In contrast to my perfect arrival, my departure from Chennai was a disaster. The poor road-planning around the airport really doesn’t help one get in in the first place, but that was the least of my worries.
Check-in was going fine until I explained that I needed my one check-in bag, which was a duffel purchased for Rs.170 that afternoon, checked in MAA-BKK-SIN-HKG-SFO. The check-in agent tried a few things, and then told me that it would not be possible to check my bag into San Francisco, and that I would simply have to collect it in Hong Kong. Now clearly that wasn’t an option, but my explanation cut no mustard with her. She brought her supervisor in, and the supervisor brought in the manager, and the manager brought in a manager from Air India who were the baggage agents for Thai. Nobody could sort it out.
After all sorts of debate and discussion, it was determined that the problem was simply that the computer system would only allow 3 destinations to be attached to a single bag tag, and I needed 4. It was determined that the bag would be tagged until SIN, and I should get out in SIN and collect my bag there. Nice idea, but not useful if you’re flying onwards with UA and therefore will not have a boarding pass with which to get back into the airport! I explained that to the manager, and he said that he would send a note to both BKK and SIN requesting that my bag be retagged all the way to SFO.
Needless to say, I was pretty nervous as I headed over to immigration. The queue was absolutely nuts. I spent a solid 30-40 minutes snaking my way to the counter, and then headed up to the lounge. The waiter service was excellent, but other than that, it was yet another lounge that wasn’t worthy of the name.
I got bored after a while and left the lounge, only to find that right around the corner was the Lufthansa Clipper lounge. I went in, but they didn’t want to allow me in without a lounge invitation. Though they agreed that both as a business class passenger and star gold member I was entitled to lounge access, they insisted on checking with TG first. Eventually TG authorized them to let me in, though by that time I’d already been sitting inside for ten minutes. It was time to board anyway, so I thanked them politely and headed over to the gate.
The flight itself was great, and a first for me. Never in my life have I declined a meal on board a flight, but I needed to sleep, and sleep I did all the way to BKK. There was some in-flight-entertainment during boarding though, in the form of a South African gentleman who was more than a little surprised at what he was getting for his business class airfare! His exact words were, “what is this ........ plane? What ......... I paid for business class and I don’t expect this ......... This isn’t business class!” He got no response from anyone.
On landing in BKK, I went straight to the transfer desk to try and sort out the situation with my bag. I needn’t have wasted my time. The friendly lady at the desk firmly insisted that it was nothing to do with Thai Airways, and this was United Airlines’ problem as they were the ones taking me to San Francisco. I could only laugh inwardly at that point – I wasn’t confident that I would ever see my bag again, and as there was nothing I could do to control it, what else could I do?
I went over to the Royal Silk C lounges. Only one side was open, and I put myself on the shower queue. It was taking forever when I noticed that the lounge across the hall had opened up, so I crossed over and found that the showers were empty on that side. The shower was an experience – a wonderful looking shower room, seemingly carefully thought out… but when you turn on the shower, the water barely trickles out, and both the temperature and pressure keep fluctuating wildly. Not sure if it was my bad luck, or a minor plumbing oversight.
At around 7am I went over to the SKL and tucked in to some char siu bao and haagen dazs for breakfast, as you do. I hung out there until my flight, with just a brief 30 minute interlude for another excellent neck and shoulder massage!
entrance to the fabulous Royal Orchid Spa