A reader of my blog was travelling from LA to Chennai via Singapore and we decided to meet at Changi Airport. His flight landed at T3 Terminal at 12:55 PM and he went on a city tour. He was back in the airport by 6 PM and was waiting for me at the City Tour lounge.
I reached the SIA Check-in counter at 7:00 PM and was directed to the City Tour lounge. I wanted to make an announcement as he didn’t have a phone. I was directed to the SIA Information Center at T2. But I decided against that and rushed to the T1 termnial and then to the lounge. Not able to find him, I approached the SIA Check-in counter in T2. They directed me to the SIA Information Center at T2 to make the announcement.
The Information Counter directed me to Terminal T1’s Airport Information Center and I rushed there. I explained the situation and said that he had to board the fiight to Chennai at 8 PM and I needed to talk to him despartely.
‘Where did he land?’
‘T3, in the afternoon. Now he is somewhere in T1 or T2.’
‘If he has landed in T3, you have to make announcement in T3 only.’
‘But, he landed at 12:50 PM. Now he is somewhere in T1 / T2.’
‘Sorry, we can only check passengers who have landed in T1 and announce.’
‘May be true. But how to contact him now?’
‘Go to T3 and make an announcement.’
‘But he left T3 at 1:30 itself. There is no use.’
‘That is the procedure. We can’t make announcement here.’
‘See, the time is 7:30 now. I can’t be running to T3 and then back to T2 and the like..’
‘Choice is yours.’
Frustrated, i came back to T2 to check with the Check-in counter. They were not supposed to reveal details of passengers who had checked in.
So, I went to the Security Area and tried looking hard at people who resembled the reader. I had a vague image of him from his FB post.
Suddenly my phone rang. It was the reader who spoke. He had apparently waited for me, tried calling me from a booth and later checked-in.
Therefore I returned from the airport without meeting a very encouraging reader.
Lesson : Even Changi has to improve its Integrated Passenger MIS. That is not a big deal for a country that has the infrastructure and will to invest on Cloudera and SAS platforms to analyse social media, health science and banking data.
Amaruvi's Aphorisms 