Originally Posted by ung1

Who does an international transit (sort of) at Bangalore, almost gets cavity searched, and then repeats the process a week later? Had I foreseen the complications that would arise, I would probably have rerouted myself via Baghdad. But it was a little too late for that, and as doomsday approached, I can’t say I was looking forward to another ride on an EK A330, a 7 hour transit at BLR, and then an overnight flight to Bangkok.

Now here’s the problem with regional flights. They don’t have a First cabin. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe my TG flight will be stocked with Dom by mistake. For now, back to the horrors of whY.

The funny thing is, my day actually turned out to be quite pleasant. I’m not much of a philosopher, but I think we are all creatures of habit. In the last couple of flights, I felt myself becoming a jaded traveler, trying to minimize interaction with everyone around me. Even trying to be less of a snob and hide away in a corner. Something was wrong with me.

Anyway, my point is that irrespective of the class you travel in, a journey can be great when the unexpected happens. The good kind of unexpected, like when you walk onto the aircraft expecting Skycruisers, but you get Suites. Or when you’re expecting the crew to be 60 but they’re 20. You get my drift.

This was such a day. For starters, DXB was empty. It was a ghost town. I’ve never been the only person checking in at the dedicated Silver check in. Sure, the normal queues were a bit of a bloodbath, but who cares about those people anyway? The only problem was, the check in agent told me to proceed to the gate. Which has never happened before – they always tell me to go to the lounge. As it turns out, there was a name mismatch on my account (thanks, no doubt, to a couple of FTers hacking into my Skywards account).

The Emirates Lounge, in T1, was a peaceful haven at 10 am. There must have been 10 other people in the entire lounge, and I had the stash of Moet 2002 all to myself. I think it rivaled a lot of First lounges out there, and all this for flying 25k a year on Emirates. Or 250k if you're buying Saver fares.

Surprise number 2 for the day was the service onboard. Yes, it was another rubbish A330, and a horrid 2 class at that. But sitting in the exit row has it’s advantages, like being able to interact with the crew. I was delivered a glass of champagne soon after take off. In a take away crew coffee cup. Sneaky, but well played on the part of the FA. There were only 3 Golds onboard, but I can well imagine the hundred people behind me asking why they didn't get a glass of bubbly.

That’s the kind of thing that makes a flight outstanding. The little touches and the extra attention. An EK pen with the immigration form, a glass of water when collecting empty cups, a blanket when I didn’t ask for one, an extra snack mix when I didn’t ask for one. That’s one of the reasons I like Emirates. Their crew are sometimes outstanding, and really make an effort to deliver exceptional service. And I’ve had pretty good luck with EK, with everything from snacks from J, tea from F, chatty Pursers, champers and chocolates. All in Y.

And surprise number 3 was BLR. I knew what to expect, or I thought I did, so I asked EK check in at DXB if they could let ground staff know I wanted to transit. They couldn’t. Then onboard, I spoke to the Purser and explained my situation, but she couldn’t speak to ground staff either, though she did mention something about speaking to the Captain, but then said I should see her at the door on landing. When I got there, someone from ground staff was ready for me. Apparently, this time around, their system had told them I was in transit.

When I got off the aircraft, someone was waiting for me, placard with my name in hand. International transit was once again impossible because I hadn’t done OLCI and printed my boarding pass. Not to worry, he escorted me through immigration, which was painless this time around. Looked at passport, looked at me, looked at passport, looked at me, stamped passport. My new best friend at BLR then escorted me through baggage collection and customs (where he told the officer on duty that the X-mark on my bag was a scratch, and not a ‘this bag has loot, raid it’ mark).

It was all very smooth. I was escorted all the way to departures, but then I had to wait about 3 hours till Thai opened their check in desks. Another good sign – the flight only has 8 of 30 occupied. And the lounge staff at the Executive lounge in BLR actually remembered me from last week. Now it remains to be seen whether I get another pair of pyjamas on this flight!