Overflowing cup of travel woes - Part 1
Day 1 - Saturday
floopilot and I are all set to start on our long scenic route to Bangalore from Pittsburgh. The highly cost optimized itinerary booked for us by a shadowy travel agent supposedly based in Virginia involves 3 layovers and 2 airlines.
Pittsburgh - Washington DC on United
Hang around at Dulles for 1 hour
Washington DC - London on United
Hang around at Heathrow for 2.5 hrs
London - Mumbai on Jet
Battle immigration and customs for 4 hours
Mumbai - Bangalore on Jet
Phew!
We try to check in to our flights a day earlier only to learn that Jet airways does not have online checkin for international flights. We fail to realise it is an indicator of what's to come. We reach the airport with a comfortable 2.5 hrs left before take off (Thanks Dan!). After a scintillating 25 mins in the dismally long United line, we reach the head of the queue to learn our flight to Washington has been delayed by 25 mins. A sinking realisation tells us that the newly-reduced-to-35 mins layover in Dulles puts our bags in serious jeopardy of not making it to the flight across the Atlantic. The harried agent listens to me politely request her to check us in all the way to Bangalore and tells us that she can't help us today because she is busy. Busy being unhelpful to everyone?. floopilot is seriously annoyed and proceeds to give Harried United Agent a piece of her mind. United Agent wisely decides not to irk her further and checks our bags all the way to Bangalore but informs us that the System can't print out boarding passes for the Jet legs. We shrug it off and decide to deal with Jet at London. We go through the usual jigmarole of convincing TSA that we don't have any exploding Gatorade and that our shoes don't infact explode and make our way to the gate. The departure board now informs us that the flight is now further delayed by another 1 hour. Making it to the London flight is no longer mathematically possible. The ordeal has begun.
I eye the mile long queue to talk to the gate agent and decide to hasten the rescheduling by calling United. The United phone agent helpfully informs me that our tickets are of "Jet stock" and United's responsibility is only to get us to London. I call Jet who are equally useless and tell me that they won't reschedule my ticket since it was United's fault. It's Indian bureaucracy deja vu time. I hang up (ok, hit the End button which is much less satisfying) on the blame game players and decide to try my luck with the real life agent at the end of the painfully long line. I finally get to her and put on my saddest face. With a rare stroke of luck, the United gate agent turns out to be a Really Sweet Gate Agent. She pecks away at her computer for 45 mins while the other irate passengers behind me silently hex me. She tries to route us through myriad European cities in attempts to get us to Bangalore. She finally says the best she can do is put us on a Chicago flight. We are then to spend the night in Chicago and travel on Lufthansa the next day to Frankfurt and Bangalore. With one less layover, I'm not complaining. I thank the Real Sweet Gate Agent profusely. floopilot and I are ravenous at this point. The airport is however shut down since it's Stanley Cup Game 5 night with the Penguins on the brink of elimination. We find the lone open fine dining establishment, McDonald's and scarf down a small order of Obnoxious Fries. Sated such, we head back to the gate and what do you know, the Chicago flight has been delayed. We are not worried, we are simply trading time in a hotel in Chicago with time at the airport here. The flight gets delayed twice more and then gets cancelled. I am now not sure if we'll be in Bangalore anytime this fortnight. We then hear a United boarding announcement for Washington and persuade the Real Sweet Agent to put us on that flight. We are now off to Washington with a connection the next day to Frankfurt and then Bangalore.
Washington
-----------
The bags are here. We are here. We are tired but relieved that we'll be in Bangalore soon albeit 18 hrs later than we had originally planned. There are no United people here to help us get a hotel room. We suck it up and get a room. The wait for the hotel shuttle lasts 90 mins. We swear like angry people are wont to, we'll never evah travel on United again.
To be continued ...
floopilot and I are all set to start on our long scenic route to Bangalore from Pittsburgh. The highly cost optimized itinerary booked for us by a shadowy travel agent supposedly based in Virginia involves 3 layovers and 2 airlines.
Pittsburgh - Washington DC on United
Hang around at Dulles for 1 hour
Washington DC - London on United
Hang around at Heathrow for 2.5 hrs
London - Mumbai on Jet
Battle immigration and customs for 4 hours
Mumbai - Bangalore on Jet
Phew!
We try to check in to our flights a day earlier only to learn that Jet airways does not have online checkin for international flights. We fail to realise it is an indicator of what's to come. We reach the airport with a comfortable 2.5 hrs left before take off (Thanks Dan!). After a scintillating 25 mins in the dismally long United line, we reach the head of the queue to learn our flight to Washington has been delayed by 25 mins. A sinking realisation tells us that the newly-reduced-to-35 mins layover in Dulles puts our bags in serious jeopardy of not making it to the flight across the Atlantic. The harried agent listens to me politely request her to check us in all the way to Bangalore and tells us that she can't help us today because she is busy. Busy being unhelpful to everyone?. floopilot is seriously annoyed and proceeds to give Harried United Agent a piece of her mind. United Agent wisely decides not to irk her further and checks our bags all the way to Bangalore but informs us that the System can't print out boarding passes for the Jet legs. We shrug it off and decide to deal with Jet at London. We go through the usual jigmarole of convincing TSA that we don't have any exploding Gatorade and that our shoes don't infact explode and make our way to the gate. The departure board now informs us that the flight is now further delayed by another 1 hour. Making it to the London flight is no longer mathematically possible. The ordeal has begun.
I eye the mile long queue to talk to the gate agent and decide to hasten the rescheduling by calling United. The United phone agent helpfully informs me that our tickets are of "Jet stock" and United's responsibility is only to get us to London. I call Jet who are equally useless and tell me that they won't reschedule my ticket since it was United's fault. It's Indian bureaucracy deja vu time. I hang up (ok, hit the End button which is much less satisfying) on the blame game players and decide to try my luck with the real life agent at the end of the painfully long line. I finally get to her and put on my saddest face. With a rare stroke of luck, the United gate agent turns out to be a Really Sweet Gate Agent. She pecks away at her computer for 45 mins while the other irate passengers behind me silently hex me. She tries to route us through myriad European cities in attempts to get us to Bangalore. She finally says the best she can do is put us on a Chicago flight. We are then to spend the night in Chicago and travel on Lufthansa the next day to Frankfurt and Bangalore. With one less layover, I'm not complaining. I thank the Real Sweet Gate Agent profusely. floopilot and I are ravenous at this point. The airport is however shut down since it's Stanley Cup Game 5 night with the Penguins on the brink of elimination. We find the lone open fine dining establishment, McDonald's and scarf down a small order of Obnoxious Fries. Sated such, we head back to the gate and what do you know, the Chicago flight has been delayed. We are not worried, we are simply trading time in a hotel in Chicago with time at the airport here. The flight gets delayed twice more and then gets cancelled. I am now not sure if we'll be in Bangalore anytime this fortnight. We then hear a United boarding announcement for Washington and persuade the Real Sweet Agent to put us on that flight. We are now off to Washington with a connection the next day to Frankfurt and then Bangalore.
Washington
-----------
The bags are here. We are here. We are tired but relieved that we'll be in Bangalore soon albeit 18 hrs later than we had originally planned. There are no United people here to help us get a hotel room. We suck it up and get a room. The wait for the hotel shuttle lasts 90 mins. We swear like angry people are wont to, we'll never evah travel on United again.
To be continued ...