Baggage Claim

The next flight with few vacant seats was on Sunday evening where we all were supposed to be re-booked. Or at least this is what we were told by a customer service clerk. Apart from not reaching their destination on time the passengers were also worried if they will get a hotel room to sleep. Getting a hotel room when your flight is cancelled is the second most unbearable things of flying on international route. First is the flight cancellation itself. I overheard that to get a hotel room we have to queue up again at some other corner of the airport. When my turn arrived there were still few seats in the Sunday evening flight to Pittsburgh. I grabbed one of them without any second thoughts.

America has a great cultural diversity that confronted me as I entered the airport after disembarking from my flight from Amsterdam. I saw African American immigration staff, Indian Airport Support Staff, Mexican Baggage handlers and Chinese something. And some European Americans to make the american diversity complete. Understanding the diverse American English accents was as hard as getting my checked in luggage for my night stay somewhere. I waited for almost an hours for my baggage to appear in the conveyor belt after filling up a form for my baggage retrieval. It did not arrive. It was 9 in the evening at Newark. My body was almost feeling like having had a sleepless night. I made an attempt to enquire about my baggage at the baggage claim counter. The answer shattered my remaining faith in customer service in America, which many people talk about here in Europe. My baggage claim was buried under a stack of similar forms and nobody had come to pick them up. Nobody knew when my form will be picked up.

I was luckier than the most of my fellow passengers that I had a friend living in proximity of the airport. He was just aware of my miseries at the airport. He was just a phone call away to take me to his house and then comfortably put me back at the airport for Sunday evening flight. In his car, driving to his home, I felt privileged that I know someone who can offer me shelter some 3000 miles away from my home in Holland while my fellow American passenger would be sleeping at the airport. His sweet two year old daughter reminded me of her similarities with Anika of two years ago.

Continental Passenger Support Desk

All my co passengers traveling to Pittsburgh moved to the airlines help desk like a herd where a very long queue was expecting us. After sometimes airlines people asked people in back of the queue to go main departure hall for faster services which we later found out was slower than at the airlines help desk. I was traveling by Continental via Newark which is the home base of Continental airlines but it seems the passenger service is the neglected aspect of whole experience with Continental airlines. It was Saturday 8 in the evening. When I heard about the prevailing bad weather conditions on east coast, I got worried if I will be able to make it on Monday morning at 8 o’clock.  I heard some sympathetic voices from the public. An elderly couple among us was supposed to attend the Sunday mass in Pittsburgh and a family with a year old baby and around seven year old boy coming back home from Ireland. Suddenly my suffering seemed nothing in front of other passengers. I felt guilty being ahead of them in the queue by taking benefit of my better mobility because of traveling alone.

 

Tbc…

Journey to Pittsburgh

The pronunciation of New York en Newark is little confusing for a US newcomer. It is even more confusing to learn that both cities have a train station called Penn Station just fifteen minutes apart on the same line. So there was no wonder that I got the ticket to Penn Station which was not supposed to be my destination.

 

Just a few days ago at the US immigration, infamous finger printing procedure passed smoothly. You first put your right index finger on a glass followed by the left index finger and then you look into a webcam like camera. If everything is ok you are welcome in the US. Just after clearing the customs, I was supposed to board the flight to Pittsburgh. The Newark airport is being renovated at least at some places. The chaos at the airport seemed familiar to me as I have passed thru this airport before in 1999. After queuing up for about half an hour, two rather confused looking baggage handlers took my baggage for the connecting flight. The wait for half an hour in the queue seemed like ages as my connecting flight was to depart within next 45 minutes. The next task was to reach at the gate finding my way thru the maze of signboards, security check and queues of people for my connecting flight. TSA staff performs security checks in a ruthless manner which is unseen in Europe so far. I unpacked my laptop and took off my shoes and managed a short and timely security check to be on time to my flight to Pittsburgh.

 

I learnt at the gate that the flight to Pittsburgh has been rescheduled due to bad weather. I had about two hours to spend at the airport. In the big airport in the US,  it is never boring to spend few hours while you wait for your flight. It is, however, another matter when you learn that your flight will not depart at all after waiting for few hours. This is exactly what happened at Newark Liberty International Airport when my co-passengers learnt about the cancellation of Newark- Pittsburgh flight by sudden disappearance of Pittsburgh flight information from the monitors.

 

Tbc…

 

According to Hindu scriptures the world goes through cyclical stages. But only those survive who have the intelligence to fathom the present and read the future. While Indians paid a huge price for not doing either in the medieval times and later, allowing foreigners to rule the country, yet the pain of poverty has made the people the smartest on Earth. They have shown over the last fifty years or so that they have the ability to do both and prosper.

 

From Indian Express