It is a well-known fact
among my friends that I am a pessimist. I carry an umbrella if there is the
slightest hint of clouds in the sky. I stock candles in my house in the US to
light in case of a power failure. I take public transport to any such place where
there is a possibility of not finding parking. I am often ridiculed for this
attitude, but I am an incorrigible believer of Murphy's Law.
And there is reason for
that. I am often the victim of the worst case scenario. I am the only person
among my friends who was mugged on the street, and the only one that I have
known to have been mugged multiple times. I am the only PhD student in the history
of NJIT's Computer Science department to have been denied funding after four
years of PhD because... they miscalculated their funds. It was my car whose
hood was left open by mechanics last year, causing it to fly open on the
highway and nearly causing an accident.
So when I bought the
ticket for India a few months ago, I was less than happy about the three-hour
layover in Mumbai. I would have to get off the Etihad Airways plane from Abu
Dhabi, pass through immigration, collect my baggage, clear customs, check in my
baggage on the Jet Airways flight to Kolkata, clear security and then board the
aircraft within that time. But since I was flying from Washington DC to
Kolkata, my choices were limited. Besides, since the whole trip was booked by
Jet Airways, I thought, they will surely make some arrangements for their
passengers if the Etihad flight is delayed and the Kolkata flight leaves
Mumbai. I thought wrong. When I reached the Jet Airways transfer check-in desk
at the Mumbai international airport after getting off the delayed Etihad
flight, declaring myself free from Ebola, passing through immigration and
customs, the Kolkata flight was about to leave.
 |
| Jet Airways - where passengers come last |
Maybe some other airline
would have arranged for its passengers to make the connection quickly. Not Jet
airways. They made sure I waited fifteen minutes for my suitcases, took my full
time at every queue, and finally reached the counter when they would not let me
check-in. Well, the suitcases were probably delayed by Etihad, but it was Jet
Airways who had booked the trip, so I'm going to hold them responsible.
Anyway, I went to the
counter and asked the agent what to do. My father had surely started for the
airport by this time, and I had no way of telling him that I had missed my
plane since there were no payphones in sight. That is when the agent told me
that I would get a flight the next day as all flights to Kolkata for that day
were full. There were four other passengers sharing my predicament. All five of
us demanded an explanation for this ridiculous proposal. The Jet Airways agent explained
he was doing us a favour by giving us the flight the next day, since it was
really Etihad Airways’ fault that we had missed the plane. So we caught the
Etihad Airways guy and asked him about alternate arrangements. He looked at our
tickets and said it was a Jet Airways trip, so it wasn’t his responsibility. This
went on for some time, while tempers rose slowly. I suggested they should be
providing us with hotel accommodation if we were made to wait till the next
day. The Jet Airways guy refused, but eventually the Etihad Airways guy agreed
to do that.
As an aside, I think I
should mention how the Jet Airways agents work. There is one counter to serve a
huge queue of transfer passengers, and one agent sits there with a computer to
handle all requests. Four other agents walk around looking busy, but do nothing
other than distracting the agent at the counter from time to time. When the
passengers get impatient and tell them to hurry or bring more agents to the
task, the rest of the agents come and stand behind the guy at the computer,
staring intently at his monitor. Any further requests to hurry are met with, “All
of us are busy working here. We are trying our best, what else can we do?”
Naturally, from the time we had arrived at the desk, about an hour had passed
before we were promised hotel rooms and flights the following day. The only
problem was, this was an unacceptable solution as far as I was concerned. Let
me explain.
The day was December 7. Although
my own wedding was on the 12th, I had arrived a few days early to
attend my cousin’s wedding which was on the evening of the 7th. Besides,
I had to go for the biometric collection part of the US visa interview the next
day, the 8th, and my visa interview was on the 9th. So flying
to Kolkata the next day would not only mean that I would miss my cousin’s
wedding after travelling 11,000 miles and wasting a day of leave for it, it
would also mean I would probably miss my visa interview and then get into
complications that I couldn’t even begin to think about.
I asked the agent if
there were some other options that day, like flying via a third city. It was
evident from the guy’s reaction that he hadn’t thought of that idea, and he
started searching on his computer. Finally, he smiled. “There’s a flight to Kolkata
at 7:40 this evening, Sir!” he said, “I’ll put you on it.” It is a mystery why he had not found that flight before.
I considered the
situation. Going that evening would save the visa interview, but the wedding
was a lost cause. Besides, since my father and other family members would be
attending the wedding, they would not be able to pick me up from the airport (or
miss the wedding to pick me up). “Will I get a refund if I don’t take that
flight?” I asked. “No Sir, you don’t get a refund for cancelling one leg of a
journey.” He said. I told him to book me a seat on that flight and walked away.
I had decided my course of action.
I walked to the Indigo
Airlines counter and asked if they had a flight to Kolkata that morning. The
agent said there was a flight in a couple of hours, but there were only two
seats left on it and he could not book them. I would need to go to the domestic
terminal to book the flight. I ran out with my suitcases and caught a taxi to
the domestic terminal. Fortunately, when I reached the Indigo counter there, the
seats were still available. A seat on the flight to Kolkata cost me Rs. 16,000.
Then I had to shell out an additional Rs. 7,000 for excess baggage since only
one check-in bag of 16 kg was allowed on the flight and I was carrying two of
23 kg each. Finally, after checking my bags, I could find a payphone to call
home and inform about my plans. I had to run to board the plane soon afterwards,
but I made it. Eventually I reached home after 2:00 pm and had to leave for the
wedding at 4:30. But I could make it, albeit after spending a good deal of
money from my pocket.
In this whole episode,
is there anything that I could have done differently? I could have chosen a
different airline, of course, and in hindsight it was a mistake to choose Jet. But
once I reached Mumbai on the delayed flight, it really did not make sense to
skip my cousin’s wedding and my visa interview just because some idiot didn’t
want to cooperate with me. And to be honest, it was probably not the idiot’s
fault to begin with, it was his company policy, and the farther one stays from
such a company, the better. So I preferred to shell out the extra money to travel by another airline. My only
consolation is, there was probably an empty seat in a Jet airways flight that
evening at 7:40, for which they could have made an extra Rs. 16,000 or so had
I cancelled my booking, but could not.
So there’s a reason why
I always think of the worst case scenario. It usually happens to me. I will never
fly by Jet Airways again if I can help it, but considering my luck, probably I’ll
have trouble with some other airline the next time.
