Two Flights – What Goes Around, Comes Around

So this is a simple story, but I found a lot of meaning and learning and hence sharing here.

On Dec 21, I was to fly from Bhopal to Delhi by Indigo Flight, departure time of 7:35 am. As I approached the airport at about 6:30, I saw my email and noted something concerning. My Flight had been CANCELLED. The reason was the weather conditions in Delhi. Apparently, due to the fog, the flight had not taken off from Delhi; hence there was no question of it going back. It was almost 6:50 by the time I finished talking to the Indigo staff at the counter outside the airport. 

Fortunately, an Air India flight was going at 8:00 am, for which the tickets were available. As I was standing behind one person who was almost done purchasing the ticket, another passenger from the Indigo flight jumped the queue and submitted his ID for a ticket.  I asked the country staff if there were enough tickets and, on her confirmation, decided not to make much fuss about the man jumping the queue. 

As the man paid the nominal fare charge of Rs 4200, got his ticket and proceeded, I shared my ID with the Air India staff. As she went through the system process, a gentleman came inside the counter and submitted his request for a ticket. As is common in India, he was being entertained due to his senior ‘connects’. 

But I was in for a shock when after a few minutes, the counter lady expressed helplessness as it was 7 am, and as per the rule, no ticket can be issued with less than 1 hour for the departure time. I was exasperated but not annoyed that I was denied a ticket because the other person had come in before me. 

After a lot of pushing and haggling, as I was keen to leave in the morning and not spend the day in Bhopal, the lady indicated to the other gentleman that there was a ticket possible in Business class, but the fare for the same is Rs 18,000. The person agreed, and he was issued the ticket. After some more pushing, she mentioned that the same option could be available for one more person, but the seat would be an economy-class ticket. Now it looked pretty evident that they were playing some funny game of extracting more money from me. But as my need was urgent, I decided to go ahead and take the ticket and had a comfortable flight on time to Bhopal and my day went well.

Now on Dec 22, I had another early morning flight. This one was from Delhi to Coimbatore, with a scheduled departure time of 5:55 am. While I got up and was ready on time, the Ola cab driver cancelled once, and the next cab arrived after a 15 min delay. When I reached the airport at 5 am, there was a lot of rush, and I had to make an urgent request at the Indigo counter for them to take my check-in baggage. They did warn me that security could take a long time as there was a long queue. 

After navigating through the security, as I rushed towards the gate, I was surprised there was not much action. When I reached it, my worst fears came true as the gate had been closed. While I requested them once to consider if it was possible to take us in, and the attendant did try, it seemed impossible. Behind me, a couple came (it looked like they were recently married and going for their first major vacation). On being told, that the had missed the flight, they cried a lot, saying that they had an elaborate vacation planned and would incur a lot of losses if they did not reach Coimbatore on time, etc. They tried to push the attendant for 5-10 mins and even spoke to the captain themselves. I stayed calm and accepted my fate.

Once it was clear there was nothing much that could be done, we three proceeded to the exit to get ourselves onto another flight.  I reached the counter and enquired and got a good option. There was a flight via Hyderabad at 8:10 am, which would get me to Coimbatore by 1:45 pm.  Having not had such an instance of missing a flight before, I was worried that the flight might be costly during the peak travel season. I was pleasantly surprised that the fare difference was not very high, and with a payment of Rs 2500, I was booked on to the next flight.

Then the other couple, who were hearing my conversation, felt that the same option was good for them and requested the same. To their dismay, I had just been allotted the last available seat on the flight, and they could only take a flight at 8:30 am, which would get them to Coimbatore in the evening, and they had to shell out some Rs 20,000 for the tickets. 

Moral here?

The fact that I did not lose my temper, and did not get angry at the gentleman in the first instance, even though I was not at fault and paid a huge price for the new ticket, God responded to my kindness by letting me get away with a small price when I was genuinely at fault, as I had come late to the airport. Equanimity – being calm under situations of stress is very important. We need to be able to clearly differentiate between conditions where we can do something and the ones which cannot be helped. The sooner we determine which one it is, the better for our blood pressure. We all feel that God is unjust when something terrible happens to us, but we rarely thank him when the same God does good to us and instead look to take all the credit ourselves.