Ram-da
I found the 16 hour journey somewhat more comfortable
then the break in Europe. With the stop in Europe,
every time you are almost asleep, you either have a
meal/snacks break or the airport is approaching. With
16 hour travel, you have around 7 - 8 hours without
any disturbance.
My final destination is always Mumbai (I take a 2 - 3
days break in Mumbai) and so the ungodly hours are not
an issue.
I forgot to add one more point .....
We were eventually routed through Paris. The
Newark-Paris flight landed in Terminal A of C D Gaule
airport. The terminal is worse then Mumbai airport
... no elevator/escalator. Looks like they are having
some construction. Not even an information board. A
lady with a paper informed us (there were around 10
people in all) that our connecting flight (AF) will
depart from terminal B.
Went to terminal B and we were informed we need to go
to terminal E.
The terminal E was decent like any other international
airport. However, while in Restroom, I found the
wash basins very inconvenient. The wash basins are
almost flat with a little curve and there is no option
of hot water. The water splashes on you.
Not sure if there is any reason behind such design.
BTW, Kingfisher now has a direct (non-stop) flight
from Mumbai to Guwahati and the service is ... well as
expected from Kingfisher. They took care of our
luggage as soon as we reached airport and took it
through X-Ray till Checkin. I need not even push the
luggage cart not to speak of loading and unloading it.
They will probably start US operation sometimes this
year.
>>KC,
>From my experience, American (O'Hare - Del) is
somewhere nearabouts your CO
flight.
>>The first thing people ought to understand is that
if your destination is
>>say Guwahati (and not Del or Mumbai), you really
reach at the same unearthly
hour, that an overnight at Del/Cal/Mumbai and that
doesn't make it
worthwhile.
On the return from Del, American kept delaying our
flight to Chicago every 2
hours and of course because of 'technical difficulty',
and in the end I
think the flight left 6 hours or later.
This time, we took Lufthansa - OK service, very
clinical, but they are on
time.
Amlan is correct - any of the Asian airlines are far
superior. I wonder how
Jet Airways - Del-NY is?
Also for people in Houston, we have a flight now from
Houston to Dubai
non-stop by Emirates, and with convenient connections
to a number of
locations in India. Its great if you want to get some
shopping at Dubai and
then on to the Desh! :).
Non stops for 14 -15 hours are not fun.
--Ram da
On 2/26/08, Krishnendu Chakraborty <krish_gau at
yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> We just returned from our trip to India.
>
> This time, we preferred to book in Continental
> Airlines since it provides a non stop flight from
> Newark to Mumbai and we thought we would save some
> time.
>
> Little did we know that it is worse then Indian
> Railways !
>
> Our flight plan was Boston to Newark at 4:30 PM and
> Newark to Mumbai at 8:40 PM. On reaching airport,
> we were informed that since flights are running
> slightly (!!) behind the schedule due to weather
> conditions, we have been put to 3:30 flight just to
> ensure that we do not miss our connection.
>
> The 3:30 flight got rescheduled to 5:30 and again to
> 6:40.
>
> When I inquired about status of Newark -- Mumbai
> flight, I was informed it was on time and CO Agent
> advised us to take an earlier flight to Newark
> (Originally scheduled at 2 PM, rescheduled to 4:55
> PM).
>
> The flight was taxing for about an hour and took off
> at 6 PM. At around 7 PM, we were informed that
there
> is bad weather and the flight did not have enough
> fuel to wait. No ALS, CAT-3 helped. So they took
us
> back to Boston. We were imprisoned in the flight
for
> about 45 minutes and then allowed to deplane.
>
> The staff in Boston airport is the rudest I have
ever
> seen. They mentioned that the options available to
> us are to cancel our trip or travel to Newark in
next
> flight and wait in airport for next available
> international flight. They categorically mentioned
> that CO will not provide any accomodation.
>
> Well, we took the risk to travel to Newark and
reached
> at 11:30 PM. CO did not provide food or even water
> during this trip. We were out of food from 5 PM
> onwards !!
>
> All international flights have left. After some
> cajoling, we were provided hotel accomodation
> vouchers in ... guess what .... HOJO !! However,
> CO was again negligent but this time, it was good
for
> us. On reaching HOJO, we were informed that they
> are fully booked and pushed us to another hotel
> (Wyndham) ... a decent one.
>
> Next day, they put us in a flight to Paris and then
a
> connecting AF flight to Mumbai. Eventually we
reached
> Mumbai 27 hours after the scheduled arrival time
(did
> I say it is worse then Indian Railways) .
>
> Irony is, Mumbai - Newark flight which we missed
> earlier day was delayed by over 2 hours and had we
> travelled by our original flight (3:30 PM
rescheduled
> to 6:40 PM) we could have made it. In fact, our
> luggage travelled to Mumbai one day before us
>
> Apparently, the CO staff at Boston had no
information
> that the Newark- Mumbai flight has been delayed.
>
> Also, the CO flight was the Only flight which
could
> not land on Newark on that day.
>
> Well the story does not end here.
>
> During the return trip, in Mumbai airport, I was
> told that our booking has been cancelled .... reason
> .. we did not travel per our original booking during
> onward journey.
>
> It took me over 30 minutes to explain them that my
> travel plan was changed because of CO's fault.
> Finally, they made some arrangement even though we
> did not get our preferred seating.
>
> The non-stop flight (16 hours) is not bad except
that
> the quantity of food is not sufficient.
>
> Have sent a complaint to Continental and waiting for
> their response.
>
> I have seen people bashing Air India in various
> forums, but compared to Continental, Air India
ground
> staff are angel.
>
> Up until now, I have mostly travelled AI and
> occassionaly BA. This was my first attempt with CO
> and I think I will stick to AI or Jet (or Kingfisher
> if they start US operation)
>
> Will share my Mumbai / Guwahati experience in
another
> posting.
>
>
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