The Journey

Since Bangalore is practically about as far around the globe as you can go, getting there isn't exactly a short trip. I arrived at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport around 10am CST on Thursday, July 9 for my itinerary as follows:

>>>Birmingham to Atlanta - Noon (approximately 1.5 hour layover in Atlanta)
>>>Atlanta to Paris - 3:20pm EST (approximately 4.5 hour layover in Paris)
>>>Paris to Bangalore - 10:40am (Paris time) on Friday, July 10; arrive in Bangalore 11:55pm local time on Friday, July 10

As we were boarding in Birmingham around 11:50am CST, the captain came out and told us we had to get off the plane. Apparently ATC had suspended all outbound flights, and they would receive an update in about an hour.

Back up a second here to a conversation I had in the waiting area with a group of three women. The day prior, they were at the Birmingham airport waiting on a flight to Atlanta and then to Rome, their ultimate destination. Turns out there was a hold on all outbound flights the previous day as well, and since they had a tight layover in Atlanta, they never left Birmingham because they would not have been able to travel to Rome that same day. How could the same thing happen two days in a row? I truly felt sorry for them as they received the news a second time.

Knowing this story, I immediately called AMEX Travel, praying that there was another flight to Paris later in the day, and that the flight would also allow me to make my connection to Bangalore. Fortunately, there was a 6:45pm EST flight from Atlanta to Paris, and since I had built in a 4.5 hour layover in Paris, I would still be 'on schedule'. After waiting for about 30 minutes, the gate agent booked me on this flight, but left me on the 3:20pm flight as well 'just in case' I arrived in time to make the connection.

We received an update about 12:45pm CST as promised, and were told that we could board immediately and then we would depart as soon as possible. I've never seen folks board as quickly as we did due to the fact that almost all of the passengers were trying to make connections. Since all flights were grounded, all the other airlines were boarding quickly as well, but I don't know how anyone could have topped our record time. With the cabin door closed, I looked at my watch and thought that if we were first, or near the front of the line, to take-off, I would probably be able to make my intial flight. However, as soon as the cabin door closed, the captain comes on the loudspeaker to inform us that since the plane had run for an extra hour, we did not have enough fuel to get to Atlanta and were waiting on a fuel truck to arrive. Why wasn't the plane refueled over the last hour when nothing else was going on? I digress.

The fuel truck did arrive promptly, but by the time we were set to leave the gate, every other flight that had been grounded was in front of us in line, so we were given a "wheels up" wait time of approximately 30 minutes. Good thing we all rushed to get on the plane.

We landed in Atlanta at 3:18pm EST. As we were taxiing to the gate, we pass an Air France Boeing 777. Yep-that was my plane, at least accordingly to my Blackberry.

Everything was pretty smooth sailing after this little curveball, and I arrived in Bangalore just after midnight local time on Saturday, July 11. After the ride from the airport and my briefing at the residences, I arrived in my room about 2am local time on Saturday, July 11 (approximately 3:30pm CST on Friday, July 10). For those of you keeping score at home, that is 29.5 hours of travel. Has anyone else traveled for that length of time before? See my next posts for more info about my flights.