thePropagandaMachine

We (as in my mom and I) have apparently accrued enough miles (two round trips from Singapore to SF/LA ~= 27000 miles) to get two free round-trip tickets to anywhere in North America… so we’re heading out to Washington D.C., home of the most enormous and powerful government on the face of this planet, next summer. But first, we had to call Singapore Airlines (SIA)…

Mom: You call them!
Me: Mom, it’s Singapore. They speak Chinese there.
Mom: Oh okay.
*mom calls SIA*
SIA: *Indian accent* Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer how can I help you?
Mom: Umm do you speak Chinese?
SIA: Uhh we don’t have anyone who speaks Chinese here right now…
Mom: *hangs up after a while of difficult communication* They don’t speak Chinese…
Me: HOW ON EARTH IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE IT’S SINGAPORE FFS!!! *realization* oh all the Chinese people are sleeping now and the Malays and Indians are getting paid minimum wage to fill in for them at night…

But in the end, we managed to surmount the insurmountable difficulties of Singrish communication, 16-hour time difference and bad reception on my cell phone on an international call to make a reservation, only to be thwarted by the incompetence of United and Delta and US Airways etc whose employees have apparently already left work, so they had nobody to man the telephones and we have to wait for tomorrow to call them (SIA) back and confirm with them… They should learn from Singapore and hire illegal Mexicans to answer phones at night, dammit!