You've probably read it in our
Facebook page that
NAS Air canceled our flight from Jeddah to Riyadh, and we were mighty pissed about it. You have no idea how much we disliked NAS that night they called about the cancellation. Yes, we've probably cursed them a few times before remembering we were still about to fly them for the Riyadh to Jeddah flight. Whoops! So we held our tongues and thought it over. Others might have just shrugged off the cancellation but for us, it left us in quite an unusual predicament.
You know that the three Pink Tarha ladies are officemates right? So all of us must be in Jeddah before Thursday, make/attend the event on Friday, and get back to Riyadh in time for our work at 7:00 am on Saturday. Eyecandy and I (with our friend Jou of
Destination Riyadh) flew on Wednesday morning to meet the
Piatto team in the afternoon. Shoegarfreeruby stayed in the office and finished the work on Wednesday and flew around 10pm with our friend Jamila. So by Thursday, we were all in Jeddah.
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| RUH-JED flight via Nas Air; the city of Jeddah below |
Our supposed return flight was 10:00 pm on Friday night and we'll be arriving Riyadh around midnight. Sounds like a good plan eh? Yep, until Nas cancelled our return flight. The entire flight was cancelled on Tuesday evening. Yes, we know that they gave us a few days notice but here are the reasons why that cancellation didn't really sit well with us despite the heads up a few days earlier:
- There are no longer available flights on Friday night. Being the end of the weekend, visitors to Jeddah, of course, wanted to go back to Riyadh before the start of another workweek so Saudia, the major airline that handles domestic flights, is fully booked. We were ready to pay for another return airfare but there was no available seat left. Air Arabia doesn't have a scheduled flight on Friday. How convenient, right?! Of all the days and of all the flights they could've cancelled, it's ours.
- There is an available flight via Nas Air at 9:30 on Friday morning. If we take that, or one of us takes it, then it wouldn't make any sense right? We/she would have missed the entire Pink Tarha Mornings, the reason why we're in Jeddah in the first place. If worst comes to worst, it became an option that one of us would have to go at that flight but well, it's just heartbreaking, really. We worked hard for this event and we wouldn't want to miss it.
- The next available Nas flight is 12 noon of Saturday, which is also not an option since all or one of us must be in the office for Saturday. Unless we want to lose our jobs in the process of deflecting a scheduled editorial meeting on Saturday. We have to be in the office by 7:30 am and it's not like it's a Deal or No Deal scenario. It's just the only deal, the only right choice.
- There's no way we're traveling 12 hours by bus or by taxi back to Riyadh. It's too long of a road trip. (The last time I did this lengthy travel was when I went to Bicol when I was in grade 2. Not sure if I'm fit for it anymore.) Add that to the fact that we’ve probably unlearned the art of commuting in our years living in Riyadh. (Arte much?! Haha!)
So... yes, we were quite caught in a dilemma. Should one of us go back early and miss the event? Should one of us not come just in case there would be further delays and we all miss the meeting on Saturday? Should we re-schedule the event and blame Nas for it? Should we go on that friggin' 12-hour bus trip and ride with
the wind SAPTCO? Should we just think it through and look at it the way we have always looked at things in Saudi Arabia?
Silver linings and good vibes.
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| The Nas Air plane from the KKIA boarding area; and E's coffee while waiting |
This is how we kept our cool, and how you should keep yours when caught in the same predicament:
1. Think of other alternatives. When the airline customer service called me regarding the cancellation, I was packing my clothes and getting ready for a beauty sleep (chos) before the flight on Wednesday morning. I sat dumbfounded for a minute after the customer rep nonchalantly said “hello, your flight from Jeddah to Riyadh was canceled… you have 3 options, 1. Rebook your flight (ME thinking: "The available flights are useless with the schedule that we have!"), 2. Put your fare in our system as credit for future flights with NAS (Me shouting on my head: "Naaah, I don’t think so!") 3. Refund! (ME fuming inside: "And wait for 21 days?!?")” but I recovered enough of my senses to do the logical thing to do: go online and search for alternative flights in other airlines. Unfortunately for us, there were none.
2. Tell your friends. I would have liked to have more options to suggest to my friends when I tell them about the cancellation but it's getting late and I have to tell them already. It proved to be a good thing because more minds working for a solution is better than having my mind burst with worry, doubt, and anxiety. Considering them made decisions easier and faster. Albeit, they didn’t know what to do at first too. Haha!
3. Breathe for a moment when you get stumped. There's no easy answer to every thing. It doesn't come fast enough so when we couldn't come to a conclusion, we decided to let the matter rest for a minute again and worry about it in a few hours or so. I actually slept through it. A surprising move from the OC me who doesn't let go until I get enough answers. But for this one, I just let it go. We weren't the cause of this problem and I know that an answer will come, if not immediately, then in the morning.
4. Pray. You know the saying that God doesn't give you anything you can't handle? Well, believe it. We believed it.
5. Mind your attitude. Don't let tempers flare. So okay, we all thought of things to complain about Nas but well, after a few hours of landing in Jeddah, we thought it's useless to feel ill will towards them. Of course, we would pitch in "kasalanan kasi ng Nas 'to eh," whenever we encounter tight spots (like rushing to the bus station like there's no tomorrow) but it became an inside joke already which leads to...
6. Laugh. Because really, laughter is the best medicine. And Eyecandy is considered our nurse when it comes to laughing our asses off. Our problems seem to vanish when we laugh together. Or okay, when we eat too. Haha.
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| Counting hours inside the SAPTCO bus. It's 4:00am and we were nearing Riyadh. |
7. For goodness' sake, go on the 12-hour bus trip with your friends! Because it proved to be a fun trip. Tiring, yes, but as Eyecandy said, it's one test of friendship and I think we survived with flying colors (because we slept most of the time… no time to bicker and complain, hehe, kidding!). The bus trip was better than we expected. Don't tell Nas but we think the Saptco bus has even bigger and wider interiors than theirs. Hehe. (hashtag bitter hahaha)
The Pink Tarha ladies are not the reklamador (whiny complainants) types. We're patient and understanding, more than the average Jane (honest!). I mean, The Pink Tarha, a blog of positive vibes, wouldn't exist if we don't have enough patience and understanding but sometimes, our emotions get the better of us. Whatever the reason Nas canceled our flight that night, we don't care anymore (as long as we get our refund back! Please?!). Every thing that happened has a reason. Maybe the plane has a defect and riding it would have been disastrous or maybe someone rented it and well poor us, we couldn't do just that. :P
You might be thinking why we even flew Nas in the first place... well, it's not really just the airfare (they're almost the same as Saudia's) but the time schedule and the experience. We want to write about our experience with them... and well, we got our article right here. This is our experience with Nas. It might not be your experience but it is ours. You are free to share your experience with Nas in the comment section below.
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| The sky above the deserts of Arabia |
We still wish Nas Air the best and we bear no ill feelings toward them. We are too blessed to be stressed. Besides, the flight to Jeddah was uneventful and the crew was all right. We hope they wouldn't, or any airline for that matter, cancel any other flight to avoid giving their customers undue stress and problems. We are thankful that we arrived in Riyadh safe and sound.
Also a quick tip for this summer: carry a bottle of water with you. The temperature is rising in the desert and you need something to cool you off? Water it is! (Keep it chilled if possible.) We met a lot of hotheaded people so they definitely need some cold water to pour on their heads to drink. :P
Breathe, people, breathe! Keep calm and carry lang! ;) ~ Sundrenched
