My Mistake
Trichy – Chennai, Chennai – Mumbai, Mumbai – Rajkot, Rajkot – Mumbai, Mumbai – Chennai, Chennai- Trichy is my travelling schedule regarding an official meeting for 4 days and still two days left in that voyage. Lets get to the mistake what I made without dwelling much into my travelling schedule.
I booked tickets through cleartrip. For Rajkot – Mumbai flight (IC146) 7:15pm was Departure time and 8:15pm was Arrival Time. Believing that it will reach on time to mumbai I booked ticket for Mumbai – Chennai flight (9W 469) with Departure Time 9:45PM same day. Unfortunately the two carriers are different. First was Air India and Latter was Jet Airways.
When we (me and my boss) reached Rajkot, we were shocked to know that rajkot – mumbai flight is rescheduled with one hour delay, So we were left with only 30 minutes to change flights at mumbai. Luckily both are allotted the same terminal in mumbai. So we were hopefull and when enquired jet airways they said it may be possible if the first flight reaches there on time. We checked in. At waiting room, other sad news came, that the rajkot- mumbai flight is further delayed by 45 minutes because of Air Traffic Congestion and weather conditions at mumbai.
So we realized that there is no way to catch the next flight at mumbai. Air India officials are really hopeless and not helping. They not even tried to assist us. They simply said since you booked the tickets with different carrier, nothing is in our control. After consulting with JetAirways(I spoke with the stunningly beautiful girl, fully qualified to be a bollywood actress, she was very assistive. again there is huge difference between private and public agencies) and Cleartrip, we decided to reschedule the flight from mumbai – chennai next day (i.e. today). Thanks to cleartrip, what a service!, i did the rescheduling over phone. Eventhough the call lasted for 35 to 40 minutes (emotional burts were vented to them), they were patient. Another tradegy there, my first call to them disconnected due to insufficeint balance(he he, 
). I was in emotional stress at that time. And the minimum boarding charges will take alleast rs. 5000 in a decent hotel at mumbai. What the hell is going on in mumbai, hotels are too costly when compared to any other cities in india.
I believed in Air India and Cleartrip very much. My past air travels were limited and nothing was interrupted and went well. Thanks to my friend alias uncle and thier friends in mumbai who permitted and made us stay in thier home and for allowing to use thier internet (i m posting it from there).
Lessons learnt
– Dont believe in schedules in INDIA whatsoever. Give enough gap between your travel if your booking with different carriers
– Always book tickets with same flight carrier if you want your transitition time to be lesser
– Thinks done in hurry will always end up in or have some sort of problems. I had only two days to plan this travel.
– Money spent to penalties, etc may be reduced if properly planned
– Check whether you have sufficient balance in your mobile ( if prepaid) for emergency situations like this.
More than mistake.. I will take this as a learning experience. If you properly look at your life with an optimistic eye, you will realize that. Some of the advantages were I came to know the procedures involved in rescheduling and got the oppurtunity to meet that cute lady.
