How to Negotiate your excess baggage, the hard way!

The answer in a nutshell? PLAY CHICKEN WITH THEM!

What is "Play chicken"? it don't mean that you run away! No... it means that you see who backs away... Keep pushing it to the very end and see who backs up first

Ok, so my company allows us to take 15 kgs excess luggage (i.e. we get re-reimbursed)

At weight-in, my baggage was +2 kgs from the allowed baggage allowance (30 kgs) + 15 kg excess baggage... which they waived without much trouble...

.. I wanted to push things even further... I wanted to see what happens if I demanded an extra 5 kgs off? I wanted to see how far can I go??!

They said "noo..! we have clear instructions from the management that we cannot waive even a single kg!! sorry!"

Of course, the Syrians are good at bargaining, but we are Masters and Kings in another thing

STUBBORNNESS!!

I kept saying "no... my company will only pay me for 10 kgs... the 5 kgs will be paid from my pocket"...

They were extremely stiff themselves, they said that they will not allow me to check-in if I don't pay the additional 15 kgs

I offered to take the 5 kgs from the bag, but they said that my hand-luggage was already over-weight and that this will not work...

I spoke with at least 3 ground-personnel and the supervisor... who kept insisting that she was doing me a favor by waiving 2 kgs and THATS IT!

I found an Arabic guy, who was even worse.. he said that even the CEO of the company cannot give me a discount since a memo was issued about his...

I tried every trick in the book, told them that they got the award for last year in all categories and being a customer I should be taken care of, but with no use


They kept insisting that I pay the 15 kgs as if the airline's quarterly profits depended on me!

So I kept it on, and said "ok, I will not travel" and I off-loaded my luggage and kept waiting... I wagered that they will not leave me at that counter and that they will eventually get me to pay only 10 kg

However, they kept their position, I started to get cold shoulders and I felt cold sweat from my face... I never went this far with an airline before...

.. and to make things worst, the supervisor approached me and said that unless I do my booking within 12 mins, they will have to leave me on the ground and I should catch the next flight...

So, I surrendered, I took my baggage and approached a counter she is occupying, and she told me to go to one of the other counters...

so I said "but they will charge me 15 kgs... I want 10 kg"

So, the lady finally said

"ok, take a couple of Kgs from your bag as handluggage let's get this thing done"

so... finally...

VICTORY!



[for legal reasons, this story has happened with Airline XYZ, the fact that this appears shortly after my previous blog should not draw any wrong conclusions from the reader's side]

My flight to Korea - Cathay Pacific

My first time to try this airline... it was not bad! very good, I might say

Ok, so the seat belts hardly fitted, but that can hardly be blamed on the airlines, isn't it?! (I was "this" close to ordering a seat belt extender!) Hey, I am not THAT fat! ^_^' but one thing was for sure, they expect passengers of a much lower dimensions... looking around the aircraft, I was within the highest 10% weight-wise

One more thing, the seat distances on the lower side... not too small, but no room for long legs.



Aside from that, the food was perfect... the service was one of the best I have ever seen in my life! Just click the "call" button and a cabine crew would be with you in 10 sec... plus, when they say "just one min. sir" they actually mean it... a one min is really a one min



And the entertainment system... my God! it was fantastic!

Ok, so myabe they don't have interactive games like Emirates or SriLanka Airlines, but who plays these anyway? And they don't have touch screens, but don't you find them annoying? I do! And who cares about the front and lower video shots (I like them, but only for 10 sec)

They have almost 25 channels playing non-stop! (unlike Emirates and others, where they only play them once... twice, it you are lucky)

Plus, the headphones are top notch, with a large ear-phone jacks, for high quality sounds...

Bare in mind that each channel is both English and Chinese dubbed (broadcasted on different channels) so the number of channels was +50

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10 !

Korean food in Dubai!

So, I thought to start familiarising myself with the food. So I checked www.timeoutdubai.com for a good Korean restaurant... I found this one with 5 positive reviews Dae Jung Kum

I want with my brothers, who were a little hesitant... but the result was very good

This first thing you notice the food smell once you're in. much more intense than a Japanese restaurant...

Plus, you will see that the chopsticks are made of metal, not wood... it is great for handling meat and rice, but much more harder than the wooden ones for noodles as they kept slipping over the metal! :-D



We ordered a dish which get cooked at you table! Each table has a BBQ built in... The lamb was great! Cooked with mushrooms and onion, and with a soybeans paste (which looks a little like hot chill paste)


The food is definitely more spicy and with more aroma than Japanese food... a little bit of a Chinese taste into it... but unique nevertheless.

Unlike Chinese food, Korean food didn't seem to have "sweet and sour" taste to it, they put appraisers for you (like Thai restaurants do), but they weren't very good

I loved the cold noddles, and the hot noodles were nice too


I wanted to finish it off with some desserts, but the only think they had was cold iced tea, with cinnamon... it was toooo sweet, even for me! You will find yourself breaking it with some cold water in order to be able to drink it... and the cinnamon taste was so intense you cannot detect the presence of any tea! but it was nice


All in all, it was a great experience... I got the feeling that I will enjoy now the Korean food.

Who knows? maybe even more than Japanese food!

checkout the complete photo album here

So, I am off to Korea

It wasn't an easy choice, but I have decided to take on a Project Engineer's position in Korea... hoping to enjoy the international exposure and seeing the work style of a different culture ... plus it would look good on my resume

This blog might give some passing comments on how job is like (i.e. enjoyable or not, difficulties(if any) relating to me being in Korea... although I expect little)..

However the main purpose of this blog is to focus on the life in Korea... and how different from Japan it is ...
(see my other blog: wisam-in-japan.blogspot.com)

So, let's get it rolling!