Travellerr : Strange things have happened to me at Airports
Sadly, for such an arduous trip, I planned very little, trusting our business travel agent a bit too much. As usual they screwed up. By the way, a handy travel tip for all of you- NEVER trust your travel agent, at least, the ones in
The trip was a disaster right from the word go. We started for the Mumbai Intl airport, after a full day’s work, with barely enough time to make to the airport. Mid way, on the express way, I checked the flight tickets for the first time after the travel agent had dropped them on my desk. Our booked flight had already departed the day before! The agent had booked us on the wrong day than what we had asked for. I called the agent on mobile. I could sense that the girl panicked and that she was new. She told me she would get back to me soon. After a while she called me to say that she had called the airline and we would be boarded with 'priority', if some one didn’t turn up for today's flight. The two sub-ordinates of mine with whom I was traveling, were ashen faced with fear that their first trip abroad might prove to be a non- starter. I felt sorry for them and cursed myself for not checking the tickets earlier.
We prayed for people to miss their flight, that night. Sure enough two passengers did not turn up and two of us got to board. We left our hapless colleague behind, after the travel agency put her up in the Hotel at their cost, and promised to put her up on the next day’s flight. I was worried that being a first time traveler, how she would cope with traveling alone. But their was no choice, as I had to attend the meeting the next day in
I hadn't anticipated though, that since our tickets were rustled up 'off the fly', every connecting flight we took, we were told to get out of line and that we would be required to explain the whole background to each booking counter agent, at each airport. It was literally a nightmare. It was a miracle that we did manage to connect all our flights in time and made it in
Three consolations of my trip- the business part went of well and yes, I managed to eat Alligator meat in
The third consolation was a hilarious incident, which happened when I decided to take the cab to
And yes, when he dropped me at Broadway, I did not forget to give a handsome tip to an excellent cabbie who was also an ex-colleague!