So get this: in February, Sasha and I called SIA and asked what
we have to do to transport Eddie, our cat, to Australia. They said
to just check him in as excess baggage.
Sasha called again this morning before her flight to make sure, and
this time, she got bounced between 7 numbers, and none of the
people she talked to could agree if Eddie was excess baggage or
manifested cargo. Eventually we got fed up went down to the SIA
office at Paragon, and as it turns out, it was cargo which had to
be booked ONE MONTH in advance!
Anyway, the girl at Paragon was great, and fast-tracked it all; it
was the scummy morons at cargo who took their own sweet time. By
the time they arranged it, the quarantine office (AQIS) in
Melbourne was closed for the day. The cargo dispatcher refused to
send Eddie on tonight's flight because he hadn't received verbal
confirmation from AQIS that someone was waiting to pick him up. All
the bloody paperwork already stated that tomorrow morning was the
arranged time, but they wouldnt care about that, would they?
Instead, the idiot gave me some cock-and-bull story that if
nobody's there to receive Eddie, they'll put him down. I explained
to the dispatcher that Eddie's 4-day health certificate expires
tomorrow, and if they put him on tomorrow night's flight, he'll
arrive with an expired certificate, and they'll really put him
down.
By this time, of course, Sasha had already checked him into cargo
and paid SIA $150 for cargo charges. I told the asshole that I'd
already spoken to AQIS this afternoon and confirmed the pickup
time, but the cock-gobbler insisted on his bureaucracy despite of
all of the paperwork already presented.
Eventually, it turned out that if I left Eddie there, it would be a
death sentence, so I told Sasha to take him back and get a refund.
Now I'll have to do the paperwork all over again, and it's going to
cost me stacks, and on top of that I've got to push my flight from
Thursday to Saturday.
When we got to the check-in counter, I made a point of making
disparaging remarks loudly in front of the SIA counter at the
airport. The staff were alarmed, but from the look on my face they
were at least smart enough to stay clear of me.
Sasha now sees why I'll never, and I mean NEVER, fly SIA - they
suck!
