What was supposed to be a hassle free straight journey turned to out be a nightmare. I had booked tickets well in advance to ensure the shortest and most comfortable route. It was as simple as Charlotte-Philadelphia-Frankfurt-Kolkata. As I set off according to my plans, I came to know at the airport that the Philadelphia flight had been canceled. The US Airways agent tried hard to get me to Philadelphia and all she could manage was to get me into a flight to Washington which was taking off in 10 minutes. I somehow checked in my luggage and got through security check and kept running across the airport right inside the plane and it took off just as I took my seat! The next connecting flight to Philadelphia took just another 45 minutes. And as per my schedule, I was on time for the Frankfurt flight.
Getting one flight canceled in a journey is an unfortunate thing enough to happen. But just imagine your plight when you get to know that after all the running because of the earlier flight getting canceled, the next flight, this time an international one is going to be canceled too. Never thought that these big airlines also had to suffer through the strikes by their employees. But Lufthansa’s reputation of one of the best service providers in the world is going to suffer a serious jolt now after this. The US Airways people at Philadelphia didn’t allow me to board the Frankfurt flight – the reason being given that I didn’t have the German VISA and in case my flight from Frankfurt to Kolkata gets canceled, I could not stay for long in Germany. They said that the best they could offer was to re-route my journey. After a lot of searching, finally they could manage seats for me in the Philadelphia-London US Airways flight and the London-Kolkata British Airways flight.
Everything went off fine hence, except for the fact that when I reached Kolkata, I could not locate my luggage. Although it had been re-routed along with me, perhaps it might have gone somewhere else, Frankfurt probably. Filing a complaint was all I could do then and leave for Kgp. Hadn’t it been for the luggage drama, I would have managed to take Ispat Express to Kgp. But that was not to be. Then I found a new train called Digha Express standing at the platform and the wretched ticket issuing guy told me that it would go via Kgp. So I took the train. But when I crossed Mecheda, I found that we were moving on a rather unfamiliar route. It was then I realised that the train was going to Digha and that was not via Kgp. I jumped down at the next stoppage, a station called Tamluk. From there I walked down the street to the local bus stop. Well, then I was thinking that perhaps it was good that I didn’t have my 50 kgs of luggage with me! I took a bus back to Mecheda station and after waiting there for abot two hours, I finally got a local train to Kgp. When I reacjed Kgp, I was well over 15 hours behind my actual schedule.
P.S. Today, the next day after my arrival, I got a call from British Airways that my baggage has arrived at the Kolkata airport and they are going to deliver it to me in Kgp tomorrow.
