Read this weird article on wired news ( Pun Intended :) ). Amazing how people from around the world participated in this.

Link to the post on Wired

    Thanks to Air India and Air India Express I learnt so many things this time during my international flight. Indian Airlines has already taught me a similar lesson in the past. Here are some things that I had learned! 

    I called up Air India and tried to confirm the tickets before my trip. I spent two hours on the phone ( Thanks to a dropped call ) and 2 agents confirmed the flight for me. No one told me that the time of my Singapore - Chennai flight was different. They confirmed even the return flight for me. How nice of them! The person at LAX who checked me in for the international flight could not issue me a boarding pass for my flight from Singapore. He said I had to go and get it in Singapore. This hadn't happened to me in the past. I had this eerie feeling that something was wrong.

    I had a 10 hour wait in Singapore. So I got myself a transit visa and went to meet some friends. Before I left the airport, I went to an Air India counter and ask them to get me a boarding pass or information regarding my flight to Chennai. The tickets said the flight is at 9.35 PM Singapore time. The Air India counter folks (they were wearing blue uniform) said, your flight has been changed as Air India Express. They said, "We don't manage the checkins for Air India Express because they are budget airlines. Please go ask the people wearing the Green Uniform". The people wearing the Green Uniform were busy checking in people for an Emirates flight. They said,"Your ticket says 9.35 PM, Please come at 7.30 PM for the checkin. We cannot help you now." 

     So I went to visit my friends and came back to the airport at 7.15 PM. My Air India Express flight was leaving at 7.30 PM. The check-in counter was already closed and no one was available to answer any questions. Thanks to a person in blue uniform who was doing check-ins for some other airline I got the location to the Air India airlines office at the airport. I went there to ask them if they could endorse my ticket so that I can take the next Indian Airlines flight that was leaving around 9.00 PM. They already closed the office and a person working there who was leaving home told me that I need to go to Singapore City office the next day to get my tickets moved to the flight which was leaving the next day. He said there is nothing else they can do. He also told me that it was Saturday and the office was working half day. I was shocked! What would have happened If I was a day late? At least I was glad that he told me that piece of information. I thanked him for their excellent service and walked out of there. I was so furious at myself. Earlier the same day, I lost my PDA cell phone in a cab. My day just got better.

    I called back my friend's parents for help. They let me stay with them for the night and helped me go to the Air India office in Singapore the next day to confirm the tickets. Thanks to their guidance I had no trouble taking the Mass Transit or the Bus around. The public transport system in Singapore is awesome. I was totally impressed. My friend's parents also helped me lodge complaints with the Cab offices to find my lost cell phone and I got to eat tasty home cooked food in the middle of all this crisis. I am eternally grateful to them for all the help. I still wonder what I would have done if they had not been there :) 

    The Airline office could not issue me a new ticket. Because Air India Headquarters in Mumbai was closed. It is Saturday. Why am I not surprised. They asked me to go to the airport at 4.30 PM and check-in. So I did and now the people in the Green Uniform were doing the check-ins. Air India officially transitioned their flight to Air India Express. But during check-ins, only people holding the Air India Express tickets were allowed to check-in. People holding Air India tickets were put on standby. Alas, around 6.30 PM they issued me a ticket and I went to the gate. I was lucky as another friend was traveling by the flight that day and I felt better after telling him all this :)

1) Avoid any Indian airline!

        Avoid Air India, Indian Airlines or Air India Express in anyway. The people working in these offices think that it is your privilege to fly in their flight and do not care whatsoever about your plight if you miss a flight. On the positive side, if you are flying in Air India, you are allowed each checked-in baggage to weigh 70lbs instead of the 50 lbs on many other airlines. Not sure if the connecting flights in the US let you check-in these bags.

2) Confirm your Schedule!

        Make sure that you explicitly ask them every flight leg's time and flight code when you confirm your tickets.

3) Ask the Right people!

       Check with the transition desk or someone who works for the airline before you get to Immigration. In South East Asia at least, the airline check-in counter staff work for contract and dont have much information about these change in flights and other details. They generally get instructions for about 30 minutes before checkin for a flight starts and follow the general check-in process.

4) Travel Lite! 

      In case you haven't been to India recently. Indian Airport security has tight restrictions on your carry-on luggage. You are allowed only 1 carry on item including laptop. All other countries let you carry 1 carry on bag and 1 personal item like laptop,camera,etc. I had to return one carry on bag to my parents who came to send me off. One of my friends had to carry a document folder and a laptop bag. He needed his documents for immigration. They would not let him carry a second bag.

    This post is already too big. I will save the United Airlines flight plight for another day. I will shortly post some pictures that I took around in Singapore.Thanks to these exciting incidents I did not feel like going around Singapore at that time at all. I was worried if something else could go wrong ( and something did! ). I've saved going around Singapore for another visit :).