Booking frenzy

14:30ish Had a Spanish lesson booked at 2pm, though the teacher has not shown up on Skype. Engaged in a frenzy of booking flights and hotels just beforehand, having been sort of looking into it while waiting around a bit aimlessly for the lesson.

Not in chronological order...

I have booked a ticket with Air Asia from Bangkok to Singapore, flight is 22 November from DMK (which I hope is not the arse end of nowhere) 13:15 arriving SIN 16:40. £62.90, although when Lloyds card services called me after I later tried to book the hotel in Singapore (see below) and read out my last three approved transactions, this has apparently come in at £48.90 or something, and that's what the e-mail they've sent me says. I don't understand this, I will check my credit card statement later.

Air Asia is apparently an ultra budget extra charge if you sneeze kind of carrier. No checked baggage allowance unless you pay. Not a problem generally as I travel hand-luggage only anyway. But their hand baggage allowance is 7kg. FFS. It is completely unclear if a laptop bag or a handbag is allowed in addition, they sort of say it is and then other source suggest it is a strict one bag allowance. Maybe I can carry my netbook through under my arm, but totally unclear if that would be allowed. It's also totally unclear if there is excess per-kg charge for hand baggage or if I'd then have to pay about £20-odd for checked baggage because I'm a kilo or two over the hand baggage allowance. I will simply have to try to shove as much stuff in my pockets as I can and hope, and if next week isn't too harried I will perhaps see if I can weigh stuff as I pack to check what are the heavier items. It's still cheaper than the best flight shown on expedia for that particular day even if I have to pay that £20-odd, I think. I don't think I can reserve a seat without paying for it and I am inclined not to, I need to get this aisle seat "requirement" sorted out and given I survived the flight back from Sao Paulo it should be OK on this sub-3h flight if I don't get an aisle seat.

Anyway, I had kind of picked out the flights Bangkok-Singapore, Singapore-Delhi and the Singapore hotel and was trying to book them all. When I tried to book the hotel (expedia, paying up front, free cancellation up to 19 Nov so I figured WTF, I chose one hotel over another nearly identical one with somewhat better traveller reviews because the one I picked had free cancellation) it "failed" without a clear error. As I tried again I got a call on my mobile from the automated service. Naturally this has to waffle and waffle and waffle at you instead of assuming you've got half a brain and can guess what's going on and just give you the facts. No need to waste my time telling me you take security vvery seriously, just read me out the transactions you're worried about. Still, it's not as if I had my Spanish lesson in 20 minutes time; obviously if I am using my credit card online I have all the time in the world to sit and listen to an automated message drone on and on and on. (This is also yet another reason why it's unreliable to use a credit card abroad. The call lasted nearly 11 minutes so would have cost me £16.50 to receive had I been abroad, and my blood pressure was skyrocketing anyway even listening to it in the UK, in part due to general annoyance and in part due to thinking I might miss my Spanish lesson due to having to deal with this, without racking up phone sex line-type charges to be told they take my security, if not my time and money, seriously.) Because of the mysteriously not-what-I-expected-price for the Air Asia booking (which also didn't have a name for the merchant, the voice said something like 'AA' and then read a string of digits) I had to go through to speak to a person. Anyway, I approved all the transactions and that is sorted now.

(I suppose had I been abroad I could possibly have ignored the call, "guessed" (I sort of did anyway, I think) there was a problem with the credit card and called them via Skype. Still, clearly it's desirable to avoid using the credit card too much abroad to minimise problems, although I have in the past used it to pay the 10% deposit on hostelworld.com without any problems and I will obviously continue to do so.)

The flight Singapore-Delhi is 25 Nov SIN 09:15-12:30 DEL direct for £187.70 (booked via lastminute.com, expedia astonishingly appear to show absolutely no flights at any price or level of crapness from Singapore to Delhi for that day or - I tried just as an extra check - the day after). I ended up on lastminute.com via fly.com which I found via a Google search for where to book it, Opodo were listing it at £193.70 and ITA had said about £187. I have gone onto the Air India web site and booked aisle seat 10C for that flight. This was about the only half-decent flight almost regardless of price, 09:15 is earlier in the morning than I'd like but as blogged yesterday at least Singapore is small and you can get to the airport by MRT and it starts running about 6am, so it shouldn't be too much of a stress. Flying at that time should also mean it's daylight as I am arriving at the hotel in Delhi.

I need to check my credit card statement later to see what I have been charged with the Air Asia booking and if it's OK, but I am now booked up (as far as I intend to do things before I am there) as far as landing in Delhi. That means I just need to book a hotel for my initial stay in Delhi and the flight back to London before Christmas and I'm done for the first phase of the trip.

Spoke to Mum, she couldn't see any problem with me coming back to the UK on 21st December.

The hotel in Singapore is going to be nameless for now as part of my usual paranoia, but it's about £65 a night. It is a fairly good location I think and it has free wifi and airconditioning, but probably no window. Singapore is clearly expensive, I could have paid way more, short of staying in a hostel, which doesn't appeal in Singapore for some reason (or perhaps anywhere, at least for my initial arrival when I want stress free after flying in), I couldn't have got anything massively cheaper.