Last week I wrote that I hadn’t flown anywhere outside Malaysia since Dec 2019.  I didn’t know then that I would be getting my new yet-to-be stamped passport stamped this soon. Yay. Hmm.

My husband and I will be leaving for England tonight. It was all very last minute. We have a more or less 2-week window that I, rather than we, can be away from home. Or more precisely away from being my mum’s carer. Long story a little less short, sister number 2 arrived from Australia about 3 weeks ago. She came to be with my mum and to care for her until late July. She was to have been joined by sister number 1 from England, for almost the same duration. But, sister number 1, due to poor health, cut her visit to two weeks, and only confirmed her flight dates recently.

2 sisters on-site meant I had an opportunity to take a break. Even my mum said it would be a good idea to grab this chance to spend time with my husband and visit my mum-in-law, whom I’ve not seen since my dad-in-law passed away last year. While I agree with my mum, I am also concerned about her. All the what ifs are playing on my mind. I worry. I pray all will be well.  

Sister number 2 has and is adapting well. In fact, she makes notes, double checks and fastidiously carries out the necessary processes for our mum – medicines, cannula in place, oxygenator switched on, food and drinks, bathroom breaks and showers – in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. She is in charge now, the boss lady. And, she has and is already organising and delegating duties for when I’m away. What’s nice is in between carrying out her responsibilities, the two have long chats, reminiscing about the past or just yappy, yappy, as sister number 2 calls it.

Also, my husband took on a project in April that was supposed to have finished in May. It didn’t, and it hasn’t. This complicated and delayed the dates/duration he could leave to see his mum and family. What to do? Make a decision and go with it.

So began the search for available flights. Casually, I started with Emirates. There was no response from the website which I nonchalantly dismissed as a technology problem. My husband Googled in parallel. He did most of the heavy lifting. He looked up about 10 airlines that ply the KL-London route, including Cathay Pacific that didn’t follow the most straightforward flight path for us. From Emirates, Qatar, Turkish, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka to Saudi Airlines. He even telephoned Emirates to enquire about seats. Nada.

And, the fares quoted were frightening sky-high. We are talking five figures. Almost no seats in economy or business. We didn’t check first class. Honestly, we would not have believed it if we hadn’t experienced it ourselves. We used to doubt websites that warned ‘one seat or one room available’ as a marketing ploy to get people to act quickly. We weren’t sure anymore. We got anxious as we had a limited timeframe to leave and return home. Aiyoh …  little did we know that every man, woman, dog and cat had already booked almost every seat available out of KL to London.  Admittedly, it is the very busy summer months.

Eventually it came down to two airlines, SriLankan Airlines and Saudi Airlines. Based on ticket prices, not cheap by any measure but a little less so compared to the other airlines, stopover times and available dates, we booked 2 seats on Saudi Airlines. The flight was so full that we couldn’t get adjacent seats for our first leg from KL to Jeddah. That’s how difficult it was to secure tickets.

Why? Increasing fuel prices over the last 18 months, exacerbated by the Russian-Ukrainian war. “Jet fuel now represents as much as 38% of an average airline’s costs, up from 27% in the years leading to 2019. For some budget airlines, it can be as high as 50%[1].

Strong demand. With pandemic restrictions largely removed and international borders opened up, people, who have not travelled and/or visited family in over two years, are making up for lost time. Social and business travel have/are growing steadily.

Limited capacity due to people shortage, fewer planes in the skies as well as reduced flight frequency and networks. “Airlines are also facing the reality of not having enough pilots and flight attendants to run their flights, as well as higher labour costs. All of these forces have combined to create rising ticket prices[2]. It also takes airlines time to rebuild fleets and networks. Idle aircraft need maintenance, repair and overhaul before they can be operational.   

Nuff said. One advice. Book earlier.