Above: Auckland airport international terminal flooded.
Disaster hits Auckland
I’m due to fly to Singapore in two days, on a three-week trip which will include hometown Kuching and also Singkawang across the border in Kalimantan.
However, a natural disaster hit Auckland tonight in the form of extreme rainfall which resulted in a state of emergency being declared. There were pockets of flooding that were waist high.
Our local supermarket was flooded inside and various car dealerships in the area will have to write off cars due to flood damage.
As for my trip, Auckland airport’s international terminal was flooded with water calf-high in the evening. It remained closed the next day with all flights cancelled. My flight seemed in jeopardy.
My flight booking
I had booked, many months ago, a firm commercial ticket for Sunday 29 January using a 50% staff discount.
Quite unusually, the flight was very empty with about 80 spare seats! So, about a week ago, I paid $55 (largely a change fee) to shift the firm booking to December and buy a standby ticket for this trip.
With the flood and expected ongoing disruption, my chances of flying standby was now really bad.
I decided to revert to my firm ticket for this trip, bringing forward the booking to tomorrow, 28 January. Ouch! This required a payment of $142 fare difference and $50 change fee.
I considered myself lucky as the went up even further through the day as the plane filled up. Very strangely, the fare dropped down to a much lower price later when it came to the last few seats. That would have allowed me to that change with no difference. Damn! I can’t win all the time.