Art and Travel

If I think that a visa for India was problematic, then I had not yet tried to get a plane ticket. After much research, I had decided that my best trip would be from Bangkok followed by an AirIndia flight to Mumbai via Dehli, and a connecting Indian Air (the same company as of a few months ago) to Cochin. The flight would depart Bangkok at 2:20 am, arrive about 8 am in Mumbai and then an 11am flight to Cochin getting me in at about 1pm. First of all, I could not purchase this ticket online because the second leg of the trip did not have an e-ticket. No travel agency in Hanoi could issue one. I had an agent at Air France willing to do it but then her supervisor said no. And a Vietnam Airlines agent put the tickets on hold but were then cancelled a few days later because they did not want to hold them that long. After trying a half a dozen travel agents, I gave up and decided to wait until I got to Bangkok. After checking into my hotel near Kao San Rd., I went to Air India. They told me they could not issue the ticket for Indian Air. And that I had to purchase the tickets separately. She called Indian Air and they said they would issue me both tickets. So, I went there and it was looking pretty bleak for a half an hour or so. It looked like I was going to have to do just that and go back to Air India after all. But then a nice young woman had pity on me and got me the ticket. The ticket however had a yellow sticky on it with one of the flights written in. I think what she did was to double book the flight to Cochin.

At 9pm, on September 30th, I went to the Bangkok airport. After waiting about half an hour for check-in to open, I was told that the flight was delayed 8 hours! But they put us up in the Novetel Hotel. It was very nice. So, I was tickled. Had Buffet dinner and breakfast the next day. At the airport, the agents tried to get me a new connecting flight and put me on a 1am flight to Cochin, arriving at 3am. I told them I couldn't arrive at 3 am. What was I going to do? They agreed and said that they would get me a hotel in Mumbai, but I would have to change my ticket there because they didn't have access to the flights. So, off I went to Mumbai. The plane was the extremely dirty. The toilets smelled so bad that I had to change seats and I was 6 rows away. Awful and that was AFTER they were cleaned. I arrived in Mumbai at around 6pm. Then I shuttled back and forth trying to locate someone who could help me but Air India kept sending me to Indian Air and vice versa. I kept trying to explain to them that I missed my flight because of them and I was told in Bangkok they would put me up in a hotel. They kept making me go find another person until finally one guy said he would help me but first I needed to get Indian Air to give me a different flight. So, I did. Easy. So I went all the way back to that guy and now all of a sudden he coldly says he can't do anything. So, I started to ask him what I was suppose to do until the 11am flight or conversely if I took their 1am flight, what would I do in Cochin until 3 am. He kept repeating he couldn't help me. So, I start yell. What am I suppose to do? This is how you treat your customers. I have no idea what that asshole told me to go and get a new ticket to begin with. I think he thought they wouldn't do it. So, I walked away, having no idea what I was going to do. I had 2 tickets, one that left at 1 am and arrived in cochin at 3am, and one that didn't depart until 11am the next day. As I reached the door, I heard someone calling me back. I went and this manager guy said he would try to help me. So, he talked to someone, and then a woman came out and then she said she tried to help me. But no one would help me. So, she finally said what was I going to do. And I said I would wait get a hotel and leave in the morning. I asked if she could help me get a room. She said she would and then she came back and said they were booked. Maybe there was a bunch of delayed flights? So, I let her convince me to take the 1am flight, and she would give me a voucher for food. So, I checked my luggage, and we traipsed through this grubby crappy airport again. She handed me a handwritten note saying "one free meal". And I was to find a place called celebrations, meanwhile we passed the admirals club, or whatever it was called, but that was not the pass they gave me. She left me to find celebrations on my own. I did find it quickly. It was a counter with tea and crappy sandwiches. I couldn't believe I had been so gullible. And now my luggage was checked, and I had no option but to stick to the course. So, at 1:30am I boarded the plane to Cochin. At 3 am, I arrived. I was in no hurry because where was I to go at that hour. So, I got my stuff, and went and sat, and sat, and froze because the aircon was very cold. I waited until 7am, and then took a taxi into town. That totally sucked and I will never take Air India again.