Week 11: Fifteen Travelers Have Their Tickets in Hand

If my little family and I could settle in Indonesia, if we could make a living by introducing this beautiful country to tourists from all over the world, if the money we raise could help the children of our village build a better future — these are the dreams that carry me forward. With flight prices soaring, I was really afraid our clientele would melt away like snow in the sun and that we'd end up with very few people to accompany. In the end, we went from 15 to 19 confirmed registrations out of the 29 people who had expressed interest. So the drop is significant, but the project isn't called into question. A real relief. The past few days haven't been easy, as we had to deal with a couple of hassles that turned out to be very instructive for the novice organizers that we are. Let me tell you about them.

The Lost Payment

The first scare we went through was the misadventure of two Tunisian brothers who wanted to fly with Saudia. They had found very attractive fares and were about to pay. One Tuesday evening, while I was at the kebab shop with my little family devouring a big French tacos with Algerian sauce, one of the two brothers called me. He didn't understand what was going on. He had just bought his ticket and approved the payment in his banking app, but the Saudia website was telling him the transaction had failed and asking him to try again. I told him he absolutely shouldn't do that, and that it was wiser to wait until the next day to see whether the money had actually been taken from his account. Twenty-four hours later, the transaction still didn't show on his statement, but a customer service agent told him the payment had gone through on their end. I advised him to file a claim on the airline's website, and I went through various forums where other unlucky travelers had experienced the same thing and reported getting a refund. I felt reassured. A few days later, the French-Tunisian traveler called me back to say his bank had just informed him that the payment had indeed failed and that the funds were still there. A happy ending. He hurried to make a new booking, which this time went through perfectly. As it turns out, he had been caught right in the middle of a worldwide internet glitch caused by the famous flaw discovered in PHP. The payment had been approved on his side, but the website was down and couldn't process it.

The Bank Card That Wouldn't Work

We're getting ready to welcome to our island a very funny little grandma who should add plenty of spice to her group's trip. She has traveled a great deal in her life and can't wait to discover Indonesia. The problem is that she doesn't know how to use the internet, so it's impossible for her to book her flight on her own. The good news is that she lives in the same town as Nenden and me. So we were able to go to her place and handle this mission together. Sitting in her living room one afternoon last week, we went through all the available options with her and then tried to finalize the purchase with her bank card. Unfortunately, the Saudia app asked us for a security code she didn't have. She had to request it online, but for security reasons it could only be sent a few hours later. That forced us to cancel the booking and come back to see her a second time to complete it. It all ended well, since this lady now has her round-trip ticket to Jakarta in hand, but it was quite a job.

A Complicated Itinerary

The very last client to confirm her place didn't have the simplest request to fulfill. She plans to head to South Korea right after her stay in Java, but she doesn't yet know the exact dates of her second getaway. Fortunately, this young woman, who studies in Paris, is a seasoned traveler and knows her way around flights perfectly. She managed to book an outbound flight at the same time as another member of her group so she wouldn't travel alone, then opted for a multi-city ticket that gives her flexibility. She still needs to get the Jakarta–Seoul leg to leave Indonesia, but I have no doubt she'll find great prices as soon as she knows more about the rest of her holiday. For our part, we'll do our very best to support her if she decides to stay a little longer.

Coming up this week

It's not impossible that the three or four undecided people who haven't officially cancelled yet will get motivated and complete this lovely picture, which I already like very much. As for us, we have a few minor administrative details to sort out, and we'll soon be ready to direct people to the Indonesian travel agency that will organize things on the ground.