Amid the pandemic, home now feels a universe away for some.
The past year has been full of ups and downs for many Singaporeans and Malaysians who have loved ones residing across the Causeway.
With a lot of hope, many of them are longingly waiting to be reunited with their families.
Finally, the time has come. Just last month on 29 Nov, the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) between Singapore and Malaysia was confirmed.
However, tickets were snatched up quickly due to the high demand.
It doesn’t help that due to the Omicron variant, sale of the tickets was suspended from 23 December to 20 January.
As such, some utilised the circumstance as a golden opportunity for some quick bucks.
People are selling land VTL tickets on Carousell
Presently, there are two bus operators involved in the land VTL operations.
Singapore bus company Transtar offers daily trips from Larkin Sentral Bus Terminal to Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange and vice versa.
On the other hand, Malaysia bus company Handal Indah (more well-known as Causeway Link) will deploy busses between Larkin Sentral and Queen Street Terminal.
Both bus operators have now urged travellers not to purchase tickets through third parties.
This came after many were offering to purchase tickets “on the travellers’ behalf”.
In one listing on Carousell, a seller priced a ticket for a trip from Singapore to Malaysia at S$120.
FYI: That’s roughly an inflation of eight times if you were to purchase directly from the operators.
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Risk in divulging personal information to third parties
A service provider listed on Carousell requires a traveller to make payment and submit personal details before purchasing a ticket for them.
This means that quite a lot of sensitive information will be revealed:
- Full name
- Passport numbers
- Date of birth of travellers
Disclosing such information to third parties involves a great risk so do be wary of it.
Causeway Link can invalidate unauthorised tickets
On 17 Dec (Friday), Causeway Link uploaded a Facebook post, acknowledging that they were aware of tickets being sold on alternative platforms other than its website.
Causeway Link then advised travellers to purchase wisely and be extra cautious of the offers available.
They also warned travellers that they “have the right to invalidate any unauthorised sold tickets outside our official service provider”.
Some travellers are still willing to pay inflated prices
According to a report by Shin Min Daily News yesterday (Dec 28), some travellers were willing to pay jacked-up prices to get the bus tickets.
Some reasons cited were because they were not free to fight for ticket slots when they went live on sale. Others found it a hassle to buy the tickets by themselves.
But of course, they’d have to ask themselves: is it worth the risk, given that the tickets might be invalid?
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Featured Image: Carousell & Facebook (Causeway Link)
