I always have something that gets messed up when I travel and always end up with some adventures. The incidents described here are specifically related to my flight trips to India. I have crossed the 7 seas every year from 2002 ( 02' - the year I came to US; 03' - my first trip back home; 04' - came back here in Jan, went back to India in Dec; 05' - came back here in Jan and will be going to India in Dec). That's a lot of trips ! Needless to say lots of adventures too....
I flew outside India for the first time in Aug 2002; luckily I was not alone and had my ex-roomies for company. We had booked our tickets together and so it was very useful ; especially while lugging around our baggage. The trip was quite uneventful, all I r
emember is that we kept laughing. We flew KLM; the service and food was good. We were surprised to see air-hostesses who were quite old. In Indian domestic airways, you would normally only see very attractive young people. That din't seem to be the norm elsewhere !
Then while going back the first time in Dec 2003, Suchi and I flew Gulf Air as it was the cheapest fare. Ha ! What an adventure it was !! It took us almost 51 hours to reach Bangalore from Dallas and this includes both flying and waiting time.
Our adventures began when we left to the airport; our domestic flight from DFW to Chicago was around 7:30pm. As the airport is very close, I think we left around 5ish. Kripa was dropping us to the airport. As he was not very familiar with the route (and neither were we), we missed the exit. Then ofcourse we had to get lost. So instead of reaching the airport in 20mins, it took us more than an hour. The situation was still under control as we had more than 1.5 hrs for our flight. Just then Suchi's phone rang, it was our travel agent, he told us that there was some confusion with the flights and so we had to take the earlier flight at 6:30pm !! We were like, are you out of your mind ? It was already 5:45pm when we got the call and we were still trying to find our way.
Kripa drove real fast and we reached the airport by 6:00pm. We ran to the first AA counter and told them our situation; more confusion; she said our names were not there ! We were almost in tears ! Finally she found seats for us and we almost hugged her with joy. Then we checked in quickly, cleared security and ran to the gate. I think they were even announcing our names. We just about managed to reach the plane before they closed the doors...phew ! We were the last to board the flight. So that meant no space for our cabin luggage. These flights were so small ! Anyway, we found place for the bags and for ourselves. The seats were small and uncomfortable. We settled in. Nothing happened. What was going on ? Ofcourse, the flight just had to be delayed. It stood in the damn runaway for more than an hour ! Grrrrr....we were so irritated and hungry after all the tension. Then the flight finally took off and we got pretzels to munch. :-( Why do they even serve it ? The packet is so small that it may not be sufficient to feed even squirrels. Plus the fact that it tastes awful does not help either.
We reached Chicago; got a connecting flight to London. This plane was AA Boeing and was not that great in terms of comfort. Ofcourse, we din't know what was in store for us. Looking back I would say that the flight was luxurious compared to what we got next. The flight was uneventful. We waited eagerly for the food as we were ravenous after pretzels and coffee.
We reached Heathrow, it was a cold, grey morning. A typical London weather ! We were greeted by Indians ! Duh....! The airport was filled with desis ! Right from the person who greeted us, the security personnel to the airport cleaners were desis ! Well, well, well, you never know. We had a 5 hour halt in the airport. Alec and another girl from our school was also in the same flight. We decided to do window shopping. The airport was crowded and had many stores. We quickly realised that everything in Heathrow airport was expensive. We got some starbucks coffee and continued our window shopping. Then we sat down and just did gupshup till we ran out of energy. I liked the airport, it was big and had nice stores. We could actually kill time easily.
Then while we waited to check-in; we got into a argument with Alec and the other girl. Their next halt was Muscat while ours was Bahrain. Both our flights had the same number ! And both our tickets said that it was direct flight. How could the same flight goto two places without a stop-over ? It just din't make sense. Puzzled ? I will reveal the answer tomorrow :-)
emember is that we kept laughing. We flew KLM; the service and food was good. We were surprised to see air-hostesses who were quite old. In Indian domestic airways, you would normally only see very attractive young people. That din't seem to be the norm elsewhere !Then while going back the first time in Dec 2003, Suchi and I flew Gulf Air as it was the cheapest fare. Ha ! What an adventure it was !! It took us almost 51 hours to reach Bangalore from Dallas and this includes both flying and waiting time.
Our adventures began when we left to the airport; our domestic flight from DFW to Chicago was around 7:30pm. As the airport is very close, I think we left around 5ish. Kripa was dropping us to the airport. As he was not very familiar with the route (and neither were we), we missed the exit. Then ofcourse we had to get lost. So instead of reaching the airport in 20mins, it took us more than an hour. The situation was still under control as we had more than 1.5 hrs for our flight. Just then Suchi's phone rang, it was our travel agent, he told us that there was some confusion with the flights and so we had to take the earlier flight at 6:30pm !! We were like, are you out of your mind ? It was already 5:45pm when we got the call and we were still trying to find our way.
Kripa drove real fast and we reached the airport by 6:00pm. We ran to the first AA counter and told them our situation; more confusion; she said our names were not there ! We were almost in tears ! Finally she found seats for us and we almost hugged her with joy. Then we checked in quickly, cleared security and ran to the gate. I think they were even announcing our names. We just about managed to reach the plane before they closed the doors...phew ! We were the last to board the flight. So that meant no space for our cabin luggage. These flights were so small ! Anyway, we found place for the bags and for ourselves. The seats were small and uncomfortable. We settled in. Nothing happened. What was going on ? Ofcourse, the flight just had to be delayed. It stood in the damn runaway for more than an hour ! Grrrrr....we were so irritated and hungry after all the tension. Then the flight finally took off and we got pretzels to munch. :-( Why do they even serve it ? The packet is so small that it may not be sufficient to feed even squirrels. Plus the fact that it tastes awful does not help either.
We reached Chicago; got a connecting flight to London. This plane was AA Boeing and was not that great in terms of comfort. Ofcourse, we din't know what was in store for us. Looking back I would say that the flight was luxurious compared to what we got next. The flight was uneventful. We waited eagerly for the food as we were ravenous after pretzels and coffee.
We reached Heathrow, it was a cold, grey morning. A typical London weather ! We were greeted by Indians ! Duh....! The airport was filled with desis ! Right from the person who greeted us, the security personnel to the airport cleaners were desis ! Well, well, well, you never know. We had a 5 hour halt in the airport. Alec and another girl from our school was also in the same flight. We decided to do window shopping. The airport was crowded and had many stores. We quickly realised that everything in Heathrow airport was expensive. We got some starbucks coffee and continued our window shopping. Then we sat down and just did gupshup till we ran out of energy. I liked the airport, it was big and had nice stores. We could actually kill time easily.
Then while we waited to check-in; we got into a argument with Alec and the other girl. Their next halt was Muscat while ours was Bahrain. Both our flights had the same number ! And both our tickets said that it was direct flight. How could the same flight goto two places without a stop-over ? It just din't make sense. Puzzled ? I will reveal the answer tomorrow :-)
3 comments:
BTW which airlines in India did you fly which had young air hostesses? Indian airlines regularly features steward/esses who are old enough to be my grandfather/grandmother :-(!
Oooh continue the story - suspense is killing me ;-)!
Hey when I traveled in KLM air hostessers were young and beutiful...I still remember her smile...huhhh...but I did not like the food..:o(.....
The only mess I did during travel is I went exactly 1 day before the scheduled time while coming back to india...( Phoenix airport )....all my friends were laughing like mad dogs......:o(
.........
I flew domestic on Jet Airways which had a young crew.
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