|
|
|
|
Articles: My Experience | Travel Travails in US of A
- Whiner
| |
Prologue - I started writing this for the thread “Most unusual incidents happened in your life…” in the Offbeat & joke section. But, I later realized that my post will be too lengthy for a thread, hence posting in the articles section. Since bone-lazy that I am, I really did not want to waste the energy that I spent on venting out my feelings by discarding this material. So here goes my saga :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I wouldn’t categorize my incident as an unusual one but it’s more of a scarring memory. All this drama happened on the New Year’s eve 2004. Oh! we were so naïve to realize that people here can actually pretty much do anything in the name of national security. Boy! Were we wrong?! It all started like this. I and my friends had planned this fun filled trip to Las Vegas and we were all on our merry way and landed in the airport to check in, just when we thought we were all set to board, this hefty looking security comes over to us and just takes our caddies & bluntly tells us “you will not be able to make it for this flight or any flight today!” & gets a lady to cancel our tickets!! We were just too shocked at this unexpected turn of event to even retaliate! I mean….we had friends waiting for us in LV & had major plans for the New Year and here this guy grandly announces our change of plan.
When we demanded (politely of course, cant mess with the security personnel u know, we could wind up in some cell!)to know the reason for our detainment, the security guys rudely informs us that it had something to do with national security and that they are not allowed to disclose the info to us! The cheek!
We were still determined to make it LV by night so somehow we managed to coax other airlines in getting our tickets re-booked to get to our destination before midnight. But, the ticket issuer(?, dunno what they are called) Jackie (we found out her name later on, they wouldn’t give us her last name) spitefully AGAIN deletes our already BOOKED tickets and warns us that we were not flying out on the 31st & that our attempts to find other airlines will go vain. It was war this time and she had won!
Needless to say, we had to spend the entire 31st & the 1st in the airport. It was all because one of my friend happened to be a Pakistani and somehow I guess her last name matched to some guy on a “no-fly” list & triggered all these events.
I mean, I can somewhat understand the heightened security issues & all, considering all those terrorist threats but what aggravated me was the pompous attitude of the airport authorities towards us. The worse part is that we never got a single apology from any of the staff for the humiliating experience that we all had to endure in front of other passengers. We were not given any kind of remuneration for our accommodation for the night either. It was some New Year I tell ya! They totally ruined not only our plans but also of the friends who were expecting us in LV.
Nevertheless, we managed to laugh all this off, had fun in the airport & we set out to explore the city. We weren’t going to let these schmucks dampen our spirits, especially on New Year’s eve! Finally, we were ‘allowed’ to catch a flight to LV on the 1st. Thanks to Delta airlines, we missed all the new year events in LV :(….but It was okay we made it up by overstaying in LV for 12 days instead of 8 days :D
Oh wait! the ordeal doesn’t end here; the vicious cycle had to repeat itself when it was time for us to come back to our hometown. This time the bait was my Punjabi friend & her boots. (I guess maybe south Indians were off the radar, not that I am complaining!) This time it was about some anthrax scare, and that she had stepped on some powder etc etc. and yes we missed our flight due to the security clearance and yes we literally had to run from terminal to terminal to get our tickets re-booked & yes it was awful & yes we made it to home in one piece. I came very close in killing my friends that day ..Thank Heavens I didn’t. (nah I am just joking, I love my friends, I don’t think I can go on without them)
When we got back, we thought of writing to the authorities but later on found out that even Americans were subjected to this kind of mistreatment in the airports during that orange alert. I don’t know how fair it is for them to mess up our vacations in the name of the security. Maybe they are justified in doing so, even I wouldn’t want to travel with a possible terrorist either. Or maybe the whole thing was overrated, I don’t know. Whatever the reason maybe, these people royally screwed up our plans. Okay I better stop venting now!
But u know what, in spite of all these unfortunate events, my friends and I had an awesome time in our trip, in fact we had the best time of our lives during that trip. We’ll cherish each and every second of that vacation. We had tons of fun! I guess that’s all that matters! WE HAD FUN & I LOVE MY FRIENDS! :)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer – I apologize if you find any grammar/spelling mistakes or if my writing appears too ambiguous or incoherent at times. I just kept on typing in word & did not bother proof reading. So don’t bother bashing me up, this was the best I can do!
| Read 7 Comment(s) posted so far on this Article!
| |
|
|
|
 |
| Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
| Advertisements |
|
