tickets!!!

i woke up early this morning, around 4 am, because of a phone call. i guess it was a blessing because i needed to wake up early so i could go to the mall and try my luck in getting tickets for the FIFA WC 2nd Round Qualifier game between the PH and Kuwait. when i arrived there, the mall was still closed and had to wait quite a long time for it to open. what i didn't expect was the volume of people who were already there waiting and i even heard some kids plan their strategy:

dapat pagkabukas at pagkapasok natin, takbo agad. siguro dito tayo daan, mas mabilis yun.
(once the mall opens and we're able to get in, we must run like hell. maybe we should pass this way so it will be faster).
 
obviously, he knows his way around the mall.

so when the mall opened, i went in and rode escalator to where the ticket booth is. while on the escalator, i decided to call the reservations hotline. i was so excited when the phone rang and someone answered:

hello! i would like to make reservations for the football game on the 28th.
ay, sorry, ma'am, but we're not open yet. it's not ten yet.
how can you not be open when it's already ten here!
ma'am, we still have seven minutes to go.
can i just wait for that seven minutes on the phone?
no, ma'am. we can't do calls that last that long.
okay, so i'll call again.

when i finished the call, i was already at the floor where the ticket booth is. some people where already there and the others who were just ahead of me either started running or walking very fast. i walked faster. when i fell in line, there were already maybe fifty people waiting for their turn at the counter. i looked at my phone and i still have two minutes for me to be able to call the reservations booth again. so i kept waiting.

two minutes was up. i called the hotline but the network was already busy. i kept calling and calling, hoping that at one point, i'd be able to connect and have my tickets reserved. after twenty minutes (and still no movement in the queue), i finally connected and requested for the central bleachers ticket. unfortunately, i was told that for the number of tickets i'm reserving, there's no availability anymore. i can only buy the 200 worth tickets at the blue and green section. i insisted on the row which i think had a great view (despite it being near the back of the goal post) but that wasn't available anymore, too! then the lady said that i can't stay long on the phone and she'll just reserve the best ticket there is for the minimum number of allowed tickets per person, which is ten. without knowing where we will be seated, i agreed and finalized my reservation. i didn't realize what a good move that would be following the next events that happened...

there were these two guys behind us (my friend's sister has arrived to wait it out with me) and one of them keep going to the counter to see what was happening because the line wasn't moving at all. when he came back, he told his friend (and those who could hear him), that there was this one family who bought thirty tickets, one ten-ticket set for each one of the three family member. we couldn't really believe it. and then we saw this disabled lady in a wheelchair who just recently came from the counter and we saw her holding a suspiciously thick stack of tickets. come on, we don't have any problems with disabled and senior citizens being given special priority, but please, can't you impose the ticket limits?! it was definitely unfair.

while these were all happening, i was still calling the reservations hotline because we still needed five more tickets for our friends. after thirty minutes (it's like one call per thirty minutes), i got connected again. it was just quite sad because by then, the only tickets available were those single tickets, meaning you can't be sitted together. i decided then not to reserve any more seats because i doubt my friends will take the tickets anyway, especially when they'd be without anybody they know in the stands. i wanted to help my fellow ticket-buyers (the guys behind us) so i let them use the connection to have their tickets reserved. i just don't understand though why they were so picky with the seats that when they couldn't get what they want, decided not to reserve any. if i knew that they would be that picky, i would have reserved the kid in front of me the two tickets he wanted since it will be his first time to watch the game! such precious call time was wasted on those guys! *sigh*

after a couple of minutes, a little commotion happened at the counter and then a few more seconds and someone kept on saying, "bleachers seats are sold out already!" this was not even 11 o'clock. disappointed, some just left without even confirming it; others started going to the counter, leaving their places behind. we stayed because we had our reserved tickets. others were already complaining why there were only a few center bleachers seats open for selling. however, lucky really for us, we were able to get our ten tickets.

thank God for that phone call that woke me up super early!!! and thank you for reminding me to make the call. or else, we wouldn't have any tickets for the game.

for those who say that it's unfair for the ticket booth to sell tickets through phone reservations, i'm sorry, but some of us who were able to buy our tickets that way, we also made our share of waiting - by the queue and by the hotline. i guess we were just lucky today. so please don't generalize and assume that we are all scalpers.

to the scalpers, kapal ng mukha niyo! nawala na talaga sa bokabularyo niyo ang serbisyo. pera na lang ang alam niyo. nakakalungkot.