Anytime you set out to travel anywhere, for vacation or for business, there are certain pitfalls and mishaps waiting for you to stumble into. This was certainly true on one of my first of many trips to India. I learned a lot on this trip and want to help you avoid the bumpy road I took to my destination.
Ok so wow! Today was the day! We leave for India, now while this was not my first trip to India, this time was different!! I was going to see something I have always dreamt of, but never thought would be possible, the Taj Mahal!
We had quite the journey ahead of us first. With a connecting flight through Heathrow, we knew it was a long journey. We planned accordingly, at least so we thought, but here is where our real adventure began and how I learned a travel planning lesson the hard way!
Always Book Full Connecting Flights
In my search for cheap airfare, some site offer “hacker fares” booked through 2 separate airlines. I found an option that connected in London.
Our initial flight was from JFK to LHR as a redeye flight. We had 2 different airlines for each leg, and in this case we would need to check in at the transfer desk once we arrived in London. Now, we had 3 hours between flights so, no problem, right? Our flight left on time and we even landed 20 minutes early! Score! Then the real fun began!
We needed to checkin for our connecting flight at least one hour before its scheduled take off time; easy peasy. Well, not so fast. Because we were 20 minutes early, our gate was not ready yet. Couple that with a couple of delayed flights and now we are destined to sit on the tarmac staring at our gate for the next 2 hours (so much for a 3 hour layover!).
When we finally get to our gate and are allowed to get off the plane, we now had the sprint of our lives ahead of us! We needed to make it to the transfer checkin counter as quickly as possible if we had any hope of making our connection. Of course this happened to be as far away from our gate as it possibly could be!
Research Your Connecting Airport
So we ran and we ran only to be told the gate was closed and we would not be allowed on the flight. This was 10pm. There were no other flights going out that evening and the airline we were booked on could only offer us the same flight the following night, meaning more than 24 hours later! Defeated, we decided to look for options at the other transfer counters. We hit a lead! British Airways had a 5am flight and since they were partners, we might be able to get that one. The big “but” was that we needed to wait until their counters opened up at 3:30 or 4am. Until then, we were stuck.
We were hungry and tired so we made our way through the terminal in search of a good place to sleep for the night. We were also pretty hungry so started searching for food. Well, we quickly discovered that at 10pm everything in our area of Heathrow shut down. We also discovered there were no drinking fountains for water either!
This is where knowing our connecting airport ahead of time would have been helpful in the event we were stuck, which we were.
So there we were, no flight, no food, no water, and no good places to sleep. This was turning out to be a great trip! We finally found a spot to rest, and despite the maintenance guy changing lightbulbs with his constant “beep, beep, beep” of the lift, we managed to doze off for a bit.
Every airport has a website with maps and listings of amenities, even tips on what to do if stranded overnight. This was a big lesson I learned that I now add in to every trip I plan.
Know Your Airline Partners
When flights are missed, the last thing you want is to be stranded indefinitely with no options. Knowing who the partner airlines are for your original flight will give you more options of rebooking an alternative flight.
Fast forward a couple of hours and we were off in hopes of scoring the British Airways flight. It was bad enough that we missed a night in our pre-booked hotel room in Agra, but we didn’t want to miss a whole other day as well! This was putting my dreams in jeopardy! The nice man at the counter was much more fresh and friendly than we were at 3:45am. We explained our situation and he was happy to help.
They had room! He assured us our checked luggage would be transferred over and handed us over our new boarding passes. We were set, finally!
Consider a Luggage Tracking Device
Lost luggage is a reality of travel and unfortunately, the airlines do not take much responsibility.
Once we finally arrived in New Delhi, we made our way with the hordes of tired, cranky passengers to baggage claim to pick up our stuff. We waited and waited watching the many bags go by, yet ours never seemed to surface. Yep, our luggage was missing. Ok, how much more can go sideways on this trip?
Off to the missing luggage counter to report our missing luggage we went. Thankfully, they knew where our luggage was, still in London. It would be placed on the next flight and then delivered to us. Now, this was also an adventure as we were not staying in New Delhi. We were headed to the train station to make our way to Agra. The airline was kind enough to take our accommodations down in Agra and deliver our bags there once they arrived.
There are so many ways to track luggage now with small devices you can place in your bag that then have gps tracking to your phone. On future trips, this would be our go to.
When Packing, Plan for Lost Luggage
Another lesson learned was in the packing department. This was my first experience with lost luggage and as such, I had packed as if all my luggage would arrive at the same time. My carryons had very limited things in them, like clean underwear, but nothing else. I ended up with no change of clothing or makeup or toiletries for the first 48 hours of my trip; not smart.
Now when I pack, my goal is to travel carryon only, but if I must check a bag, I pack my carryon with the sole purpose of surviving without my checked bag. I consider what I could easily and affordably replace in my destination and then pack everything that does not meet that criteria in my carryon. Of course, this does cause you to be more selective in what comes along for the ride, but if you have a tendency to over pack lik
Lessons learned
What lessons have you learned from your own adventures? Please leave a comment!
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