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Journey Back |
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Return to India - D Day Journey Back: This was our experience on the day we returned to India. Its more of personal travelogue however there are few lessons to be learnt from that. Please excuse me if its in too detail or boring. This was one un-forgettable experience. The packing for the D-day Had begun long time before but still some final things remained to be done only on that day of journey. The day before everything in the apartment was thrown. There was so much stiff in apartment, never knew we had all those things. Now we were left with throwing them. One of those big trash - dumpsters was filled with just our stuff. There were books, papers, utemsils, packaging materials, clothes and so on. Anyway, the whole day was basically went traversing up and down stairs 100 times to throw the things in dumpsters. We also had put our luggage in the car the night before. However had kept couple of suitcases with us and were to load them next morning. But still we had to keep few things for the last cold night in USA. The sleeping bags, comforters and so on. All these things were to be discarded the next morning. The string of mistakes started here. TO SEATTLE AIRPORT The flight was scheduled at 9:40 AM. So we got up (basically never slept and kept looking at watch) at 5:00AM were ready by 6:00 AM. Now I started final clean up, threw more things in the dumpster. It was raining somewhat heavily and I thought traffic must be messed up. So started hurrying things. There were phone calls from friends to say final good-byes. And finally we locked apartment by 7:15 AM and damn suitcases wont fit in the trunk of the car!!. Tried all combinations and finally after 5 mins it was all set. Drove to Apartment office and dropped the keys there. And double checked everything, started off, the time was 7:30 AM, by this time I had listened to traffic report and news anchor was telling ' this is one of worst traffic jams I have seen'. My heart came to my mouth but consoled that we could go in HOV lanes and hoped that they would be open. But to my misfortune even HOV lanes were bumper to bumper. To travel next 10 miles, it took 35 mins and another 13 miles 13 mins and we were at United terminal at 8:15 AM. I thought we had sufficient time. Unloaded the luggage and asked porter to move them near ticket counter. I went to return the rental car. Even here, things went wrong - United is the first terminal in the airport and I had Budget Rental car. Its return counter was on exactly opposite side. - Budget rental car return computer had broken equipment (you know one of those hand held devices, that print out the receipts). So things were slow, there was one customer ahead of me and after attending to him, the guy came noted miles and asked me to go to main counter - At main counter an old lady was trying to give some kind of refund/ coupon etc for the guy ahead of me. She was typing, looking at screen, shaking her head, again doing same stuff asking few questions and so on. Seconds were going like hours. After 10 mins wait, finally she finished my return in few seconds. - Now I started running towards United terminal, hoping that Veena would in line and we would probably be at front of line - I reached terminal at 8:40 AM. AT SEATTLE AIRPORT At United Counter: As soon as I saw my wife, was surprised to see her at end of line. She was asked to stand in line at end. We did not bother too much as there were 8-9 people ahead of us and we stood in line for putting the luggage in X-Ray machines. There were no announcements or anything about the flight. So we thought things are OK. - We had lot of luggage. 3 - boxes, 2 Suitcases, 2 brief cases and stroller. I put all those things on the conveyer belt and stood on another line to get check-in tickets - Time now is 8:45-8:50 AM. I am about to hand over passport and tickets, the X-Ray guy calls me and representative keeps my tickets and I go to see that guy - The X-Ray guy wants to open one of boxes. So opened it, removed few things out and put them back in. Closed the box - Time now is 9:00 AM. - United rep, looks at tickets and passports United Rep 1: ' How many pieces of check in' Arun: Five United Rep 1: ' Can they check - in 5 pieces?' United Rep 2: ' Yes, 2 each for adults and one for child' United Rep 1: ' I don't think you can make it flight!' United Rep 2: ' No, you cannot make it that flight, you should have come earlier' Arun Hampiholi: ' Yes we can, just give us boarding passes and we can make it. we still have 40 mins' Uniter Rep 1: ' No I have to talk to manager. Please wait here' She goes in and now seconds are going like years and finally manager appears after 10 mins. So now its 9:10 AM. Manager: ' Oh you cannot make it to this flight. Sorry' Manager: ' Which flight are you connecting to?, oh Frankfut and Banaglore' Manager: ' See if you can route them through another flight via SFO or LA' United Rep 1: ' Lufthansa has flight from SFO and but you have to buy New ticket to SFO, will cost you around $75 per person' Arun Hampiholi: 'Yes, we will pay that ' United Rep 1: ' Special rep will help you from here' Takes us to another counter and explains to him that we should get on flight from SFO. He makes calls Lufthansa and Lufthansa does not agree to honor out tickets from San Fransisco. The Special Rep (David) now tells us, we have to call the travel agent and ask him to change the ticket. I call travel agent explain him about missing flight and he asks me call him back after 15 mins. He does that for 3 or four times. He tells us that he has called Lufthansa and made necessary changes. We go back to David, he calls Lufthansa and they tell nothing of that sort has been done. Finally David throws one more bombshell, if there are any changes to tickets, travel agent must come to airport and deliver them to me, and otherwise they cannot honor such changes. SFO flight was at 11:00 AM and it was 10:45 AM, basically I m running from pillar to post and totally helpless. When all this is happening, we have to take care of 13 month old baby and his needs. His diaper had to be changed and we don't know if we should go to toilet or not. What if these guys want us to get in next flight to SFO or LA. Abhinav is also sensing the stress written all over our face and he too is crying. So now almost every rep in United counters know about us and are staring at us. At 10:45 AM again travel agent says he has fixed the tickets and I should go and talk to United folks. This time David was helping another person and so I was waiting in line. There was United Rep who had finished her shift and was about to leave but she asked me if she could help me. I explained her whole story again and effort to change route. She too called Lufthansa and after 3-4 mins of talk she decided that ticket was non-refundable, non-changeable. Then at 10:50 she decides to put on 11:25 Chicago flight, with no connection from Chicago and says 'you have to arrange for the accommodation in Chicago, till next flight'. Next connection from Chicago was 48 hrs later and we were not sure if we would get seats on that flight. Now, this very helpful rep calls the terminal/gate and asks that plane wait for us. We get the boarding passes, check the luggage till Chicago and start running towards the gate. The helpful rep instructs her co-worker to make sure luggage make it to flight and then accompanies us to main security. Bypasses all lines, talks to security person, he scans us and she gets hold another United worker and asks him to take us to United gate. Its now 11:20 AM and we running towards gate, with stroller, two suitcases, brief case, and Abhinav refuses to sit in stroller, so we have to carry him and push the stroller too. At the gate, every single carry on item was opened, checked and then each one of us including 13 month old, loudly crying baby were subjected to tap-down plus metal detector test. We are all panting and breathing heavily, sweating at this time because of running and stress. And people present/waiting for their other flights are all staring at us. Its almost like something was wrong and people wanted to know about it. The senior person (probably manager) at gate says, " we were waiting for you and holding plane for you". We said "Thank you" and was just wondering why the hell did not they allow to get on our regular flight. In the plane, ofcourse every passenger is angry that plane is delayed by 5-10 mins and are giving us dirty looks. But crew was very helpful, some one took our carry on luggage and stowed them in empty over heads, another crew, requested gentleman sitting in one of seats next to us to move, so that we had whole row for us, gave us water, asked if baby needed anything. Plane took off immediately after that. Abhi had stopped crying was sleeping now. We had only one thing on our minds, what to do in Chicago? What if we don't get tickets on Wednesday flight? Where to stay and so on? AT CHICAGO Don't know how the time was spent in plane from Seattle to Chicago, totally stressed out and but still maintained a brave face and mind calculated all permutations and combinations of things that might happen in Chicago and how to handle them. Plane landed, first thing we did was, call a friend of us in Seattle and asked them to call our parents in India and inform them about missed flight and not to proceed to Bangalore to receive us. Our friend called Hubli, when parents were getting ready to catch Inter-City in another hour and informed them. They stayed at home waiting for call for further updates. Next called Lufthansa customer service person, they were not helpful, and did not know how to handle. But asked to go to their counter in Chicago. Searched for their counter but when we reached there, it was closed (as their last flight for the day had left). Was thinking of calling them again but saw a counter for "United International travelers". After few minutes wait, went to a representative and told him we missed flight and we need tickets for further connections. He looked at tickets and asked why did we miss the flight. I said "held up at security". Mean while he was looking for flights and next available flight was two days after, he gave us tickets!. It was so simple. He even gave us seat numbers for Chicago Frankfurt flight but could not for Frankfurt - Bangalore. We then told him part of story of Seattle, and he said " I don't understand why they did not give you these tickets there it self". He sensed that we are like refugees and gave us coupon for one night at Airport Hilton hotel. And said we will have to arrange or pay for second night. Now we are relieved and went to baggage claim area, the luggage had arrived and asked for help to take us to Hilton hotel. A porter came and took us to hotel lobby and gave extra luggage to stored with hotel and took only few needed bags to room. In room big sigh of relief. I knew a friend of mine lived in Chicago area, but all USA phone numbers were stored in cell phone memory, and we no longer had cell phone! Had couple of numbers written on piece of paper and called that number, this was one thing that happened without any problems in the entire day. Call was connected gave my hotel number and asked him to call me back. Then soon he called me back, got number of my Chicago Friend (Sanjay), and got some calling card numbers from him so that I can call friends in US and Parents in India. Contacted Sanjay (Chicago friend), again lucky here, he stayed just 10 miles off the airport. And he came with dinner for us and Abhinav. Two days were basically spent with him. No mood to roam around in Chicago, even though now I feel it was a good chance to roam around in windy city. After few hours in hotel I was so skeptical, called the Lufthansa to reconfirm my travel. Surprise again, they said " you are not on that plane"!. Worried called United, they reconfirmed my journey and even confirmed seat numbers, veggie meals and so on. The flight it self was operated by Lufthansa but their systems did not have my name in their system. So again was kind of worried about whole thing. But seeing a childhood dost and spending time with them definitely helped to forget all those things. On travel day, went to airport almost three hours early (why didn't we do that in Seattle?). Checked in luggage and got boarding passes and confirmed tickets to Bangalore. The lady was helpful and she managed to re-arrange entire seating and gave us seats next to each other, in fully booked flights. In fact for Frankfrut to Banglore, we were accommodated in the seats that are meant for crew (ones with those curtains, so that crew can sleep). Only now did we call our parents and told them about our new travel plans, so that they can come to Bangalore airport. Again Sanjay came to airport, with lunch box, we had lunch and said good byes and stood in line for security check. Here again all of our carry ons were opened and looked at. We had a gold coin and it did create more suspicion. It was separated from rest of carry on and carry on luggage was put thru X-ray again. I did observe the security check up for few minutes and its very easy to notice that 'dark' foreign nationals are searched more often than others. Not all dark skinned folks are searched but there is no benefit of doubt. I would say there should no benefit of doubt for anyone. AT FRANKFRUT In the plane, we were again lucky, we had three seater, window side row, and none was assigned the third seat. The crew was again very helpful, they arranged for bassinet. Gave us all needed help to care of baby. Abhinav was also co-operative, played, slept, laughed and walked down aisle. By the time we reached Frankfurt, Abhinav was tired and sleepy. We waited for stroller to arrive at gate but Lufthansa had all strollers sent to baggage claim area. So we could not get stroller and whole purpose of bringing that stroller was to make Abhi sleep in that. Now we had no choice but to have him sleep on our laps. The Lufthansa terminal in Frankfurt is very bad and does not have good facilities. There are not enough seating and we can see people sitting on the floor everywhere. And they don't have enough heating in Frankfurt, its extremely cold inside airport…Toilets are also not very clean and can see cheap graffiti in toilets. But on the other hand, terminal 2 which Delta airlines uses is far superior. It has good facilities and lots of space to sit or sleep. Tired and sleepless and cold in Frankfurt, got onto to next flight. It was packed and 99% of passengers were of Indian descent. And there were lots of babies. As soon as we got into the plane, crew was busy rearranging seating arrangements so that those with babies got an extra seat. That's good use of resources!. So every baby was given a seat, we were attended to last (as we were last to book on that flight). They managed to get two seats on window side and additional seat across the aisle. That was very helpful. AT BANGALORE At Bangalore, we have to face our own people and their service. As soon immigration official spotted us with baby, he took us to front of line, stamped our passports and off we went to customs. Here they harassed us, asked us to pay bribe, I refused to pay bribe and paid taxes and was last person to get out of airport, a full 2.5 hours after plane had landed. Outside friends and parents and anxious as to why we had not come out side yet. Wow, we are back in India. We were now waiting for some more boxes to arrive, that we had sent by air-cargo. Seems like my unlucky streak was not over yet, the boxes did not arrive on the day they were supposed and agent did not have any idea as to when they will arrive!. He told as boxes could not make it on to Mumbai-Banglore flight, they will come by the next flight, which had space!. Anyways, after three days, they did arrive. I had to spend time in Customs from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM to get them cleared. There was no harassment but still they did ask for bribe, ( khushi). I did not pay the officer/clerk but paid some tips to packers, lifters. They were quite happy with that, but I made officer quite angry. The stroller that we had missed in Frarnkfrut arrived two days later, Lufthansa guys came home and delivered it. In a nutshell: 1. If possible pick starting flight that starts late in the day. 2. Pick weekend as travel day à this will allow your friend(s) to help you with everything. I tried to do it alone and its difficult. If you try to leave on weekday, your best friend may not come to airport because of xyz reasons. 3. If you have enthu/mood, try to break up the journey and do some site seeing in US/Europe/Asia Pacific. I had this very much in mind, but could not execute that because of 'how to travel with 13 month old baby' concerns! 4. Keep your US folks phone numbers handy. You might need them, if you miss a flight or stranded etc 5. If you are getting rental car for last few days, make sure its return counter is near your airline gate. Don't rent car outside the airport terminal. 6. Buy full insurance for the rental car (even if you have your own car insurance). Just in case of damage, its not worth the trouble. If you have bought that rental insurance ( which will probably be more than actual car rental), in case of damage, it will as simple as phone call to car rental company and getting your car replaced. 7. If possible, try to move out of your apartment couple of days before D-day and spend last 2-3 days in a hotel or friend's house. |
| -Arun Hampiholi |