My Flight

Well you guys have read the fun I had in India, so now it was time to head back to San Diego for work. I thought 20 days were plenty, but time just flew by.

Anyways I started early(or so I thought till I reached airport) from Noida at 3:45am for IGI because my cab had arrived at 2 and I didn't want to keep that driver waiting.

Reached IGI soon enough and was pleasantly surprised that there were no long queues right outside main entrance to airport. I straight way went in, only to be directed to the other end of airport. It was there I realized that the baggage scan queue for Air India was so long that I had to step out of airport to be in that queue,but that queue still moved really fast !!..ya you got it right fast compared to what I saw later. I moved to check in queue soon which was slow but then it was not that long. I got my preferred seat ,window seat in the front section of plane. so far so good. I must say there were far many "May I help you" executives that i remember seeing last time, not that it made lines any faster but at least you knew where to go. So after checking in I went to immigration queue which threatened to take over the whole airport and the worst part it just wasn't moving !! I saw people in front of me become a really frustrated psycho. And then to make things worse Air India would announce over PA system that its flight (AI 111 for new york to be precise) is leaving, even though it cant since half of its passengers were still stuck at immigration. Now since AI did not announce that it has been forced to delay its flight and did the exact opposite of that, people on that flight just started bulldozing their way through the queue. Of course nobody wanted to be at the end of that queue, so rest of the crowd also started doing the same. Net result any kind of system that existed just broke down and everyone was still stuck. It kind of reminded me of mumbai local at peak rush. So after 3 hours I finally cleared immigration, I soon realized the reason of this slow speed, there were just 4 immigration officers for more that 4 long distance flight. As I got out of immigration I prepared for the next big thing, Security. I was pleasantly surprised that it took less that 5 minutes at security and I did not have to wait for boarding call either. So I made it to an empty plane at 8:05 for 8:20 flight.

My flight AI-137 to Los Angeles with a technical halt at Frankfurt took of at 10:30 on March 1. I was to fly to San Diego on United Airlines and reach there by 7pm March 1 local time. It was kind of emotional when I saw Delhi fly away and become smaller in plane window, but then I consoled myself that I am not going away forever, I would return in sometime.

We reached Frankfurt at 4pm local time on March 1, we all deplaned and waited for buses as our flight did not get an aerobridge terminal. It was cloudy and windy, so my leather jacket was put to good use. Soon we reached departure terminal after going through security and boarded the plane again. It seemed that we might be able to reduce our initial delay, enabling me to be on the same connecting flight to San Diego. But wait as soon as the plane started taxiing pilot noticed some problem( we later came to know it was fuel leakage). Soon we were told that we might be delayed by another 40-45 minutes. There was some nice Hindi movie going on, so even though I had to hold audio jack to listen to movie, I did not mind waiting for another hour. After an hour, instead of taking off we were served refreshments which are usually served in flight, that seemed ominous enough to me.

After we finished our refreshments captain told us that flight will take of tomorrow at 2pm and we would be provided accommodation, It was supposed to take of at 4pm, so this meant a delay of 22hours. Americans and guys with German visa where deplaned first and taken to hotel. Rest of us were some 150 people and were taken to gate B58. Air India staff then took our passports for transit visa. They returned after another 2 hours and told us that German border police have issued visa only to those with babies, health problem and people over age of 60. We were really irritated. I along with another lady went to speak with Border police official. This lady had been green card holder for last 28 years, but nothing worked out. Funny thing, a couple turned up immediately after this announcement that his wife was pregnant !! So we were given some sandwiches, water,food coupons, calling card and a whole big airport to spend the whole night. Unfortunately all flights out of Frankfurt had been cancelled on the day before we arrived because of storms all over northern Europe, so all flights out were already full. I roamed around a lot and found out some comfortable seats, but was afraid of missing developments so went back to rest of passengers. I managed to sleep for couple of hours and then at 6am got up for breakfast. Had a heavy breakfast at McDonald, thankfully even in Germany they have menu very similar to that in America. When I returned back I realized that AI was distributing alternate flight tickets. So I also joined the queue, this was at 8am on March 2. After standing in queue for another 5 hours, AI staff announced that all passengers with connecting flight should make another group and wait. They were trying to book all passengers to LA on American Airlines flight scheduled to leave at 2pm. After 2pm just 7 of us were left, we thought it would be easy to accommodate us in any flight. We were still standing next to transit request counter and we could hear staff searching for all available options. At one point they were also considering Frankfurt--- Amsterdam---London---Washington---Los Angeles---San Diego, but that did not happen because of transit visa problem we would have had all over Europe.Soon we were told that all flights to US were full and that the only available option is to take a flight on next morning that is March 3. This was at 4pm on March 2 We were too tired to protest since we had been standing since 8am and had had nothing to eat or drink since then.They proposed me to take United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Chicago next morning i.e. march 3 at 8am and then take connecting flight to San Diego. When I did see the itinerary proposed , I realized that I would have very less time at Chicago airport. I asked them for another flight but was denied the same, though UA had another flight to San Diego after 3 hours. This would have saved me another hour in queue at Chicago, but guess this was not my lucky day.

So we were given another set of food coupons ,calling card of 5 Euro. The calling card got you less than 2 minutes of call to India, so I ended up with a phone bill of $140 on my credit card that too for just 2 calls to India and 1 call to US. Anyways, since we had accumulated a lot of food coupons we just went and had some beer and went to sleep as you can see in the snap. Since there were no shops in the whole airport, open 24 hours we took dinner with beer and again at 9pm and then went to sleep. Got up pretty early as we were desperate to leave Frankfurt. Got through screening eyes of security, they were really suspicious as we looked really scruffy and smelled horribly. Flight to Chicago was nice, as United economy plus had good leg room. I did not drink any more beer as my throat infection was getting worse. I slept for most part of flight. At Chicago I realized my luggage had not arrived, but I was still happy that at least I made it out of Frankfurt. In Chicago at least I could go out of airport stay with friend if it got to that. So even after rushing through immigration and security i missed my connecting flight. Thankfully United had automatically put me on the next flight, so apart from standing in queue for an hour everything else was smooth. Finally reached San Diego on March 3 at 7:30 ,delayed by 2 days, without luggage. Filed a report with United Airlines and did some shopping for immediate requirements before I finally reached home. And boy a hot shower never felt so good. As soon as I touched bed I was off to sleep.

I received luggage after another 2 days, have filed for compensation but don't have very high expectation and I am never flying Air India again !