A Race to the OCP Finish Line (Part 5: No Flight Seats Available)

So far so good: I've already fulfilled one of the three things needed to complete my OCP certification(passing the OCA exam), and the second requirement (the Oracle class) is already underway. But its still half fulfilled, at best, because there's also arrangements that needed to be made to actually physically BE in the class, even with an enrollment and seat already reserved. It wouldn't do any good to be able to have a seat in the class when I can't catch a flight back to the Philippines, now, can I?

I still had to book a flight back to the Philippines, and since it was December, a notoriously peak season when Filipino OFWs were cramming up to get home to loved ones for the Christmas holidays, my first inquiries for an available was met with frustration. The ideal time to go back was on the Friday the week before the class starts, so I can maximize my trip to include enough time to meet with friends and relatives. Normally I like taking the trip with Cathay Pacific, as they have the earliest flight back to Hong Kong, at 6:50am departure, where I usually go straight from the airport to the office upon my arrival at around 8:50am. There were no problems for the return trip, but as it turns out, there were no available departure flights for Cathay Pacific from Thursday to Sunday this week to get back to the Philippines, at least according to their online website.

Actually, I checked their website on Monday night, and there were still seats left for Saturday and Sunday morning, albeit the Friday last flight trips were full. The morning after, checking it returned me with a "full" indicator for all flights from Thursday to Sunday, in which I almost panicked.

So near, and yet so far. Its as if a monkey wrench is being thrown at my way for every possible milestone that I need to cover for this race. I will be inquiring directly to travel agencies today to see if by any lucky chance there are still unoccupied or last minute backouts left for Cathay Pacific flights. The way I was thinking, Cathay Pacific is the costliest and most expensive in terms of ride back home to the Philippines, as other carrier flights to the Philippines - namely, Philippine Airline and Cebu Pacific - are a whole lot cheaper and logically would usually be the first choice for throngs of OFWs planning to go back to the Philippines (save money more that way). To hear that Cathay Pacific is fully booked... well, it doesn't seem to leave much hope that the other carriers would still have seats left.

Why? Why? WHY?