Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Bangalore to Denver

Place: Chicago O'Hare airport
Time: 6:40 pm
Mood: Too tired to be angry even.
Reason: I have been out of my home for more than 24 hours now, doing nothing but sitting on cramped seats at airport and more cramped seats inside the flights and I am yet to reach my destination. My checked-in baggage is apparently missing and I'll know the fate of it when I file a complain at my final destination Denver. If I am lucky, I'd get it at Denver either tonight or tomorrow.

I wonder what is it that makes these airlines careless about baggage. Why don't they realize that it could cause great inconvenience to the passenger if the baggage goes missing, esp. given that they could have most of their essentials for living on it. The attitude of the American Airline guy asking me to file the claim at Denver was appaling. Well, I wouldn't blame him either, he just seems to be a small part of a huge inefficient system. What else could he do when a bunch of folks throng him complaining of missing baggage. Now, I feel thankful for my dad's advice to keep a pair of clothes and the cash in the hand-baggage than the check-in bag.

Okay, cribs aside... I am traveling on business to Denver for 3 weeks. Hoping to get in, finish the job and get out. I sound like a contract killer now ;-) The 'job' I refer to, is the same old software business. Knowledge transfer and infrastructure consolidation on a newly acquired business of Versata. ( Wow, I seem to be getting better at using these multi-syllable terms ). From inside the airport, Chicago seems to be a reasonably old city. The weather seemed to be more like Bangalore. My first transit was at London. Man, one cannot just beat the weather of London. I could feel the pleasantness even during the short transit between the terminals. Londoners might disagree with this, but, for a person having spent most of my life in a hot place such as Chennai, and the summers becoming unbearable at even the supposedly better place Bangalore.

PS: Update on the baggage: The lady at the AA baggage claim desk at Denver was sweet and courteous. I felt better after talking to her and she gave me a toothpaste kit as well. The bag arrived the next day.

2 Comments:

Blogger Mithun Sridharan said...

Hi there,
Trust me, your experiences are lot better than mine at Dubai. I had to wait for over 13 hours at teh airport. Did shopping, more shopping, more and more shopping till my wallet allowed and spent an entire day( yes, it was a bright, hot and sunny day), sleeping at the airport with thousands of other passengers. Well, its an experience too. Had no energy left in me to think about my luggage :)

Sun Jun 01, 01:18:00 PM 2008  
Blogger Aravindh said...

good u got your bag atlast... athellam irukattum... antha denver ladyku enna vayasu.... enakennavo ethachum oru ladykitta kadalai podarathukunay nee bag tholacha maari iruku... paathukappu ;)

Mon Jul 14, 10:41:00 PM 2008  

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