Flight Cancellation
I had booked to fly back to New Zealand on 1 November as part of my roundtrip ticket originating from Auckland. But that flight got cancelled a few days after I left my hotel quarantine in Kuching. Malaysia Airlines had suspended all operations to Auckland until early March next year.
So I had resigned myself to returning to New Zealand in March with the option of buying a new ticket back if I really wanted to. My Malaysia Airlines ticket can be kept open until the end of next year, 2021.
Flight Reinstatement and Managed Isolation hassles
But some days ago on 27 October, I accidentally found that they had reinstated a flight on 6 December. I got myself shifted onto that flight pretty promptly after easily booking a spot in Managed Isolation (light quarantine for two weeks) for my arrival.
The process then required me to enter my flight number back into the Managed Isolation booking system to fully secure my spot, otherwise my booking would lapse in 48h. I found that my flight number was unlisted.
Calling their call centre, they told me not to worry. That happens when the airline hasn’t fully confirmed the flight to them. And it never really fills up. Let it lapse and try again a little later.
To my horror, Managed Isolation filled up quite badly a day after my booking lapse when I tried to re-secure a spot. There was nothing available for my day. Within a couple more days, all spots were full until mid-February 2021!
The requirement to book in advance of arrival was quite new and people were waking up to need to do this.
Their call centre wasn’t helpful and I put in an application for an special allocation. I didn’t hear back at all even after about 12 days. I wouldn’t be allowed to board my flight to New Zealand without a confirmed isolation booking and things were starting to look bleak.
I had left Auckland with 3 days advance booking and now I’m heading back with only 2 days notice. This appears to be the new mode, a big change from having previously booked up to 14 months in advance to secure cheap fares.