Jul 09, 2007 09:36 PM
5019 Views
I was all packed up and ready to leave. My Qatar Airways flight was scheduled to leave in the evening that day. When I arrived at Nedumabassery airport, Kochi, I was informed that the flight had been delayed indefinitely. The flight people took great pains to keep us as comfortable as possible. Especially since a good many of those flying were on urgent trips, some with tight deadlines on their missions (expiring passports, etc) and who were irate at the delay.
We were put up in a star hotel close to the airport.
But the biggest shock came when we found ourselves boarding the plane, a good 24 hours after the scheduled time.
Technical snags they said. But that was the height of air travel...!
I plugged my earphones into the sound system and pulled a blanket over me as I awaited the touchdown at Qatar- the transit point on my way to Frankfurt.
There was a warm breeze blowing at Doha airport.
I learnt that due to the delay at Kochi I had missed my connection flight to Frankfurt the day before.
I had half the day before I would be catching the next available connection flight to Munich, Germany instead of the destined Frankfurt.
Again all the transit passengers were checked into a hotel in Doha.
At the reception counter, a Filipino receptionist told me that I was entitled to one free overseas call lasting 5 minutes.
Later that evening I was back at Qatar airport and went through the body check again. The security had some trouble locating my passport, which they had confiscated before my wait at the hotel, but matched me to my photo on it after a prolonged search.
Just before I boarded the next flight I had to get my flight tickets verified. I was given papers which said that my destination was now Munich instead of Frankfurt and an additional ticket that allowed me to board a Lufthansa flight, with which Qatar Airlines had some sharing arrangement, from there onto Frankfurt.
The Iraq war was just over and with the 9/11 fright, the airport security and staff were not taking any chances, especially since an American Military base monitoring Iraq still functioned on Qatari soil.
I was flummoxed when one airport authority asked me to expand the initials of the company that I was working for.
I told him I had no idea since it was in German but he seemed unfazed.
I then heard him asking the next person in the queue, who claimed to be Spanish to intone the Spanish alphabets...
Onboard the flight to Munich the atmosphere was more informal in every sense. Liquid food flowed. And the scene was more party-like.
The passengers were mostly young German couples who perhaps had some nice holiday in some exotic foreign place and were homeward bound.
As soon as I disembarked at Munich I had my passport stamped and learnt that I had 15 minutes to catch the domestic Lufthansa connection to Frankfurt.
