So I had a flight from Bombay to Bangalore for a meeting, subsequent to which I was to fly to delhi. Being it was my cousin's wedding in Delhi, I wanted to get there a little early. So I asked the secretary in our offices in bangalore to see if I cna get an earlier flight. (the original would have me land in delhi around 8 pm, too late for the baraat and all.
I got a reservation on Jet Airways flight at noon that would take me back to bombay and then I would catch a connecting flight at 3 pm to Delhi. So I went to the ticketing counter and bought my ticket for the noon flight. As I went through security and to the checkin, it was around 11:30. I got my boarding pass but the girl at the counter said, "sir..the flight has been delayed and will be in at 12:45" I asked her repeatedly, if I will be able to connect to my delhi flight and she was adamant and even had a manager come out and reasssure me. Well the 12:45 became 1:10 and I was still assured that I would have time to catch the connecting flight with 10 mins to spare. In the mean time I had seen the Indian Airlines flight leave for bombay and was kicking myself.
As I got in my seat, the pilot made an announcement that the runway has been closed in bombay and will open at 2:45-3pm. I was fuming, as you can imagine. Well we landed at the bombay airport and I went straight after the ground crew of Jet airways having told that we missed the flight. Railing them on having me sold a ticket when they knew that the flight would be delayed as it had not left bombay for bangalore yet. As I glanced from the side, I see another Jet Airways employee being harrangued. Same issue, same problem, same attitude of :hands being thrown up by the Airline staff" It was none other than Satinder Bindra, South Asia Bureau CHief CNN.
So he and I got into a competition as to who can yell at middle management of Jetairways better. After a while we had a chat and got together to start yelling. Satinder, as I call him, suggested that we find the highest level employee of Jetairways in the Bombay airport and come meet us.
This was quite exciting really because, I wanted to know who was the shadow puppeteer of the incompetence we had just endured. So a chinese gentleman named James Wong came and tried to assuage our concerns.
Now a lesson to you kids as told to me by Satinder Bindra. In South Asia, when dealing with incompetence you have to, I repeat, you HAVE to yell to the floor supervisor and lower level employees but when dealing with Senior managers one should be cool, firm and try to get the point across.
We proceeded to tell him that for people like us, Money is not the issue. It is time that is important. I had to go to the wedding and Satinder Bindra had to go interview Some Paki High Commision person in Delhi on his recent expulsion. It is time that is important.
Well we made our point. We were put on the very next Sahara air flight and our bags were waiting for us when we got off. They whiskedus away in the the cars and sent me a basket of dried food the next day.
On our flight to Delhi when I told Satinder that I felt bad about yelling at the people but sometimes you can't help it.
He said " Ch...you have to yell otherwise Indians have tendency to fall back on the old reliable..."chaltahai mentality""
I grinned...
I got a reservation on Jet Airways flight at noon that would take me back to bombay and then I would catch a connecting flight at 3 pm to Delhi. So I went to the ticketing counter and bought my ticket for the noon flight. As I went through security and to the checkin, it was around 11:30. I got my boarding pass but the girl at the counter said, "sir..the flight has been delayed and will be in at 12:45" I asked her repeatedly, if I will be able to connect to my delhi flight and she was adamant and even had a manager come out and reasssure me. Well the 12:45 became 1:10 and I was still assured that I would have time to catch the connecting flight with 10 mins to spare. In the mean time I had seen the Indian Airlines flight leave for bombay and was kicking myself.
As I got in my seat, the pilot made an announcement that the runway has been closed in bombay and will open at 2:45-3pm. I was fuming, as you can imagine. Well we landed at the bombay airport and I went straight after the ground crew of Jet airways having told that we missed the flight. Railing them on having me sold a ticket when they knew that the flight would be delayed as it had not left bombay for bangalore yet. As I glanced from the side, I see another Jet Airways employee being harrangued. Same issue, same problem, same attitude of :hands being thrown up by the Airline staff" It was none other than Satinder Bindra, South Asia Bureau CHief CNN.
So he and I got into a competition as to who can yell at middle management of Jetairways better. After a while we had a chat and got together to start yelling. Satinder, as I call him, suggested that we find the highest level employee of Jetairways in the Bombay airport and come meet us.
This was quite exciting really because, I wanted to know who was the shadow puppeteer of the incompetence we had just endured. So a chinese gentleman named James Wong came and tried to assuage our concerns.
Now a lesson to you kids as told to me by Satinder Bindra. In South Asia, when dealing with incompetence you have to, I repeat, you HAVE to yell to the floor supervisor and lower level employees but when dealing with Senior managers one should be cool, firm and try to get the point across.
We proceeded to tell him that for people like us, Money is not the issue. It is time that is important. I had to go to the wedding and Satinder Bindra had to go interview Some Paki High Commision person in Delhi on his recent expulsion. It is time that is important.
Well we made our point. We were put on the very next Sahara air flight and our bags were waiting for us when we got off. They whiskedus away in the the cars and sent me a basket of dried food the next day.
On our flight to Delhi when I told Satinder that I felt bad about yelling at the people but sometimes you can't help it.
He said " Ch...you have to yell otherwise Indians have tendency to fall back on the old reliable..."chaltahai mentality""
I grinned...
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