10 June, 2008:

From 9:00 to around 3:00 : (Hey we worked in between too!)
We decide to go home after nearly 8 months. We decide on June 20 as departure date and 29 th of the same month as the return date.
Our seniors approve the leave as no work is supposed to come in the month of June.

Around 3:30 :

We login to cleartrip.com, to select the flights. It turns out that the spicejet from Delhi to Coimbatore is the cheapest on both trips. We decide to pay by Debit card or through Internet Banking as the only credit card I posses is that of my father’s. His bill cycle is on the 15 th of every month and if I had used it he would come to know that I am coming home. I had planned to surprise mom and dad with my sudden appearence at 10:00 pm on our doorstep on the night of 20th June. To our dismay after filling in all of both of our details, we find out, cleartrip.com accepts only credit cards. It accepts Debit Cards and payments through Internet Banking but only for select banks. Not for State Bank of India (SBI).

Around 4:00:

We login to spicejet.com. We find out they accept payments through NetBanking made through SBI account to much happiness.We again go through the grueling routine of filling in our details from top to bottom. We press the choose seats button. The JavaScript return an error on page in the bottom left on the status bar. It says “Object missing”.

Around 4:15:

We decide we have to transfer cash to either one’s account to bring the total amount to the required 26,000 odd to make the payment in one go. He tries transferring cash to my account. The site processes in a glacial pace. We lose hope in that too.

Around 4:30:

I suddenly remember seeing a spiceJet office near our vicinity somewhere but not sure of the location. We go out in the humid afternoon to the various streets that I had guesses where the office was loacted. Failure!

Around 5:15:

We are back in the company, sweaty and exhausted. We decide that he will go home and transfer funds, and also see if the spicejet website works from his home internet connection. We had doubts whether the problem was with the site as such or the network in out work place.

End of day:

 We have filled in the details in cleartrip.com and spicejet.com for more than 12 times and tried paying, to no avail.

11 June, 2008:

Status:

He has tried transferring cash the previous night but the glacial pace has not improved. So he tries moving a 1000 ruppee transaction to my account. Finds out it is successful after half an hour! Spicejet website works perfectly from his home. Damn these internal networks!

Around 11:00:

We decide we’d better use the credit card. I can still keep the surprise from mom. I would tell dad about my mission “visit home after a long time”. We visited cleartrip.com fill in all details ( we had got used to it by now!) and enter the card details.

Transaction Failed!

I remember my dad telling me the limit for a month is 25,000. Our ticket amount 25,236! Closure of Credit Card Chapter.

Around 11:30:

We check spicejet.com if it is working by chance. What if the site had problems yesterday and maybe it had got okay that night? the question gnawed at us. We filled in the details( don’t ask me I lost count!). That Object is missing till today somehow!. We note down the address and the building number where the Booking office is located.

We decide to transfer cash and go and book the tickets at the spicejet office personally. I don’t know which god took pity on us, but the SBI website was running full speed. He transfers the rest 11,000 to my account. And skipping lunch we set off again in the scorching midday heat. The place is about 20 minutes away. Saying that is a lot easier !

Around 12:00:

Behind the counter sits this grim faced young lady to whom I tell our exceptionally long and weird ( to her) names. Finally after repeating all those details for the umpteenth number of time, she asks me for my debit card. She asks me to to enter my secret pin in the machine.

She gives one horrified look “Transaction Failed!”. She asks if we would want to try again. She does the same thing again. And again “Transaction Failed!”

I was past caring now. I want those tickets booked now no matter what. I was constantly chattering and my friend was a bit off. We decided to go to the ATM some 25 minutes away and draw the 25,000 odd amount and pay her. She put the seats on hold, and we take off towards the ATM, in the scorching heat.

Around 12:30:
ATM:

“Thank god! no queue!”. I enter 26,000.
“Transaction Failed!” “Please Enter in multiples of 100″

“OK”, I thought. I entered 10,000. Cash in hand. Now only half the lake remains to cross I thought. I entered 16,000

“Transaction Failed” “You have reached your per day transaction limit of 15,000″

Around 12:45:

We decide to transfer his cash back from my account and that he would withdraw 15,000 (his maximum limit too, we had learnt our lesson!) and that we would do it in the ATM located in our office building.

Around 1:00:

We reach office (again through that scorching heat, do I need to tell that again?) and he withdraws the 15,000 successfully. We have 25,000 in hand now and luckily the rest of the amount we had already with us.

Around 1:25:

We rush back to the spicejet office hoping that the lady has not gone for lunch. She was there. We gave her the money. Ticket prints. And TADA!! We have it in our hands finally.

12 June, 2008:

A grim faced superior calls us in to say ” Even I didn’t expect this, but a lot of work has started coming in from today, earlier than we expected. So you have to cancel your tickets at any cost!”

End of Story.