I called Cathay Pacific, Royal Jordanian, American Airlines, the RJ lounge manager, the security desk, the transit desk, and talked to many different people in person to try to figure out the transit process in Mumbai. It's really terrible.
I was finally told that my passport would be delivered to me in the RJ lounge at 2am with a boarding pass. At 10pm, I left for the BA lounge thinking it was open (because the RJ lounge was completely full, had no food left, and was very hot.) It was not open yet, so I waited in a chair in a dark section of the airport trying to sleep. No luck.
I did manage to get my first hour of sleep since the JW Marriott on a couch in the BA lounge. Then I had to leave to go meet my passport delivery person. I wish I hadn't have left, because my passport delivery person didn't show up. I repeated my process of calling everyone possible until someone was going to be sent.
Finally, at 4am, 45 minutes before boarding, I had my passport back. I immediately went to the gate, but it was too late to get me into business class. This meant I wasn't going to sleep.
The gate agents recognized my AA status and let me board first (important since I have two carry-on bags that I can't bear to check) but the security guard rejected my boarding pass saying it was missing the security stamp. Clearly I had to have gone through security to get into the terminal, but she wouldn't let me on the plane. I had to go to the security area from the wrong direction and make them screen me from the secured area. They thought this was pretty pointless since I had a transit card with a stamp already, but I told them the gate soldier wanted my boarding pass to look like everyone else's.
By the time I made it back to the gate, everyone else had boarded. That meant I got to put a bag on my feet for the 6 hour flight. Great.
Still, I was very happy to leave behind the Mumbai Airport. I hope to never spend more than 2 hours at a time inside that place. Off to the sky!
I was finally told that my passport would be delivered to me in the RJ lounge at 2am with a boarding pass. At 10pm, I left for the BA lounge thinking it was open (because the RJ lounge was completely full, had no food left, and was very hot.) It was not open yet, so I waited in a chair in a dark section of the airport trying to sleep. No luck.
I did manage to get my first hour of sleep since the JW Marriott on a couch in the BA lounge. Then I had to leave to go meet my passport delivery person. I wish I hadn't have left, because my passport delivery person didn't show up. I repeated my process of calling everyone possible until someone was going to be sent.
Finally, at 4am, 45 minutes before boarding, I had my passport back. I immediately went to the gate, but it was too late to get me into business class. This meant I wasn't going to sleep.
The gate agents recognized my AA status and let me board first (important since I have two carry-on bags that I can't bear to check) but the security guard rejected my boarding pass saying it was missing the security stamp. Clearly I had to have gone through security to get into the terminal, but she wouldn't let me on the plane. I had to go to the security area from the wrong direction and make them screen me from the secured area. They thought this was pretty pointless since I had a transit card with a stamp already, but I told them the gate soldier wanted my boarding pass to look like everyone else's.
By the time I made it back to the gate, everyone else had boarded. That meant I got to put a bag on my feet for the 6 hour flight. Great.
Still, I was very happy to leave behind the Mumbai Airport. I hope to never spend more than 2 hours at a time inside that place. Off to the sky!
No comments:
Post a Comment