Missed the first part... Read it here - PART-ONE
After a long 5 minutes, my phone started ringing.
She - "Mr.Sachin, I am so so sorry, there was a slight confusion over your travel plans"
Me(Feeling my HM trip is over) - "Oh what? How? How could you do that? Whats the issue now? What do I need to do now?"
She - "Actually it seems that your tickets were booked for the date 29th Apr and not today. Wait, let me try to arrange something for your travel. I will call you back in 5 minutes"
Yet another 5 minutes. Every minute passing by was just making things worse. Just could not understand what went wrong. I was wishing if only I could have confirmed with the Agent once in previous week. But then how could you doubt a reputed agency making such a mistake. Just when I was wondering about various things that could have avoided this confusion, a person from that agency came to me and asked "Are you travelling to Singapore? If yes, please follow me." He saw the bag we were carrying which was given by that agency and after seeing us wait from a long time, he probably thought we needed some help. Indeed we needed a lot of help now. I replied back saying "no" and also told him the situation we were in. He dived in to help us out of this situation and asked for my printouts. Just then, my agent called back. Then I told my agent that some person from same agency is trying to help me out here. She warned me to check his ID once and then let her talk to him once.
Then they both talked for around a couple of minutes and then I guess my agent was convinced of that person's identity and she suggested me to follow him. That person promptly went to that control room which we had visited before, talked to that control room person for a while and then something happened. He asked me to follow him again and he led me to that ticket counter. There he talked again to some people and finally led me back to control room. Time was already short. It was already 2-30am now. Then again in control room, he took out his credit card and gave it to the man in the control room. That man swiped it and then took some print out and handed it over to my person. Then that person gave me that printout and said, "Have a safe and happy journey. Enjoy your HM". I just could not believe my ears that I would be hearing that. Seeing my surprised expression, he explained me a bit - "I have booked you new tickets on same flight. Since the time is less, you will have to adjust for whatever seats are available. Also enclosed are your return tickets from Mauritius. You do not have to pay anything extra for this trip. Just go and enjoy your trip now. I have talked to your agent too and she will get in touch with you once you are back in India." I thanked him very much and rushed towards the ticket counter for the third time in last couple of hours and this would probably be the last time before our travel I thought. The lady at ticket counter promptly asked for my passport which I forgot to produce due to the ongoing events. Finally the boarding pass was in my hand and that meant we could now enjoy our trip without any further problems.
Thats just a thought, but then how can you be sure about your return tickets being proper now? No way right?. Well, this thought crossed my mind when we crossed our security checks and proceeded towards the flight to settle down in our seats allotted. Ofcourse we did not get the window seats which we would've wished for, but then after such events had occurred, the window seats did not matter anymore. Then the same thought and fear about the return tickets kept me worried for long time until we landed in Mauritius. One look at that wonderful island and everything about the return tickets was forgotten. For the whole of one week, we enjoyed every bit of that wonderful trip until the time when we landed at the Mauritius airport to return back to India. Now again the dreadful thought of return tickets came to my mind when I was standing in line for collecting my boarding pass. Again several thoughts came to my mind about what are our options here if the return tickets are not valid too. Finally my turn came, looking nervous I produced the print out again to that lady at the counter. She stared at my worried face and then asked for my passport. Yet again, I had to give my passport only after being asked. Finally she gave me the boarding passes and wished me a "Happy journey, Visit again".
I just could not stop smiling back at her and say "Thanks a lot" and happily hopped to my wife and proceeded towards the security check. A wonderful trip which was nearly missed came to an end finally. The guy who helped us at Mumbai Airport was named Abhishek. I would not like to take the name of that reputed agency here anyway.
The moral of the story as I think would be to make sure and keep the bag which your agency gives at the top of your baggage cart, because it was after all the bag which saved us this trip. And in case your agency does not give any bags, then make sure you double confirm the status of your travel tickets before the journey.
After a long 5 minutes, my phone started ringing.
She - "Mr.Sachin, I am so so sorry, there was a slight confusion over your travel plans"
Me(Feeling my HM trip is over) - "Oh what? How? How could you do that? Whats the issue now? What do I need to do now?"
She - "Actually it seems that your tickets were booked for the date 29th Apr and not today. Wait, let me try to arrange something for your travel. I will call you back in 5 minutes"
Yet another 5 minutes. Every minute passing by was just making things worse. Just could not understand what went wrong. I was wishing if only I could have confirmed with the Agent once in previous week. But then how could you doubt a reputed agency making such a mistake. Just when I was wondering about various things that could have avoided this confusion, a person from that agency came to me and asked "Are you travelling to Singapore? If yes, please follow me." He saw the bag we were carrying which was given by that agency and after seeing us wait from a long time, he probably thought we needed some help. Indeed we needed a lot of help now. I replied back saying "no" and also told him the situation we were in. He dived in to help us out of this situation and asked for my printouts. Just then, my agent called back. Then I told my agent that some person from same agency is trying to help me out here. She warned me to check his ID once and then let her talk to him once.
Then they both talked for around a couple of minutes and then I guess my agent was convinced of that person's identity and she suggested me to follow him. That person promptly went to that control room which we had visited before, talked to that control room person for a while and then something happened. He asked me to follow him again and he led me to that ticket counter. There he talked again to some people and finally led me back to control room. Time was already short. It was already 2-30am now. Then again in control room, he took out his credit card and gave it to the man in the control room. That man swiped it and then took some print out and handed it over to my person. Then that person gave me that printout and said, "Have a safe and happy journey. Enjoy your HM". I just could not believe my ears that I would be hearing that. Seeing my surprised expression, he explained me a bit - "I have booked you new tickets on same flight. Since the time is less, you will have to adjust for whatever seats are available. Also enclosed are your return tickets from Mauritius. You do not have to pay anything extra for this trip. Just go and enjoy your trip now. I have talked to your agent too and she will get in touch with you once you are back in India." I thanked him very much and rushed towards the ticket counter for the third time in last couple of hours and this would probably be the last time before our travel I thought. The lady at ticket counter promptly asked for my passport which I forgot to produce due to the ongoing events. Finally the boarding pass was in my hand and that meant we could now enjoy our trip without any further problems.
Thats just a thought, but then how can you be sure about your return tickets being proper now? No way right?. Well, this thought crossed my mind when we crossed our security checks and proceeded towards the flight to settle down in our seats allotted. Ofcourse we did not get the window seats which we would've wished for, but then after such events had occurred, the window seats did not matter anymore. Then the same thought and fear about the return tickets kept me worried for long time until we landed in Mauritius. One look at that wonderful island and everything about the return tickets was forgotten. For the whole of one week, we enjoyed every bit of that wonderful trip until the time when we landed at the Mauritius airport to return back to India. Now again the dreadful thought of return tickets came to my mind when I was standing in line for collecting my boarding pass. Again several thoughts came to my mind about what are our options here if the return tickets are not valid too. Finally my turn came, looking nervous I produced the print out again to that lady at the counter. She stared at my worried face and then asked for my passport. Yet again, I had to give my passport only after being asked. Finally she gave me the boarding passes and wished me a "Happy journey, Visit again".
I just could not stop smiling back at her and say "Thanks a lot" and happily hopped to my wife and proceeded towards the security check. A wonderful trip which was nearly missed came to an end finally. The guy who helped us at Mumbai Airport was named Abhishek. I would not like to take the name of that reputed agency here anyway.
The moral of the story as I think would be to make sure and keep the bag which your agency gives at the top of your baggage cart, because it was after all the bag which saved us this trip. And in case your agency does not give any bags, then make sure you double confirm the status of your travel tickets before the journey.
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4 comments:
how about this scenario.
ur trvl comp gave u a bag, which u proudly hav placed on top of all other bags.
back to ur 5minute scenario:
u r worried, X approaches u and offers help, u dnt chk his ID. he makes u run between the chekin counter and the control room. time is short, he asks u to wait at some place, comes bak with boarding pass, collects ur bags for chekin and informs u to rush to security chek.
at security chek u realize boarding pass is fake, u rush bak to the chekin counter, no bags. all bags gone.
moral of story: dnt use bags given by trvl company, confirm ur itinerary with the agent and airline well couple of days before departure date.
@Milind - In the end, that is true that you cant depend on your bag. In our case, we were lucky enough to get our trip saved by bag. Eventough a reputed agency, dont trust them. Afterall they are humans too...
how about this : you check and confirm your tickets 2 days prior .. or try doing online checkin :D
@Anonymous - Exactly the moral I have added. In any case, check the status of your tickets before journey. Online checkin in not a bad idea too... ;)
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