Leaving CA
The months before I left LA were pretty crazy. Moving from the USA to India. Having lived half my life in the US of A and half in India. it seemed like a good time to tip (or right ?) the balance. Hence the homeword (did I say home?? haha ..) bound action. In hind sight its turning out that the task of sorting, packing to ship across the 7 seas, shutting down things in LA, teaching and doing research while doing all of this was much easier than what was to come later :-)
I decided to fly aeroflot as its flight timings and time enroute seemed the most convenient given my constraints on both ends. My friends Vicki and Mike dropped me off at LAX with tons of baggage in tow. I have never travelled this heavy in my life before. For me its usually a roll-on and a small backpack. But the list of things I "may not" get in India and the ensuing panicked purchase of things required successive upsizing of baggage till I was just at the generous weight limit of 32 Kg per bag. Departure from LA was too crazy for me to really take it all in.
LAX to Moscow leg was a normal flight in a normal looking airplane. No bench seats or standing room only as I had envisoned. Service was "to the point" ...but adequate.
I had 1.25 hours time to connect to my Delhi bound flight from Moscow. We landed an hour late. That certainty of expecting logical action and customer service (that is common practise in the US) led me to think that they would hold the flight another 20 minutes for me and other passengers to connect to.
Wrong - in fact dead wrong. I ran all the way to the counter accomplishing the inhuman task of carrying about 20 kg of onflight baggage (limit is 10kg :-( ) and as soon as I threw the words "Delhi flight" out of my mouth (preparing to be ushered past the counter at a continued clip) the response "Nyet" -"flight left" "we will gheeve you otel" - "Delhi flight tommorrrrrow" brought me to a skidding halt.
I asked "how long ago did the flight leave"?
Answer I got " Nyet - flight gone". We did this about three times and got no further so I gave up. Then I asked "Can I call my family in India to let them know about the missed flight"?
Answer I got " Nyet - flight gone". We did this about three times again and got no further so I gave up.
There is something about a smile even if there is no service. But here no smile or no service. Infact no language skills on either side!!
Later I learned from friends (who tracked the flights on the internet) that Delhi flight was showing as delayed by over an hour too!!!! Maybe the counters had no internet connection - how else would they have up to date information? #$@%*
Later I also learned that it is against IATA rules to have this super short connection time between 2 international flights. Whos says Aeroflot needs to follow any rules?
Anyway, so the few stranded passangers ( about 5 of us ) were marched thru the airport at top speed and put into a Van to go to a hotel. One official looking man came with us in the shuttle van and was dropped of at the front entrance while we were taken to the back entrance. Fortunately one passenger spoke russian, which might explain why we were not executed right away. Every step seemed a misstep.
We stayed in the drive way of the hotel for a good 30 minutes waiting like lamb before a slaughter. It was snowy and icy outside. It was hot and stuffy inside. So the only russian speaking passenger (who turned out to be a professional ballroom dancer) opened the door. The orders to close the door were barked out immediately and we returned to our stuffy state a bit shaken and more passive.
After another hour or so of waiting in the hotel lobby, we were marched up to our rooms, given phone cards with 2 min of call time and told that our dinner would be served in the room. I asked for vegetarian food. I got rice and potatoes and cole slaw. Someone was looking after my carb intake.
A guard stood outside the rooms at the end of the landing and if a door opened he stiffened. The phone which accepted the phone card was in the hall way and did not work properly. So I decided to use internet on my laptop. This is it went:
Hotel person: " You kan 'aave it for $20"
Me: "OK where do I pay the money?"
Hotel person: "You muzt go doooown to ze lobby?"
Me: " Ok thanks" and move to the elevator to go down.
Guard stiffens and Hotel person shouts "you are not allowed to go to ze lobby".
Me: " So how do I get the internet connection?"
Hotel person: " sorry zis I cannot help you wiz".
End of that story.
By lunch time the next day ham and salami had turned vegetarian!!!!
I arrived in Delhi a day late and missed my sisters wedding completely.
I decided to fly aeroflot as its flight timings and time enroute seemed the most convenient given my constraints on both ends. My friends Vicki and Mike dropped me off at LAX with tons of baggage in tow. I have never travelled this heavy in my life before. For me its usually a roll-on and a small backpack. But the list of things I "may not" get in India and the ensuing panicked purchase of things required successive upsizing of baggage till I was just at the generous weight limit of 32 Kg per bag. Departure from LA was too crazy for me to really take it all in.
LAX to Moscow leg was a normal flight in a normal looking airplane. No bench seats or standing room only as I had envisoned. Service was "to the point" ...but adequate.
I had 1.25 hours time to connect to my Delhi bound flight from Moscow. We landed an hour late. That certainty of expecting logical action and customer service (that is common practise in the US) led me to think that they would hold the flight another 20 minutes for me and other passengers to connect to.
Wrong - in fact dead wrong. I ran all the way to the counter accomplishing the inhuman task of carrying about 20 kg of onflight baggage (limit is 10kg :-( ) and as soon as I threw the words "Delhi flight" out of my mouth (preparing to be ushered past the counter at a continued clip) the response "Nyet" -"flight left" "we will gheeve you otel" - "Delhi flight tommorrrrrow" brought me to a skidding halt.
I asked "how long ago did the flight leave"?
Answer I got " Nyet - flight gone". We did this about three times and got no further so I gave up. Then I asked "Can I call my family in India to let them know about the missed flight"?
Answer I got " Nyet - flight gone". We did this about three times again and got no further so I gave up.
There is something about a smile even if there is no service. But here no smile or no service. Infact no language skills on either side!!
Later I learned from friends (who tracked the flights on the internet) that Delhi flight was showing as delayed by over an hour too!!!! Maybe the counters had no internet connection - how else would they have up to date information? #$@%*
Later I also learned that it is against IATA rules to have this super short connection time between 2 international flights. Whos says Aeroflot needs to follow any rules?
Anyway, so the few stranded passangers ( about 5 of us ) were marched thru the airport at top speed and put into a Van to go to a hotel. One official looking man came with us in the shuttle van and was dropped of at the front entrance while we were taken to the back entrance. Fortunately one passenger spoke russian, which might explain why we were not executed right away. Every step seemed a misstep.
We stayed in the drive way of the hotel for a good 30 minutes waiting like lamb before a slaughter. It was snowy and icy outside. It was hot and stuffy inside. So the only russian speaking passenger (who turned out to be a professional ballroom dancer) opened the door. The orders to close the door were barked out immediately and we returned to our stuffy state a bit shaken and more passive.
After another hour or so of waiting in the hotel lobby, we were marched up to our rooms, given phone cards with 2 min of call time and told that our dinner would be served in the room. I asked for vegetarian food. I got rice and potatoes and cole slaw. Someone was looking after my carb intake.
A guard stood outside the rooms at the end of the landing and if a door opened he stiffened. The phone which accepted the phone card was in the hall way and did not work properly. So I decided to use internet on my laptop. This is it went:
Hotel person: " You kan 'aave it for $20"
Me: "OK where do I pay the money?"
Hotel person: "You muzt go doooown to ze lobby?"
Me: " Ok thanks" and move to the elevator to go down.
Guard stiffens and Hotel person shouts "you are not allowed to go to ze lobby".
Me: " So how do I get the internet connection?"
Hotel person: " sorry zis I cannot help you wiz".
End of that story.
By lunch time the next day ham and salami had turned vegetarian!!!!
I arrived in Delhi a day late and missed my sisters wedding completely.
posted by Iss Desh ki Dharti at
2:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home