The flight out

Kathmandu Oct 4th, 2011.

I came out to Delhi with Qatar Air and then with Kingfisher. At first I was not very happy with Qatar. We were 45 min late leaving Stockholm, and there was no explanation given. Then after a stopover at Doha I was told that I had been reseated from my window at 12k to 5B. And I thought I would be in the middle between people and not able to sleep.
As I boarded the Airbus I realised I had been seated in the business class, with one of those fancy seats where you have a whole panel of buttons to press to adjust your seat all the way down to full flat bed. I slept like a baby, and only wished the flight had been longer.

For some reason Kingfisher does not have a cooperation agreement with Qatar as for handling luggage, so I could only check my baggage to Delhi. Once there I must persuade Kingfisher staff to find my bags and move them over to the Kingfisher flight. The Delhi stopover would be some 5 hours so I thought if there was a problem I would at least have the time to actually go over there and do it myself. I was not too worried.

Delhi airport seems to have an entirely new airport building, even if the tarmacs are the same. Everything was spic and span. Shining new, clean, spacious and well illuminated. Really impressive and a major step up from the old one. It is of course huge. India is really moving these days!

At the Kingfisher transfer desk it was a bit of the old (lovable), India for a good while. At first we were just told to have a seat, wait. Then a young man came around with a list where he took down numbers from our luggage tags. But that was before everybodu had arrived. Anyway I found a sweet young girl selling coffea and samosas. At first she could not get the coffea machine to work so I had a samosa. Then a bit later she had fixed the machine and came over to me with a smile and said now my coffea was ready. I was so glad being in India again, even though it was just a transfer. Then after a couple of hours I checked with the Kingfisher desk. There was a bit of a commotion. Lots of staff and only one guy who was supposed to have all the answers. He spoke in two telephones at the same time as he was answering questions from passengers and the rest of the staff. Again we were told to wait. He was a charming young man with a nice smile and an intelligent look, so we waited and waited. On my third visit to his desk he suddenly gave me a boarding pass and said that now my bags had been found and transferred, all was well.

Again on the Kingfisher plane I had been given a terrific seat, at 3B. Aisle, but lots of space and very comfy. We were served good food, drinks and more coffea. Two hours later we landed at Kathmandu and my bags were all there. For a change I had booked a room online and there was a guy with a sign that had my name on it who took me to this Norling Guest House were I am now at.

Overall a great flight and I felt my karma seemed good so far. Must take care to keep it that way.