Why do I find it difficult to support my very own national carrier Malaysia Airlines? It was the morning of Christmas eve (Dec 24) when I received news of my girlfriend's mother's deteriorating condition. It warranted my decision to hop onto any flight possible to get from Brisbane to KL as soon as possible.

Using the Internet, I keyed in my dates and destination and was overwhelmed with joy when I saw that there were still seats available on a MAS flight on Dec 25 to KL. However, after clicking on the 'click to proceed', message in bold letters read that there was not no enough lead time for them to process the booking and that they require at least 48 hours. I picked up the phone and called the Malaysia Airlines office in KL.

A short welcome tone later, a lady picked up the phone and I promptly asked her if she could help me solve my problem. I went on to explain that there are seats on the flight tomorrow, and asked if there is any other way apart from using the Internet for me to board that plane from Brisbane. She put me on hold.

I waited for 15 minutes. Here I am calling from Australia and 15 minutes was costing me too much for them to take their own sweet time. I hung up and called again. This time, the phone just became silent. On my fifth try, I got someone who would attend to me. To cut the story short, he explained that even through the Internet, the airline needed the lead time to process the sale, and physically issue a ticket to a customer before he or she can board.

And if a physical ticket was required, there was no way of me boarding a MAS plane on Christmas day because all the MAS branches in Brisbane were closed for the Christmas weekend.

To my view from the ground, where fundamentals of an airline reside, it is ridiculous why there seats but no tickets to be sold. Why is it when I can book, pay, and choose my seats with other airlines in the morning and fly in the evening, my national carrier couldn't even pull off a simple form of business transaction in less than 48 hours?

And why the existence of such incompetence at the telephones serving the world? There is little wonder then why MAS is losing millions while others are eating into their market share.