It took 27 years 3 Months 23 days for me to gather a chance to travel by Air since my birth.. Well.. Its better late than never.. My Destination was San Jose, US.
I had been to Chennai airport few times before to send off my friends. This time for a change, I went inside the Airport to board a plane..
I went to Thai Airways counter and placed the baggages I had in the tray adjacent to them. It has a facility to check the weight. I did not know that I should retain the hand laggage with me.. The lady sitting there did not bother to ask me either. She made both the baggages as Check-in baggages..
They gave me few papers and asked me to proceed towards immigration. I was thinking that the baggages would be given to me back once the formalities are over. I felt something was wrong as I found people standing in the queue for Immigration check having their hand baggage with them.. I went back to the counter and enquired again..
The lady there gave me a weird look as if she is going to dust me off.. :-( It was such a horrible moment.. Well.. its a lesson.. Some price I need to pay for making assumptions.. Luckily I got the hand baggage back before it was sent out for actual check-in in to the plane..
When I went to immigration check counter, I realised the form given to me earlier.. I was supposed to fill that form before I reach there. Thankfully the Officer was cool. God !.. I tried to stay calm and succeeded finally..
The first catch was at the security check.. I was carrying my collegue's laptop battery.. They asked me to open the bag after they found "something" with the scan process. It all started there.
And the flight was delayed by 30 minutes.. I visited the book shop there at the Airport and bought a book on Emotional Intelligence, something I very much needed then. :-)
Finally the moment came for me to board the flight.. In my childhood days, I had been to airport few times and those memories suggest that people climb a ladder normally to enter in to the plane.. I was expecting something similar.. Much to my suprise, the entrance was completely elevated to the floor level and it was just like walking thru a lane.. No climbing business.. I managed to find my seat and put my seat belt on.
Reached Bangkok in 3.5 hrs time.. The Bangkok airport is beautiful.. esp. the Arch. design was too good.. There I had to take United Airlines as connecting flight..
In the security check, I lost my Axe Deodarant, Tooth paste and pickles as they were in gel/liquid form and exceeded 100g limits..
I made the mistake by keeping these items in hand (cabin) baggage rather than keeping them in my check-in baggage.. Sadly I did not get any prior notification on this from our Admin folks.. Hmm.. another lesson !!!.
At each transit airport - Tokyo Narita, Los Angeles - I had to open my hand laggage at every security check as I had some gel / liquid items there.. Damn the scanners they have !!!
At LA, I was made to rush.. since it was the port of entry, I had to go for immigration check where they do I-94 formalities and stamp the time one is permitted to stay in the respective VISA with which he/she travels.. It was a long queue.. it was followed by Custom's check.. I got my checkin baggage and did a re-checkin afer Custom's was over.. Custom's Check was a simple walk over and more of a formality. I just walked thru. By then, I had hardly 15 mins left for the connecting flight to San Francisco (SFO).. I realised I need to walk for another 200 m to move to respective terminal.. Once again a security check.. Here, much to my agony they asked me to remove the shoe, belt, wallet - everything except the shirt and pant you wear.. Just one minute was left when I entered the flight to SFO... I was the last passenger.
LA - SFO, I got a window seat... In broad day light, I got to watch the sea over which I was flying.. the clouds and the landscapes, such a wondeful sight it was..
In 45 mins, I reached SFO and found that the checkin baggage was coming only in the next flight.. waited at SFO for more than an hour and collected the baggage. Took a Door-to-Door shuttle to reach my Hotel at Milpitas - CA.. they charged $55 for the same.. Never mind.. My travel was finally over and got in to the Hotel room only to go flat on the bed in few minutes..
Thats pretty much and END of the story.
:-).
PS : Do feel free to add your comments and share your experiences if any.
4 comments:
That was quite an experience wasnt it? When i first travelled to Malaysia(whichw as my first ever air travel), I thoguht if you had only hand baggage and no check in baggage you neednt get your tickets at all in the check in counter. You can walk in straight to immigration. I could only imagine how my face would have looked like when they told me that i would have to go and get my boarding pass irrespective of hand baggage.
Hi S !.. Thanks for your comments here.. Our habit of making assumptions leaves us stumped at crucial times. :-)
This air travel regulations and rules keep on changing. Thanks to the terrorist attacks. The 100ml limit was just a recent one. You Office Admin suppose to brief you on this. But i believe, then themselve are not experience or aware of it.
I had a good experience during my last trip from LA to SFO. During the scan i forgot to remove the keys! coins! belt...So i was going for the 3rd or 4th scan. This seems to have alered another big guy who took me away and search me top to bottom. Finally he was satisfied that i wasn't carrying any needle!. During the process i forgot my BELT! :).
Then i went inside and was waiting fo the flight along with my Japanese boss. Just before boarding, i wanted to go for toilet. Hoorah..i found my belt missing!!! Then ran back and got the belt. The person asked me to identify the belt. I said the color and description. She asked me. " Is it Calvin Klein" ...wow...
i forget that it a counter fiet Calvin Klein bought in the Coimbatore Bazaar ..:).
Riyas, Thanks for sharing your experiences here..
"Is it Calvin Klein" - By then, I guess the manufacturer of your belt had won the game.
:-)
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