April 22, 2010 I had a flight from Delhi to Chicago via London. Eagerly waiting for the day to fly. Busy in last minute shopping, not knowing something has erupted in another corner of the world , that has put millions of passengers struck away from their home.
Generally we hear about stars millions of miles away controlling our destiny. I didn't know that even something else could also control, not only mine but lot of other people's destiny. Though they might have sufficient money back at their home but at this time, they are just struck without money, phone and few even without food.
Culprit : "Eyjafjallajokull" - Volcano in Iceland. (I don't even know how to pronounce).
Anyways, as I said, I was not even aware of this event, I went to the Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport. Like many other passengers I was asked to wait for next announcement. In next 15mins, they started calling passengers one by one. Lady at the counter asked me, if I am resident of the Delhi. I said "No". Though I said No , she asked me if I have any relatives in Delhi and can arrange m
My travel agent tried to book different flights but all in vain. For more than 7 days, most of the flights destined to Europe or via Europe got canceled.
Finally, few of the Air India flights started flying through Cairo and Egypt. I booked Air India flight from Delhi. As usual Air India at its best , never informed customers about the cancellation of flight. Came to know that Air India flights from Bombay are flying via Cairo. They mentioned that Cairo they have only technical halt. I was happy to get a ticket in that flight.
Flight was late by 1 hour 30 mins. It reached Cairo on time. Supposed to be only technical halt for less than an hour, for fuel refilling and staff change.
It took more than 7 hours to change the staff. No passenger was supposed to get down the plane due to legal agreement.
I was fortunate to travel in business class, but passengers in economy class sitting in their chairs for long, not allowed to walk till the exit door as well.
Again, Air India service had improved, earlier to match their reputation, most of the times, they never answered phones (if they did, you will not get the answer you are looking for). Don't get me wrong, this time they were not even telling how much time it will take to re fill the fuel or when the flight will take off. Every time, any passenger asked, only one answer, they don't know.
Might be Cairo was not ready to handle lot of flights. They just tried to help.
Another thing I learnt that day was, bureaucracy is not only in India, some other countries are worse. Later I learnt, that Air India staff was waiting for more than 4 hours to get the clearing and get on board.
Finally after 7 hours flight took off. We were supposed to reach Chicago by 11 AM but could reach only by 6 PM and by the time , we came out of airport after all immigration clearance, it was already 7:30 PM.
