Jet…. Set…. and RRRRUUUUUUN!!!

To catch a flight at 8:30am, you would normally wake up at 4:30, get ready and leave your place at 5:30AM. Then, as the system is everywhere, dial a number, call the cab and reach the airport at 6:00AM. Check in by 6:30 and wallah! your on your way to the destination. Simple, isn’t it?

But, when you are me…. in New Jersey…. awake chatting with ur bud till late the night before… things are bound to get… well… ummm…. pretty fked up!

So, I woke up at 430AM alright AND got ready well in time… but decided to take a short walk to nearby cafe to have a snack and WALLAH!!!!! we got so fuckin delayed…. we reached the airport at 7:45AM. So what? Just in time! right?? yeah, they said I could check in, but they had stopped checking in the luggage… toh I was practically suggested to goto the city of angels, dressed like one… (with just once pyjama in my backpack!!!)

Many emotional requests later, the sweet and kind-hearted lady at the counter rescheduled my non-transferable, non-refundable, booked a month in advance (well… in other words, cheapest-available) ticket to the next flight (in the evening)! All this while, I stood there with a sad face, drenched in sweat waiting for the good/bad news.

As soon as I got the boarding pass for the next flight, we came out of the airport and breathed the cool air! What followed was a sequence of events beginning with us getting back to Ankit’s house, leaving the luggage and going out to the city…

The first half of the day was spent in search of a second-hand mobile (just to make-do) and finally, I got hold of an okeish mobile for  60 bucks. After a quick bite at the Indian Street in Jersey, we rushed back to Ankit’s house.

Cab took us to the EWR airport at around 4:30PM. I checked in and then spent 45 mins with Ankit doing chit-chat. I boarded the flight at 6:15PM and after a short announcement by the captain, a shaky-looking plane took me to the sky!

Next Stop: LA a.k.a. Los Angeles a.k.a. City of Angels a.k.a. My home for next 7 weeks!

 

Delayed by FIFTEEN HOURS!!!

(Continued from the previous post…)

So, we boarded the next flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK, New York. The time was around 2:00AM. Just as the captain gave instructions for the crew to prepare for take-off, the window on my side became fogged up. I could barely see the outside. The camera on the In-flight entertaiment system showed heavy rain and dense fog which had suddenly appeared in a span of a few minutes!

The next announcement was made half an hour later which told all the passengers that there has been an unexpected storm at Abu Dhabi and that no flight could take off till the weather clears. So, we were asked to deboard the airplane and wait at the airport.

When the chart for rescheduled flights was displayed, we were shocked! They had, beyond any reasonable imagination, delayed our flight by FIFTEEN hours! So, now we could only take off at 5:30PM on Mar 03, 2008. I was…. what can I say (in most civilized manner i.e.!)…. aghast! Anyways, this time, the a**h***s from Etihad were least helpful and had NO answers to any of our queries and NO solutions to our problems!! We were told that the accommodation will be arranged at 7:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, we were given an option of having snacks in a 4star restaurant at the airport. So, after the snacks and hours of waiting, I received a room at the AIRPORT HOTEL (which, to my surprise, turned out to be a five-star and a quite luxurious one at that!!). We were offered complimentary lunch (which was okeish!). We boarded the flight at 5:30PM and the captain welcomed us onboard. The plane headed to the taxiway, all set to fly the skies of New York..

More in my next post… STAY TUNED!

::Cheers::