India Trip 2010 - Part 1

India trip was sort of decided on last minute and certainly we did shopping till last minute...I mean literally we were shopping until the day before the flight.  Just little background on the trip.  We decided to go to India from Nov. 11th to Dec. 4th for my cousin's wedding.  Since the ticket was decided on the last moment, there weren't that many choices of airlines since the tickets were kind of expensive.  One option that came up was flying with United Airlines/Qatar Airways.  My first answer to this option was NO....because 1) the flight was going straight to Ahmedabad and not via Mumbai, and 2) we had no idea how the airline was.  Not knowing how the airline is, how the travel might be, we didn't really have an option and went ahead and booked the tickets.  The journey goes something like this:
Denver - Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Dulles(IAD) - Doha (straight 12 hours flight)
Doha - Ahmedabad

If you read my last India Trip travel posts, I am sure you will recall that I swore not to travel through Washington Dulles airport again, but this time I had no choice since we didn't have many options with the airlines.  Also my opinion has changed a little bit since Dulles airport seems to have re-modeled to make it bigger and better.  I will explain that when I get to my return flight experience.

I will give details on the airline and the airport experiences because I know I always look for these info before traveling with a new airline :), so I hope this info helps out someone else.

On Nov. 11th, excited like never before, we got ready and left home around 9 am for a 12:45 pm flight.  Got to the DIA around 9:45 am to find no rush or no crowd whatsoever, even our turn came pretty fast while standing in line.  Since 3 of us were going, it was kind of difficult to get 6 big bags, 2 carry-ons, 1 purse, 1 handbag (not purse), and 1 laptop bag all the way to the agent when our turn came.  Luckily, one of the United agents saw us pushing the bags and suggested that we just leave the bags near the end of the counter and then when our turn comes, we can just drag them...but the dragging was kind of difficult too.  The funny thing was that I was pushing the bags mostly, my dad was standing where all the bags were and my mom was in the line, one of the agent asks..."How many of you are going?"...haha...he must have thought I am travelling with all the bags :P.  We quickly got our bags tagged and got our boarding passes to Washington Dulles.

Note: Even though Qatar and United are partnered together, you will not get Qatar boarding passes from United airlines even though the customer service agents (when you call them) tell you that you will get them in Denver.  Well there is no need to worry, because you can get your onward boarding passes for Qatar from the gate itself.

Moving on, we got done pretty quickly with giving our baggage to the agent in like 15 minutes.  Next, we had assigned a wheelchair for my dad and so we had to go to the wheelchair section to get his assigned wheelchair.  We waited for like 15 minutes before the wheelchair person arrives.  One good thing about this was that we didn't have to wait in security line at all, we got to skip the line and go straight to the agent to get to the screening.  But as I said, there was no rush that day at all that even if we had to wait in line, I bet we would have been cleared in 10-15 minutes.  Now DIA already has the full body scanning machines, but I think they only make some people go through that machine and not everyone because we didn't have to go through those.  We just went through the normal screening system and got done very quickly and then off to the gate.  I think by the time we got to the gate, it must be 10:45 am or 11 am.  After that, I had all the time to relax & eat & watch all the wonderful planes come and go :).

United Airlines:
Our first leg of the journey was with United airlines from Denver to IAD which was about 3-4 hours flight.  We started boarding around 12:15 pm and the plane started taking off sharp at 12:44 pm.  And after that I don't remember much since I fell asleep right away.  I might have woken up for a glass of orange juice in between but then went back to sleep :P.  No matter how uncomfortable the seats are, no matter how little space there is, but when you are sleepy, you don't really care and even though your head hurts, you just keep on sleeping...Haha.

Washington Dulles International Airport:
We reached Washington Dulles International airport on time around 5:55 pm.  My dad's wheelchair was already waiting outside and then we headed to look for the Qatar airways gate.  We got off at one of the C gates and I knew Qatar was not on either C or D gates, so the first monitor I encountered I checked the Qatar flight gate which showed to be at one of the A gates.  See, the way Dulles airport has their gates is that C and D is in one terminal and A and B are in another terminal but to get from either A/B to C/D, you have to take the aerotrain.  Well, we headed for the aerotrain.  I am glad that we got wheelchair for my dad because there is a lot of walking even before we get to the aerotrain.  The train comes like every 1-2 minutes, so don't worry if you miss one.  It stops at A, B, C, D, and Z gates.  We got off near A gates and when we get to the gate, guess what?  There is no one there!  There is no agent, no monitors showing the flight info, nothing!  Well, the wheelchair person was nice and suggested we look at the monitors located in A gates since he knew that the Qatar airways have been changing their gates between A and B concourses and confirm the gate number.  Good thinking....well it turns out that the Qatar flight is taking off from one of the B gates.  Ha!  Luckily, we didn't have to change terminals since A and B are on the same terminal.  Now comparing the terminals, I think A and B terminal is very nice, big, spacious, and clean whereas C and D terminal seems very small and always crowded.  Even with my dad's wheelchair, it must have taken us anywhere between 25-30 minutes to get to the Qatar airways gate.

Thankfully, there was an agent present and the monitors were showing the right flight info :).  Within few minutes, agent opened up the booths and we got in the line to get our onward journey boarding passes from IAD-Doha and Doha-Ahmedabad.  Then, again, all the time was there for us to just relax before the boarding.

To make sure I don't make the posts lengthy, I will write the experiences in separate parts.  So stay tuned for the second leg of the journey experience with Qatar airways and the rest of the experience at the Ahmedabad's new international airport.

Tata :)