The Big Blank

Jypore to Hong Kong

The Delhi airport.

I reached the airport around 2hrs before boarding. I had a confirmed ticket with seat no. etc. and I guessed this much time was enough or rather this was the earliest I can wake up and get ready etc for a 7am flight. But ..but ..but it was a weekend flight and over that only two of the five ticket counters were working. Some "technical glitch". So, there was this mile-long line at the ticket counter. Though it was moving fast.

I weighed in my luggage and guess what??....right...it was overweight. With all the last minute adding of Aashirvad-pre-cooked packets and "Haldiram" packs it has reached a healthy 34 kgs. 14kgs !!! over the modest 20kg limit. I guess they were finding ways to offloads passengers, flight being overbooked and all, as my friend's luggage-weight was not even looked at about an hour ago(Yeah he is an early riser!!). I was asked to reduce(no pun intended) or pay up Rs.400 per kg for the stuff. I thought of giving it the nice girl at the counter and get a boarding pass. But as she was not very helpful with these overweight suitcases I decided against it and stuffed some into my cabin luggage and some in my flight-mate's cabin luggage.

I came back to the counter to find four very excited and very oriental looking guys blocking my way. They were insisting to get the passes before me and the nice girl was thinking of giving me a boarding pass(I should have given her a few packets). They threatened to complaint to her manager and all. She gave me this pleading look and I thought what the heck let them have it before me. To my horror these were the last seats. I along with an aged punjabi lady and an Indian looking girl who I thought was not Indian.(and later found was in fact of indian origin). In fact there were a few more, who went back as their cases were not as desperate as ours. I had to join my company. My job offer at stake etc. The girl had her annual exams or something to take in Vancouver, for which she has prepared an year. The old lady being alone and kind of undecided stayed back.

We were told that alternative flights were being checked and meanwhile a compensation of a measely $150 was offered for this.(It is MEASELY against a job offer at stake). There was also some talk of I being very co-operative in such a tight situation. Only if I would have known that I could have sued them for offloading a confirmed ticket passenger. Anyway we were waiting and it was taking long to explore all options. So they lodged me at Intercontinental. Of course all expenses paid i.e breakfast, lunch and dinner etc. etc. Except I didn't knew that I have to take them down in the lobby. I found this after the breakfast and decided to check out. Meanwhile I got confirmed ticket for Delhi-Bangkok-Hong Kong on Indian Airlines and Cathay Pacific in that order. So, this way I would reach Hong Kong after the introductory lunch and before the real training stuff started. The start of my journey was the indicator of things to come.

Next - Delhi to Bangkok flight.

posted by Pankaj Jain @ 8:50 PM