Maaf ya kalo belum sempet bales komen dan ninggal komen di rumah online tetangga… 
Alhamdulillah udah sampai di Melbourne niy. Lagi sarapan di Queen Victoria Market, tapi sendirian. Si Mas lagi ngedon di kamar, ngerjain tugasnya yang ‘due’ kemarin hehehehe… *kasiaan yah…*
I try to do a quick post
Pagi ini kami yang berada di Australia bagian Queensland utara mendapatkan kesempatan langka untuk bisa melihat gerhana matahari. Di kotaku Townsville, kami bisa melihat gerhana tersebut hingga 96%, dan apabila kami agak ke utara di kota Cairns dan Port Douglas kami bisa melihat gerhana matahari penuh (100%).
Walaupun nggak seratus persen, peristiwa itu cukup spesial bagi masyrakat di sini. Kaca mata untuk melihat gerhana yang di jual di museum dan toko Australian Geographic sudah terjual habis sejak satu setengah minggu lalu. Padahal mereka punya stok 700 dan 500 buah kaca mata. Belum lagi toko-toko peralatan outdoor dan kaca mata, mereka juga sudah menjual habis seminggu lalu. Intinya peminat ‘eclipse chaser’ di kotaku tinggi sekali. Gerhana tadi mulai bisa dilihat jam 6.20 sampai menjelang jam 7 pagi. Saat aku berangkat ke tempat kerja (jam enam kurang) banyak orang mulai bergerak menuju pantai dekat tempat kerjaku atau ke bukit yang ada di Townsville, untuk mendapatkan pemandangan matahari yang jelas.
Aku sendiri awalnya nggak begitu antusias, lha pas dengan jam kerja. Tapi ternyata supervisorku dengan baik hati memanggil aku dan teman satu bagianku untuk melihat gerhana ini terjadi melalui topeng yang biasa dipakai tukang las. Jadi aku menyaksikan saat matahari mulai tertutupi sepertiga dan saat matahari berbentuk sabit. It was soooo coooll!!
Saat matahari mulai tertutupi lebih dari separuh terasa sinarnya berkurang, suasana agak berubah menjadi lebih gelap daripada biasanya dan suhu udara juga turun hingga 15 derajat. What a breathtaking moment! Setelah dua menit matahari tertutupi sampai 96% perlahan sinarnya mulai kembali terang dan suhu udara mulai kembali ke suhu biasa 28 derajat.
Kalau ada yang penasaran dengan kejadian langka ini, silahkan menyimak foto yang diambil si Mas pagi ini…
Kalau ada yang penasaran kapan gerhana matahari akan datang di kota kalian coba klik alamat website yang aku temukan yang memuat peta gerhana matahari yang akan terjadi di masa yang akan datang, klik di sini.
Two months ago after buying tickets for holiday (which will be on this weekend, yeay!), I thought it would be good time for me to buy ticket for going back home on early next year. Since it was six months before the departure, I believed the price would be cheaper. Compare with buying a ticket a month or a week before the departure, it’s gonna cost me a thousand, that’s not make any sense for me.
Since I wanted to use my Qantas frequent flyer points, I looked for reasonable ticket’s price on their website. I found a good deal, but every time after I finished filling all the form, and wanted to pay, the payment page always showed error notice. I tried couple times, I started the process again from the first step, but the price of the ticket that I wanted was changing. It was getting higher and higher. Well, it made me panic.
While panicking led the way, I kept buying tickets for me and my husband. The tickets seemed to be great deal, but it didn’t. It was cheaper but the flight were operated by other airlines, Airnorth for local flight and Jetstar for international flight, not Qantas. The hidden (I call it hidden as it isn’t appeared on the page when you do the booking process, it is somewhere middle their website) fact is if we fly with other airlines through Qantas’ website, we can’t add check in baggage online, because on manage-booking page of Qantas, they only provide an access for flight with Qantas airline. Urgghh…
It will be our flight ‘for good’ it means that we are going to bring a lot of stuffs, and of course twenty kilos for each person is not gonna be enough.
On the next day, I called Qantas call center and asked any information whether I could add my baggage online. The lady on the phone told me that I couldn’t do that. The only way I could do was paying the excess baggage on the spot, at the airport. Without checking on the website I knew for sure it would cost me more than 300 dollar for adding another luggage on an international flight if I would do it on the airport. Apparently, it is true, for international flight, the airlines are gonna cost you around 15-20 dollar for each kilos. FYI, for upgrading checked in baggage online until 45 kilos only cost me around 40 dollar. So, you can imagine how much different between airport and online baggage upgrading.
Having a little hope, I send an enquiry to Qantas if they have any suggestion The next day after I put my enquiry, they sent their response through e-mail, and said that nothing they could do. I tried to put my booking number on the airline’s website which would take me (it is the same airline for my holiday flight), and it couldn’t work. Ok, I was totally hopeless at that time. I had come on the point that I needed to keep some money so I could pay the great amount of excess baggage that I would have to pay anyway. Nothing I could do.
Time flew…
Around two weeks ago, I checked my flight for my holiday on Jetstar’s website, and chose our seat so we could have a great view trough our window, which I couldn’t do on my ‘for good’ flight. The reason I mention above, as I would fly with different airline that I bought the ticket from.
Then, I thought, mmm… maybe Jetstar could help me with my ‘for good’ flight. I filled the enquiry form on Jetstar’s website, I explained to them if I would fly with them and what my problem was. Try some luck, huh. After almost two weeks waiting, yesterday, I got a response from their customer service staff. It brought a big help for us. The staff, Joshua, he mentioned that he already put me (my ‘for good’ ticket) into their contact list, and he gave me a booking number so I could manage my booking trough their website. What a great news!
I was soooo happy.
I knew I shouldn’t do it, as the case already closed (I got what I wanted), but I couldn’t stand, so I sent him a thank-you message. This morning when I was on lunch break, I checked my email, I got another response from him. He said it was okey to send him that kind of reply especially a compliment reply. He let me know that Jetstar usually issued a 25 dollar voucher for a customer who gave them a compliment feedback. However, as I would go back for good, instead a 25 dollar voucher, he gave us two free exit seats. These seats have more space than other seats, and to book that seat the passengers need to pay 30 dollar each. Wow, that’s awesome!! We love Jetstar so much! Can’t wait to fly with them.
