Now, normally I wouldn’t have written about the flight but this was a classic Air India comedy of errors. Having previously had a Christmas day disaster with Air India (ok maybe not disaster but 8 hours spent wandering around Delhi airport due to a missed connection) I was half expecting something to happen again and Air India did not disappoint.
Note: Emma and I arrived at the airport together but are going to different parts of India for the first month and so sadly we said goodbye to each other at Terminal 5 as we went on to catch different flights.
The issues had begun before I had even boarded. My name was called at the gate to come see a member of staff. and I went. I had booked an exit seat to give my legs some more space so they just needed to size me up to see whether I was physically able. All was good. I then joined the back of a hugely disorganised boarding queue (it was classic Indian style, there were 30 backs to the queue but I was at the English back, 'the back back'). I had made some progress but then my name was called again amongst some others. I left the queue and joined another one where everyone was getting business class upgrade and I was starting to get excited. Unfortunately when my turn came.. “All good sir, please join the end of the queue”. I joined the end again which was now even longer. Same thing happened. More upgrades and me being told to join the back. And once more. I was one of the last to board.
I took my seat close to the divide in the plane where the flight attendants are mainly based and prepare meals etc. As soon as the plane took off a couple of things happened. Firstly there was water leaking from the ceiling, it was raining and mainly on my head. I looked around and no one seemed bothered. Secondly, with the plane tilted the serving trays started wheeling all over the place. One of the attendants attempted to address the situation but was whacked in the foot by one of them. She continued her duties bandaged up and with a serious limp. Fast forward a few hours later and there were now 2 limpers and another I saw serving drinks with 1 shoe.
When I arrived at Delhi Airport for my connection to Kochi, I had to go through immigration, collect my baggage and go back through security. Final call was announced when I just got to security. Of course this was the one time they made me go back 3 times and on the 3rd attempt I had begun was sweating like crazy. Probably looked dodgy as hell. They tried to speak to me but started laughing when they realised I was an Indian who couldn’t speak Hindi which left me pretty embarrassed. In the end I think they felt sorry for me and just waved me on where thankfully I made my flight but wasn’t even close to being last to board.
Hot Tip from a staff member: Air India will always wait for any connecting people as a policy.
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