The Story of the Jade Buddha

My meetings in Beijing on Monday were both cancelled, for reasons unknown, but one can only assume, representing a vendor, you are the first one often moved off someone’s schedule when it gets squeezed. I was notified early Friday evening by the Beijing office (airport code “PEK”, it was formally Peking), and initially agreed to move the meetings to Thursday morning.

Saturday afternoon, while taking the walk up Victoria Peak with JoeB, sweating out some of the previous nights sins (Martini’s at a strange place called “Feather Boa’s” at 130am?), I came to the conclusion that sitting in Beijing for three days, waiting to have a couple of 1 hour meetings, was not going to be worth it. I was also to do a 10 minute presentation in Beijing to the Audit Committee of our Board on Sarbannes-Oxley (SOX) compliance in the Data Centers, and I had intentionally scheduled the customer visits at the same time as our quarterly board meeting, but it could be covered by one of my colleagues, and again did not warrant the cost and time of hanging out at a hotel in Beijing for three days. I decided to go back Geneva (GVA) on Monday.

On Sunday I went on another walk with JoeB and friends, this time to Lantau Island, pictured above in the collage. Getting off the ferry from the island at 6pm, we went directly in for an hour massage to relax the tired muscles.

Back at my hotel, I contacted our travel agency 24 hour hot-line to make the changes to my itinerary. I was booked to take Cathay Pacific (CX) to PEK, then Air France (AF) to GVA. My first thought was to just book a direct one-way from Hong Kong (HKG) to GVA and return my old ticket for a refund, but I was quoted around $3000 for an economy ticket and was not sure if my old ticket was even refundable, so I decided to take the original route, through PEK, then Paris (CDG), to GVA, and just change the dates/times. This is where things got a little complicated and confused.

The travel agent on the hot-line said they could change the AF flights but that I would need to go to the counter at the airport to get the ticket re-issued by AF. For the CX sector, the only flight I could use to connect to the CDG flight out of PEK was an Air China (AC) flight that was “code-shared” by CX and to book this I would need to call CX directly. I gave them a ring and they said that yes they could make the reservation, but because my ticket for this sector was issued by Singapore Airlines (SQ), whom I had flown into HKG on originally, I would need to go to the SQ counter to get the ticket re-issued. They further warned me that SQ may or may not be willing to re-issue the coupon depending on their policy, but assuming I could get it re-issued, I could then go check-in at the CX counter.

It all sounded a bit dodgy. I decided to get to the airport early. After an excellent meal and views over the city and harbor at Aqua’s in Kowloon, I hit the hay early and awoke at 5am. I was at airport by 630am and went looking first for the SQ ticket counter. This was actually a shared airline counter manned by a local ground handler. They instructed me that they could not change the ticket, and I should just go to the AC counter (not CX) to check in and see what happens. I then stopped by the ground handler for AF to be told that they could not reissue the AF tickets either. It would have to be done by AF staff, and they won’t arrive until 0800, which will be too late for my AC flight, so I would have to deal with it in PEK.

At the AC counter, they did indeed take my CX coupon, and after explaining to them the situation with the AF coupons, they even tagged my bag through to GVA, but told me that in PEK I would need to collect my luggage and go through customs and clear immigration, then go to the AF ticket counter to get the ticket reissued.

On arrival in PEK, I saw a large counter marked “International Transfers” and went up and asked if I needed to go through immigration and customs to get my bag and to reissue the tickets. After some time examining the tickets and making a phone call, the lady said that I did NOT need to collect my bag, that it is checked through, but that I WILL need to go through immigration and proceed to the AF offices in room 36088 in the arrivals area, where I would need to pay a 1250 yuan change fee (around $150), and that I better hurry because the flight leaves in 1 hour, even though according to my watch it was over 2 hours before the flight. To get there I should go through aisle 1 at Immigration and tell them my story so that they did not stamp my “single-entry” visa and I could use it for my next trip to PEK.

At aisle 1 of Immigration, I again explained my story, and they said to step aside and “wait there”, pointing to the side of the queue. Following another phone call, a “service agent” of unknown origin appeared and asked to see my ticket and passport. He again told me to “wait there” and disappeared. I was still on the entry side of the immigration barrier and my entry visa had not been stamped, but now I had no passport or ticket. After around 30 minutes, which for some reason seemed to go by abnormally slowly, my man reappeared with my passport and boarding passes all the way through to GVA. He did not ask for any change fee, nor did I have to claim my luggage and re-check.

In the end, one just stops believing anything anyone tells you. Until you see what actually happens, you don’t know what the truth is. I counted at least 4 bum steers across the 24 hour period. I did get into the Business class lounge for an expresso and some juice to recharge the laptop and to quickly type up this missive. On the way to the gate, I stopped at a shop and on impulse bought a seven-inch jade Buddha for $250, proving, if anything, that I am just as silly as the rest of them….