But without any certainty of a resumption of travel due to the volcanic ash, the couple’s plans hang in limbo for now.
Near an SIA assistance counter in Terminal 2, Ms Carina told CNA that she may need to get a new fit-to-fly medical note, depending on when the rescheduled flight departs.
Fit-to-fly notes for pregnant women usually need to be issued within seven to 10 days of departure.
“We were still thinking, a two-hour flight should be fine for me, suddenly this thing happened,” said Ms Carina.
Asked why they went to the airport despite news of the eruption, Mr Weng, who works as a chef, said they checked the SIA website and there was no indication that the flight would be cancelled.
He later realised the airline had sent them an SMS, but they missed it in their hurry to leave for the airport.
Several other travellers also told CNA they did not receive any information from the airline, or were wrongly assured by the SIA app.
Ms Tina Seng, 47, said she received a message from Scoot that said her flight was cancelled.
However, she did not know if it was a legitimate message because she had booked through SIA and the booking reference number in Scoot’s message was different from the one provided by SIA.
She checked the flight status on the SIA app, which said “confirmed”, so she headed to the airport with her husband and two daughters.
The family was going to Jakarta for the September holidays to visit Ms Seng’s family who live there.
SIA will help them to rebook their flights, but Ms Seng, who works in sales, is also concerned about whether they will get stuck in Jakarta if the situation worsens after they fly over.
“It will become another issue for us,” she said, given that school reopens on Sep 14. “We’re still thinking whether to continue, because we cannot predict what’s going to happen.”