Heaven & Hell

So we arrived safely in India, and before I get into what it's like here I have to tell you about the flights. Yes, this warrants an entire blog post. Trust me.

So we get to PHL on Thursday night and the BA checkin lady told us that they only had four empty seats in business class and the only way to get upgraded would be to pay $750 (this wouldn't be for my entire ticket back and forth - just for the flight to London). Since that's a lot of $ just for one leg of the flight, we opted not to, and Tim said I could have his seat in business (his company bought him the business class ticket but since they were so expensive and we had to pay for my ticket out of pocket, we flew me in coach). So the nice lady called over to the first class lounge and told them to let me come in with him. The lounge was pretty sweet, they had all kinds of booze and you could make yourself whatever you want, plus tons of snacks and food. They were serving dinner also but since we already ate and it was like 9pm we didn't have any. Definitely beats waiting at the gate.

Anyway, once on the flight I noticed that there was an empty seat right across from me. We took off and so at this point obviously it wasn't claimed, so I asked the flight attendant if my husband could come sit with me since no one was using it. he starts vigorously shaking his head and says "NO." Ok, whatever. No one is sitting there, so who cares?! Luckily coach was nearly empty so Tim was able to stretch out across three seats and sleep. I watched some TV, part of Harry Potter 5 and fell asleep (the seat reclines all the way to a bed!) for a while. It was sleeper service so they had no food or drinks come by, everyone just slept. I later learned that I was in an old plane b/c Tim's "Club World" seat on the way to India was way nicer than mine was, but more on that later.

So we get to Heathrow at 9something on Friday morning London time. Being my 1st time back in 10 years I was super excited. We had a 3hr or so layover so we stopped and had pastries and something to drink and then walked around and looked at the shops (Gucci, Prada, Burberry...love). Before getting on the flight we stopped at the BA first class lounge and asked about upgrading me to Club World. They said we'd have to buy an entire new ticket which clearly wasn't an option (it was over 1,000 pounds). I was then told I could upgrade to world traveller plus (in between coach and business - much nicer than coach) for 179 pounds. SOLD. Then...oh whoops. Sorry you can't do that to India b/c of tax laws. HUH? We looked online and there were at least 20 empty seats if not more in business class, plus coach was basically sold out, so we thought the chances of me being let up there were much greater than on the way to London at least.

Wrong. Tim asked and they wouldn't let me come up. Even if we paid the ridiculous fee. So I was stuck in coach. With 15 screaming Indian children under the age of three ( I counted) and zero leg room. It wouldn't have felt quite so horrible if I hadn't just flown in a fully reclinable bed in a nice quiet cabin and woke up to breakfast served on real china, I suppose.

In case you're wondering, they cried the ENTIRE 8.5 hour flight. Nonstop. Not all of them at the same time, they were dears and took turns. As soon as the 1 year old sitting across from me would stop screaming bloody murder, the baby in the row across from him would start like "oh ok. my turn." I felt bad for all of the parents b/c they pretty much spent the whole flight walking up and down the aisles trying to quiet the children. I didn't even sleep for 10 minutes. At one point I actually cried right along with them because I was so tired and miserable and my legs hurt from being so cramped, and I just wanted to get off the plane, and realized there was still a good five hours left. Hysterical. At this point I decided I did not care what I had to pay to upgrade on the next flight, there's no way in hell I was flying coach from India to London. In fact I told Tim I would "rather relocate to India permanently than get back on that flight." LOL. Luckily he agreed with this statement so we're going to have to call BA and get my flight situated for the way back to Heathrow next month.

Oh! But I forgot one of the best parts. As I was getting situated in my seat an older couple showed up and said they were in the 2 seats next to me (I was on the aisle). So the man proceeds to yell at me for putting my Vera duffle up in the baggage hold because he wanted to put HIS suitcase up there. So I take it out and say ok put it in, I'll put this on top. He tries to shove it up there but it's just not fitting. The semi cute male English flight attendant comes over and tells him there's no way this is fitting. You have to take it out. They argue for a good 2 minutes or so about this, and meanwhile I'm standing in the aisle while people just keep on shoving through, rolling their bags over my foot, etc. I'm falling backward into peoples seats, ridiculousness all around. Finally the flight attendant gets the bag to fit, helps me put mine in there, and I got to sit down.

This is around the time when the rest of the flight attendants come walking up and down the aisles spraying bug spray. "If it bothers you, please cover your nose and moth with a handkerchief or your shirt." Jenny had told me about this but I totally forgot, so it was pretty amusing/random. There was also a mild scuffle involving the difference btwn a Hindu meal and a Hindu vegetarian meal and the couple next to me...the flight attendant was like "I ASSURE you, we only have veg meals or Hindu meals. And the Hindu meal has chicken." Man next to me: "I believe you're mistaken." And it went on like that for a while. Oy. The flight attendant actually asked me if I was sure I didn't want a drink from the bar - LOL.

About a half hour before we were about to land Tim comes back and says "take your bags, they're letting you come up." Seriously?!!! So I'm allowed to sit with him during landing, but not the rest of the flight? whatever. I took what I could get and relaxed in the totally silent Club World cabin til we landed. Oh and the ENTIRE section of World Traveller plus (the section just above coach that they wouldnt let us pay 179 pounds for) was empty. Totally empty. Awesomeness.

We're getting ready for dinner so I'll update later on everything else!

xo,
K