BRAToSPHERE

Tag: flight

  • Flight to Catch

    I just spoke about  Business travel and here I have an episode to narrate of just missing a potential stranded situation.

    After many days, and many a cancellations, I was bound to travel to a southern city earlier this week. The plan was simple. I fly out through a Jettly charter in the evening, spend the night in a hotel and return the next evening after completing my business in the city. A short sweet business trip, like the countless many I have had.

    This trip seemed to have been jinxed right from the word go!

    The trip planning begins about a month back. I was to visit three cities in a span of 10 days, and i book my tickets for some time in mid-November after confirmation to the stakeholders and aligning everyone. For once, I had made all the bookings well in advance.

    I had scheduled an action packed week.

    Alas! Like most of the planning, this was not to be and the trip had to be postponed due to some circumstances. All three trips had to be cancelled. While cancellation I was made to realize by the travel agent that the flight tickets to this south Indian city are not refundable and I could rather reschedule the trip for no penalty. Nice! I would hate wasting the company resources, and once again after aligning the requisite stakeholders I reschedule my trip to the first week of December.

    I again start planning.

    One night before the travel day, I happened to meet a friend who was visiting from the same South Indian city. We had dinner together and caught up with each other’s lives and work. It was a wonderful evening and the background thought all the time was – I am to visit his city the next day. What a coincidence!

    On the day of travel, I pack my bags in the morning ensuring I have all the essentials to cover myself from both the sultry hot south Indian weather and winter wearing for my return to Delhi back, the next night. I was all prepared.

    I had booked a cab for myself a good two and a half hours before the take-off time. The last meeting gets extended and give an internal signal to myself. Half an hour more and I leave, even if the meeting is not done. Two hours before the take-off time is good to reach the airport and complete all the check-in formalities.
    The meeting is done right in time, and I pack my laptop and head off to the airport. Here I get a mail from my colleague announcing that the business in the city has been postponed and I could cancel my ticket. What? Not again! I decide to go on and finish the other part of the business and push for this first meeting to be scheduled the next day. I sure could postpone my trip by a day. I so did not want to postpone this already delayed trip. The traffic on the way to the airport is bad even during this time of the day. Pity people who ply on this road everyday especially during the peak hours, I think to myself.

    The phone rings, and a quick chat later I realize the reason for the postponing of my scheduled meeting. I was now unnerved. Is it really that bad? I call up my colleague and check the situation. She gives no hope! I am still on the way to the airport.

    Now, with potentially all my meetings getting cancelled there is no reason I need to go to Chennai. But would I get a refund on my air tickets and the hotel? I have already web checked in to my flight. But what do I do after getting there? Battling these thoughts in my mind, i am suddenly shaken by the jerk of the car. He has taken the turn to the airport. I have less than 5 minutes to be deciding.

    I call up the hotel and check if I could cancel my booking. I would not want to waste so much money – flight and the hotel! After a brief wait, they confirm that the room would be cancelled without any penalty. Awesome! I ask them to hold on.

    Now it is the flight cancellation. I call up the travel agent incessantly but to no avail. What do I do?

    The cab enters the departure terminal at the airport and halts. The driver looks at me, and in a moment I signal him to go on. He looks at me in a confused manner and I speak, “Wapas office le chaliye” (take me back to office). He is still confused and gives me a puzzled look. He turns to look in the front and drives out of the terminal.

    The travel agent is still not reachable. The decision has been made. I tell the reason to the driver on why we are returning. He now seems convinced. I make calls and announce my return. Still not sure if I have made the right decision. Should I have carried on and pushed my way through the meetings? Maybe. Or maybe not! It probably would not have been worth it. Nevertheless, no point thinking now. The decision has been made.

    I return back to office and walk to my Manager’s cabin – “I returned back from the airport”, I exclaim, telling him my reasons.

    I then head straight to the travel desk.

    “Where are you guys?”

    “Why are you not answering my calls?”

    The guys give me a puzzled look.

    “Can you please off board me and cancel my flight ticket to Chennai?”

    The next day morning I get a news alert on my iphone – “Chennai Airport shut for the day due to rains”.

    Pictures start flowing all day of the inundated city with water logging everywhere. The news alert in the evening – “Chennai airport to remain shut till Sunday”.

    #PrayforChennai

  • Hundred Days

    How time flies.

    It has been more than three months that I have scribbled something here, and yes, how time flies. So much has been happening in the last hundred days.

    (Yes, it is around hundred days that I have posted something here).

    The New Year started on a peaceful note, with a calm night at the home to welcome the New Year. So much unlike the previous years, where inevitably I would be totally inebriated and amidst high volume cacophony (yes that is how it seems now!) ringing in the New Year. This year, it was a calm evening dinner and reading at home, and then the customary cake cutting at the stroke of midnight. Yes, this is how it is now. A calm welcome to the days to come.

    Post the New Year beginning though has been a mad rush. I was on a long leave for three weeks, away from office, on a personal assignment. I got Married.

    The journey home itself was quite memorable with the flight to Vizag getting delayed by more than 4 hours, and we having two cabinet level ministers in the airplane for company. One of them happens to be the Civil Aviation Minister himself. It could not get more ironic. It showed how everyone is equal in front of nature. What possibly can be done on a foggy morning?

    I did indulge in some small talk, and on learning that the reason of their visit is to open the new IIM at Vizag, it did lead to some thought provoking conversation with the HRD Minister. Quite an eventful flight to begin the wedding celebrations.

    The traditional band-baaaja welcome at home and running the last minute errands amidst a whole lot of guests made the celebrations even grander. No wonder time just flew.

    Sunday, 25th January 2015, I got domesticated. I got married to Ankana Priyam.

    Post the wedding, after a couple of days at home (Vizag and the Pune), we flew away on our beachside honeymoon trip to Maldives. The short trip to the pristine beaches made us realize once again the hidden beauty in the amazing planet that we live in.

    Post the romantic getaway, we paid our respects and seeked blessing from the lord of the seven Hills, at Tirumala.

    Three weeks done. We are back to Gurgaon, back to normal life.

    …contd.

  • Stuck at at the Airport

    Sitting at the airport lounge, and typing fastidiously over endless cups of coffee has now become a norm. With all the travel, airports sure have become a second home, and airport lounges, an extra room to my own 1 bhk in Mumbai.

    No kidding, but I actually used to love the feeling of being at an airport. I have always liked it. Guess it stemmed from my love for traveling. The airport gave me the peace of mind and the relaxation hours that was otherwise tough to find. Airports (and of course airplanes) were the perfect venues to catch up with reading. Airports were always fun.

    The above still holds true and I still completely enjoy the experience of flying, unless of course it is on a Saturday night!

    The agony amplifies with the fact that there is a party on in the metropolis and I am getting late, really late to get there before it is all out and dry! I was anyways getting late to the party, and now with the delay I hopefully would not be disturbing puking slumber!

    To add to the fire is the fact that I was not available in the metropolis last weekend too due to work commitments. This weekend too, one day is spent working and the Saturday night is spent typing away at the airport.

    The final straw to the fury – the flight gets delayed by a full one and a half hours and counting. So the initially scheduled time of departure of 9:55PM now stands at 11:30 PM, and the crew thinks she is being sweet by saying, “this is the time of departure is as of now”.

    So now I have an additional 95 minutes to kill to the previous 115 minutes( i had come to the airport at 8PM itself for a 9:55PM flight!) and 210 minutes are long even by Hindi movie length standards. At this time I was had made up my mind of leasing a private jet about which I read on this website, but as the ticket was in my hand and I had given my bags as check-in, I could not do much.

    Technical snag they say, Jet Airways, why don’t you just discard the plane, or maybe have a standby plane for such exigencies. Maybe you can charge a 100 buck more on each of your tickets to pay for the standby aircrafts. 100 more bucks to the already expensive flight ticket would not pinch greatly.

    Oh! Jet Airways is busy sleeping around with Etihad and such “small” difficulties to a “domestic” passenger would not really matter to Mr. Goyal anymore.

    So what exactly can one do in such situations, other than staring at fellow passengers that is. I can maybe :

    • Browse through the bookstore and make mental and maybe digital note of all the books you want to read. (You can of course later check up the prices online and then consider buying them!)
    • While you are at the bookstore, you can actually read up all the interesting articles from The Economist. This is if standing and reading is your thing.

    Well, you cannot do the above two if you are the Ahmedabad Airport, as the book store owner rates his sleep at a higher priority than catering to stranded passengers like you. The bookstore is shut!

    • You can sit at the free access lounge and keep ordering food.

    This option again cannot be exercised at the Ahmedabad airport, as some smart architect thought having the lounge before the check in area made more sense than having it after the security check in.

    • Convince those noisy over fed rich Gujju kids for a flash mob. Not really recommended again at the Ahmedabad airport.
    •  Keep munching all that you can eat at the airport. Well, would not take long if you are the Ahmedabad airport departures. How much could one possible take to taste from Subway, HavMor icecreams and 2 tea shops?
    • Do something that you have wanting to be doing for long, but have not been getting the time for – BLOG!!!

    You know which option i chose!

  • Insomnia? Restlesness? Anxiety?

    Insomniac? Or skeptical? or Anxious?

    Its been like that every time I have an early morning flight to catch. Right from 9pm, I keep telling myself that I should sleep, but to no avail. I should pack, I say to myself. The body just does not listen to me. Procrastination!!

    So, yesterday night was no different in any respect. I had returned from office at 6:30 itself( quite early by my standards), and freshened up. I even had my dinner early (10 pm)’ and thought yes, today would be different. I have a 6:20 am flight to Delhi tomorrow morning, and I can comfortably sleep for a good 6 hours, without spoiling my normal biological clock.

    Just that there was a little problem. I need to shave. I have a meeting with a very senior person tomorrow, and would be meeting many other people too, and I cannot be looking shabby! Chuck it! Shall do it tomorrow morning!I This sleep, which remains elusive on such nights, is tough to get back. So I slept. Slept at 10:30 pm itself. Great!

    I got a call at 11pm, and I tried hard not to allow it to disturb my slumber. I just answered back that I am sleeping, and would talk later, and the person understood. I was back to sleeping at 11:05 pm.

    11:30 pm in the clock on the blackberry. I am sleeping. Good I think within. But wait, if I am sleeping, why am I looking at the time? That is okay. It is within sleep that I am looking at the clock. Happens. I have finally overcome the anxiety and sleeplessness!

    12:09 am, and I am awake looking at the clock, and my fingers tempting to check the mail. No, I am not sleeping, and no matter how hard i try anymore, I just cannot keep lying. It is futile!

    12:26 am. I finally give up, and getup from the bed back to my arm chair in the hall. This is just not working, and he I am, in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. Knowing very well that I have to wake up at 4 am, and should catch up some sleep. Elusive dream. Alas!

    Here I am, typing this piece on my return flight from Delhi, on my iPad. Yes, it is fun to be typing on this. Steve jobs. Hail! This is a real masterpiece. The more I use it, the more I like it. I have become an Apple fan boy, and am eagerly looking forward to buy an iPod, iPhone( I don’t know why?) and the jesus book – yes, the retina display Mac book! Here I come, to give away my technical self to Apple.

    And yeah, by the way, I did not sleep at all last night. Just could not, I’m seriously thinking of giving the best cbd oil a try, I read at Dmagazine.com it has helped a lot of people treat the causes of sleeplessness. I know that research on CBD products is still in its infancy but some research suggests that CBD can also treat anxiety.