At O'HARE

We arrived at the airport at about 6:30pm; check-in was a breeze, there was no one in the line since most people did not check for the delay and arrived on time. Usually there is a line of at least 20-30 people. Air India now seems to rent the Nippon Airways counter and its employees for their daily flight out of O’hare. The lady (most likely not an Air India employee) at the check-in counter informed me that all three of our seats were not together despite my travel agent having given me seat numbers. I asked the lady if she can get us three seats together since we were traveling with a toddler, she said she would look in to it. I asked for section B which is in the front behind the first class and she found us three seats in row 36 up to Bombay (BOM). However, she could not find three seats together on the domestic flight from BOM to AMD and asked us to switch seats with someone in the plane. As an afterthought I asked her if the connecting flight to AMD would wait for us and she has been told that they would wait. The connecting flight is a smaller flight, usually a 737 that takes the international passengers to the smaller airports. Usually I’ve been delayed on the smaller flights because the connecting international flight is late.

We had about two hours before the boarding so I decided to chill out at the airport bar, the waiting area at O’hare was packed because of Air India delays and other flights leaving at the same time. I managed to order a beer and spent time talking with my brother and his family and watching my son run around the airport lounge. I had to leave my CDMA Treo 650 behind since it wouldn’t work in India. It was difficult but I let my brother take it back for me. I felt disconnected from the world.