Go figure

I did on online air ticket purchase via Dragon Air (now partly own by Cathay Pacific Airline). It was painless and fast. Even had "verified by Visa" which was good. One thing lacking was the pre-assign seating. O well. The confirmation and notification of my e-ticket were instantaneous. I thought, wow, that's Asia. But then again....

I wanted to leave a day early, like this afternoon rather than tomorrow. Call the Shanghai reservation number to change; first, the Dragon Air phone was disconnected; even though it was on the website. OK, tried the Cathay line, it was disconnected to with blunt English - "Sorry, number no longer in service; click". Alright, tried another Cathay line. This one went thru. After waiting for about 3 1/2 minutes, I got thru. Well, I could not change the ticket from this reservation number; I have to call a special line in HK, a long distance, to change since I had purchased the ticket online. Go figure. Who cares whether I purchased online or not. It was on the darn computer system. This seems there are some "Chinese" version of computer systems that could not cross over from one system to another; well. Darn it. Is this progress or just dumb implementation? Don't say.