from the previous airport problem, so there were queues at every help desk, staff stressed, pax yelling/screaming/crying/threatening.

I managed to remain "Zen", calm. When I got to talk to the staff, I was polite, if upset, but friendly. That won so many points for me. They could have immediately told me to sod off, but they didn't. They could have discarded me from their backlog of work on the justifiable technicality of my situation. But despite the crowds of other angry pax, with probably more reason for leniency than me, I got good treatment. After a couple of hours they managed to get me rebooked to a flight the next day, something way beyond their terms and conditions.

If I had tried the DYKWIA card, or ranted, no doubt I would still be in Colombia, and trying desperately to get a ticket at last-minute / one-way prices. But no. I sucked in a deep breath of air, acknowledged the universe, and made it to SCL.

Zen worked for me. And what could have been a horrible memory, a long battle, expensive both financially and emotionally, was not.

Juddles.

Is this a new found calmness @juddles or something purely knocked into you from your extensive travel experiences? It certainly makes sense of course in regards to trying to resolve these situations which are realistically no ones fault.

 

[Pushka]

I’m not sure if I buy into the Zen thing but as an oldie behaving nicely to people who could help me was just simply manners and common sense, especially when I had created some of the issues myself.

 

[juddles]

Is this a new found calmness @juddles or something purely knocked into you from your extensive travel experiences? It certainly makes sense of course in regards to trying to resolve these situations which are realistically no ones fault.

craven, yes, I am slowly finding calm as my age increases. Maybe way too fast (both things).

I’m not sure if I buy into the Zen thing but as an oldie behaving nicely to people who could help me was just simply manners and common sense, especially when I had created some of the issues myself.

I am not a youngie nor oldie, but I completely agree. Behaving nicely to people should be in our DNA, but sadly it is not. And admitting, or even perceiving, that one self has been part of the problem, is a very rare characteristic in modern society. I think

 

[Pushka]

craven, yes, I am slowly finding calm as my age increases. Maybe way too fast (both things).



I am not a youngie nor oldie, but I completely agree. Behaving nicely to people should be in our DNA, but sadly it is not. And admitting, or even perceiving, that one self has been part of the problem, is a very rare characteristic in modern society. I think

It’s indocrinated in society not to take responsibility for one’s own actions from a very early age and reinforced in schooling. Hence why we have so many stupid warnings on products we buy these days.

 

[opusman]

Getting upset and yelling at people rarely achieves anything. Calm is good (although not always that easy).

 

[kookaburra75]

....., especially when I had created some of the issues myself.

That would have to be worth a thread in its own right.... @Pushka - Issues I have Created

 

[Pushka]

That would have to be worth a thread in its own right.... @Pushka - Issues I have Created

Maybe that’s the Travel Mistakes thread?

 

[GoldCanyon340]

A lot of this travel lark is about inner peace and calmness. You, mostly, get out of it what you put in and I approach every travel day the same way whether it's ADL-MEL or ADL-<insert furthest point from ADL here>. So for me this means arriving with comfortable time to spare, a coffee or two in the lounge if domestic or relaxing lunch if international. On board it's time to enjoy the food and wine and put my head down and zone out if a fellow pax starts acting the pork chop (same goes for ignoring loud, "important" business people on their phones in the lounge, although that expends more effort).

If you fly a lot then working yourself up is really not worth it, It really just isn't.

 

[Ralphie]

As someone with an anxiety disorder and an over planner, the idea of zen travelling is a complete fantasy, however the simple act of being nice to people isn’t.

I remember one day of travel that involved missed connections, weather delays, other plane delays, lost accommodation booking at destination, and me near crying in LAX at midnight, exhausted and confused. As annoyed and tired as we were, we were polite to everyone we spoke to, and noticeably grateful to anyone who helped while the airports were chaotic.

Mr Ralphie and I ended up with improved seating on flights, an upgraded room on arrival at our alternative accommodation and free breakfast.

You should be nice just because it’s the right thing, not because it can work for you, but I’ve certainly found you get more flies with honey...

 

[Haplo]

I believe that if you treat the staff well, they will also treat you well.

My story is that I was travelling from PVG to MNL via HKG around mid-May last year and i was told all CX flight that day was cancelled. I asked if there was a Business class or Emerald line and was told I need to queue up with everyoneelse, which I did. I lined up for 6 hours and was given the next flight on KA but unfortunately missed the last flight to MNL. I called the hotel in MNL and they waived that night's charge for me.

So I believe that if you do the right thing then the right thing will happen to you.

 

[opusman]

If in business class and an emerald I was made to line up for 6 hours with everyone else I would be livid. The whole point of status is they are meant to treat you better than everyone else.

 

[tmdellit]

Wholeheartedly agree.

I was lucky very early on in my travelling life that I ran into a substantial delay which could've caused chaos to the start of my trip. Was due to fly to Rome, with 3 stopovers and 3 different airlines (Christmas time on super cheap airfare) going BNE-BKK with EK, BKK-SIN with Jetstar, and SIN-LON via DOH with QR. Similarly to you we left plenty of time in both BKK and SIN in case of delays. When checking in at BNE we could see that there was a 4 hour delay which unless a small miracle happened, meant that we would miss our next flight and put our QR flight at risk. Needless to say check in was chaos with lots of unhappy, and vocal, travellers.

When the attendent at check in was explaining the delay, we calmly enquired about the effect on arrival time and mentioned that this would cause us to miss our connecting flight but "that's just the joys of travel we guess". She then asked for our boarding passes back, promptly upgrades us to Business Class, slaps a priority sticker on our bags and says that she hopes this will help push us through a little quicker. She then proceeds to apologise that she can't grant us lounge access but provided $40 worth of food and drink vouchers each. Her parting comment to us was "thankyou for being so understanding, I hope that you get there on time".

We did miss the connecting flight, but managed to buy a new one at the airport in BKK which got us to SIN in time and safely made it to Rome on time.

I took 2 things out of this experience. 1. Always be the calm one in the room and treat everyone with respect. 2. Pay the extra $200pp and book the entire way with a single airline

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If in business class and an emerald I was made to line up for 6 hours with everyone else I would be livid. The whole point of status is they are meant to treat you better than everyone else.

Two things that are particular to PVG - the flights can be very elite heavy - I'm estimating anywhere from 50-70 to more than 100 per flight judging by the priority boarding lanes (which are rigorously enforced). And this is consistent across every flight, every time (the odd flight by an A320/321 might be the exception).

Secondly, many people, especially with status, would call reservations to change their flights in the event of cancellations on that scale. So anyone left at the airport is potentially without status - maybe it's just first come first served in those circumstances?

 

[bigjobs]

Hi all, for those that do not know me, I travel a fair bit.

This site is a frequent recourse for travellers that have been aggrieved, and so they "rant" here. I often attack such posters, but I do get their frustration and pain.

Anyway, despite all the desires of travellers, the feeling of status, and the non-forgiveness of airline staff who are having a "bad day" (as though we do not all suffer such), I wish to share my latest travel experience, in case it helps some fellow traveller keep calm and suffer less.

I was travelling from Medellin Colombia to La Serena Chile. MDE-BOG-SCL-LSC. Unfortunately, due to Life, I bought these as three separate tickets ( a points thing). Should have taken off from MDE at 7am, and arrived in La Serena about 12 hrs later, all on the 26th June.

I have a friend who believes in astrology, and they warned me in advance that my travel would fall to pieces (something about the stars and a retrograde Mars or similar). I laughed. But I kept the warning in mind.

They were right. The day before, the main ATC tower in BOG collapsed (electronically) which caused chaos through Colombia. I arrived the next day at dawn to see lines of pax asleep on the floor with airline-issued bedding. Not a good sign.

I travel enough to not risk close connections, and between my MDE-BOG flight (Avianca) on one ticket and my departure BOG to SCL on another (Latam) I had left "ample" room - 3 hours.

Due to the chaos of the previous day the aircraft coming to pick me up in MDE was late - but this was compounded by fog. I sat there in the lounge watching flightradar which showed my aircraft doing incessant circles above . I started to know this would be a bad day. But I was calm.

Sure enough, by the time the fog cleared and my plane landed, I knew my stopover in BOG had reduced from 3 hrs to 30 minutes - clearly not enough to manage to collect bags and checkin with Latam.

I arrived at BOG and rushed to the Latam counter - and of course the flight was closed. This is where my mindset was important. I KNEW it was not Latam's fault I was late. I KNEW that technically they could just put me as a no-show and I lose my ticket. End of story.

I also got there in the full circumstance of chaos remaining from the previous airport problem, so there were queues at every help desk, staff stressed, pax yelling/screaming/crying/threatening.

I managed to remain "Zen", calm. When I got to talk to the staff, I was polite, if upset, but friendly. That won so many points for me. They could have immediately told me to sod off, but they didn't. They could have discarded me from their backlog of work on the justifiable technicality of my situation. But despite the crowds of other angry pax, with probably more reason for leniency than me, I got good treatment. After a couple of hours they managed to get me rebooked to a flight the next day, something way beyond their terms and conditions.

If I had tried the DYKWIA card, or ranted, no doubt I would still be in Colombia, and trying desperately to get a ticket at last-minute / one-way prices. But no. I sucked in a deep breath of air, acknowledged the universe, and made it to SCL.

Zen worked for me. And what could have been a horrible memory, a long battle, expensive both financially and emotionally, was not.

Juddles.

nah, your friend wasn't right ... Astrology isn't real.

 

[LadyC]

Have a few small packets of Ferrero Rocher to offer to staff can go a long way in helping also!

 

[RoMambai]

Good on you Juddles for such a refreshing post. I agree with the lofty ambition. I cut my travelling teeth post S11 so I have only known the pervasive security overlay, queues and antagonistic security chumps. As such I always assume the worse and get pleasantly surprised when everything goes smoothly - which it does most of the time. And when it doesn't, I'm comforted by the realisation that things could always be much worse.

 

[JohnK]

I don't believe in the concept of zen and karma.

I try to be nice to people and assist where possible but the people I encounter in my travels ruin that feeling.

e.g. Arrive in BKK last Sunday with wife and daughter after flying First/Business. Escorted through immigration and our bags wheeled by the porters to our waiting booked taxi. The taxi driver and I have 2 trolleys and wife and daughter also there waiting for lift to car park and the previous lift was full. If anyone knows BKK you'll know these lifts are slow and we waited about 5 minutes for lift.

As lift arrived I could that it was almost full and before we could wheel trolleys a young lady from nowhere pushed in and I could see 2-3 more of her friends about to do the same. Quickly and angrily wheeled trolleys in and just enough room for wife and daughter leaving this lady's friends behind.

I hate rude behaviour. Some people think they are smarter than everyone else. They had no luggage and could have easily used the travellator to go up or down. I gave this young lady and her actions a mouthful but don't think she understood a word I said.

Angry start to the holiday.