Year Of The Flying Pig

Airasia has just launched their annual Free Seats Promotion yesterday. Basically, they offer 1 million individual seats to any of their flights to any destination for free (excluding airport tax of course)between April and October 2007 . Members or those who subscribe to their Red Alert newsletter were informed about this offer a whole 24 hours earlier, so they could get a head start before the lines got really jammed up.

I am not a member, but was informed of this deal by a good friend (God bless you, Vic!) just as I was getting into my car to head back home! Imagine the horror I felt as I realised that I would be wasting precious time driving home instead of logging on the Airasia website trying to get free tics! hehehe

So I sped down to the nearest Starbucks and armed with a Venti Mocha latte, I was ready to do battle with all the kiasu budget travellers to grab the best seats (read: free) in the house before they're all snapped up.

But where to go? And when? I was on the phone with just about everyone I could tolerate on a holiday, asking if they're interested to join me on a dive trip, a short weekend hop to Bangkok, a group get-together in Hanoi etc, etc. After having decided on a few dates and destinations, we (I and sbanboy - we joined forces coz two is definitely better than one) seized upon Airasia.com for tics to Kuala Terengganu, Hanoi and Siem Reap for starters.

Two and a half hours (and three cups of venti latte and three trips to the bathroom) later, all we could show for were two nearly completed transactions that went nowhere and a warning from HSBC stating that my account activity was erratic and my card had only one final chance at an online transaction before it will be forever barred. Apparently the website was so swamped with online customers that their servers kinda went haywire. Damm you Airasia customers!

Then, just as the Starbucks shutters were coming down, sbanboy beeped me with the good news - we got Siem Reap for August! For FREE! Well the tics were free, but we still had to pay RM180 for the airport taxes.

By the end of the whole fiasco, I had booked myself tics for Siem Reap, Kuala Terengganu (Redang), Hanoi and Bali. Most of them free on at least one leg of the journey!Yiippee!

Oh dear, how am I supposed to go on four holidays in six months????