India Return Trip 2010 - Part 1

Although we were in India for 3 weeks, it feels like those 3 weeks just passed by in a blink of an eye.  It's very short time especially when you go for someone's wedding because most of your time is involved in the wedding which doesn't give you enough time to explore other places.  But I have no complains....the wedding was fabulous and loved and enjoyed every moment of it.  Now about the returning journey which was just as interesting as the arriving journey, maybe little less hassle or not.

We had a flight back to US from Ahmedabad on Dec. 4th early morning around 5:20 am.  We all got to the airport around 1:30 am with my relatives.  Apparently, in the international airport, once you go in with your bags and once you get your boarding passes, you can not come back outside to meet your family and friends.  So just hang out outside with your family until you are ready to go in.  We said our goodbyes and started to go in around 2 am.  Before you stand in the line for Qatar airways, or any other airlines, you need to get your bags screened at the airport where they tie a tag/string in the middle of each of your bags that you are going to check in.  I think we arrived at the airport at the right time because it got really crowded just after we finished screening our bags.  We got in the line to check-in, gave our bags, and got the boarding passes for all the way to the final destination.  I don't understand one thing.  If Qatar airways is able to give us boarding passes for United airlines flight, then why wasn't United Airlines able to give us boarding passes for Qatar Airways flights?  Anyways, the process was pretty quick.  The agent requested that we put one or two of our hand baggage also in the checked baggage at no cost which we will get directly in US with our other checked baggage because they did not have enough room in the plane.  Now, I didn't tell you guys, but when we were coming from Doha to Ahmedabad, the agent said the same thing on the bus and they didn't even give us an option but just took our hand baggage to give it to us directly at Ahmedabad airport.  When we boarded the airplane, it turns out there is plenty of room for hand luggage to fit.  So this time when the agent asked us to volunteer and put 1-2 hand bags in the checked baggage, I just gave them 1 bag since I knew there was going to be space on the plane and I was right.  There was plenty of room.

We got a wheelchair for my dad and headed to the security screening.  Surprisingly, the person assisting my dad's wheelchair was the same guy who asked my dad $50 to get through custom clearance when we landed in Ahmedabad.  But he didn't demand anything this time.  He took us to the 2nd floor for Qatar Airways gate area.  The airport is pretty big, really nice, and decent.  But one thing that is lacking big time is the notification aspect of the airport.  The airport has big monitor screens where they list the upcoming 3 or 4 flights with their departure time, but no gate information, no info on whether the flight is on time, or delayed, and the agents won't have an idea either.  Just an hour before our flight, couple of ground staff workers came and got the wheelchair people to take to another gate.  Apparently, the gate must have changed for the Qatar airways, but there was no way for the travelers to know about it.  They told me and my mom to stay behind and come with the rest of the people since they were just taking the wheelchair people.  After a while, all the ground staff comes back to get the rest of the Qatar airways flight travelers by shouting "Qatar", "Qatar Airways"..., so people for Qatar airways flight can follow them to the new gate.  It was just going down the stairs to 1st level and wait for the bus to transport us to the plane.  As far as I can remember, we fell asleep as soon as we got in our seats.  We woke up when the food came but I was so tired that I didn't really care for the food.  This time, the food was OK, nothing special and not even that tasty.  I also noticed that they were playing Anjaana Anjaani but wasn't interested in seeing that movie either.  Our flight left Ahmedabad on time and we reached Doha around 6:15 am.

Doha Airport:
We were still really tired but had to catch the next flight to Washington Dulles at 8:05 am.  As we reached Doha, the wheelchair people had to wait until everyone got off.  It turns out that within the 3 weeks we were in India, they must have made a new rule that only 1 person can accompany the wheelchair person.  Well, they didn't announce this at the beginning and now when my mom and I were going with my dad, they said "Sorry, only one person can go with him!  The other person need to go with the rest of the people".  The bus that transports people from plane to the terminal had already left and they wanted 3 or 4 people to wait until the bus came back.  I was little mad and demanded that I will only go with my dad since they didn't announce this at the beginning.  Along with me, 2 other families were mad since they told us this on last moment.  They didn't have a choice but to take us with the wheelchair people.  Unlike last time, this time it took us about 10 minutes to be transported to the main terminal from where we had landed.  We got to the main terminal and to the wheelchair waiting area.  The airport was pretty crowded for the morning flights and there was quite long line for the security screening as well.  I had the same problem with another agent who insisted that only 1 person accompany my dad and the other person should go through the regular security screening.  I left my mom with my dad and went in the main security line.  I knew he would be transported faster this time since our flight was in an hour and luckily I was through the security screening within 15 minutes I think.  Again, I didn't have to take off my shoes or jacket to go through the screen so that was faster.  Soon my parents came through the security screening and the man assisting my dad's wheelchair took us to our next flight gate on 2nd floor.

It turns out that for all US flights, there is a secondary security screening before you can get transported to the plane.  This time due to wheelchair, we got to cut the line and go straight to security screening otherwise it would have taken us another 15-20 minutes because it was pretty crowded.  During this screening, we had to take off our shoes and jackets and put them through the screening.  Once you get your belongings, you get transported back to the 1st floor to get on the bus which takes you to the plane.  Since our flight was just in 1.5 hours, we didn't really have any time in-between to relax and look around.  We mainly just got transported from one plane to another.

From Doha to Washington Dulles International Airport:
We got situated in our small seats on Qatar flight for another 13 hours of journey.  This time, we were lucky with the neighbors where they were not loud at all.  For entertainment, they had couple of different movies from the previous list on Bollywood movie list.  I watched the movie "Dabangg" but honestly, I think I kept falling asleep in between so I don't really remember the story anymore.  Food wise, we got lunch and snacks.  Surprisingly, we got the same lunch that we had on the flight from Ahmedabad to Doha which kind of surprised me.  I ate very little since it wasn't as tasty and who would want to eat the same thing again!!  For the snacks, they gave us veggie sandwiches which were very delicious.  It was more like subway sandwich but with less items.  It contained tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, green peppers, and other things.  They had these sandwiches at every station if anyone wanted more of them.  I think all 3 of us slept a lot on this flight due to lack of sleep from couple of days.  Ohh, on the plane, the staff gave us custom clearance forms for everyone to fill out.  Between sleeping and watching movies, we reached Washington Dulles around 1:40 pm on Dec. 4th.

Not to bore you with all the details in one post, my next post will describe the experience of baggage claim at Washington Dulles, and the last leg of the journey to our home state :).