A bit of a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast was followed by the next panic. We had to go to the airport to get printed copies of our tickets, because British Airways cannot do an electronic ticket transfer to Lufthansa. Our driver was called into action quickly, arriving within 15 minutes. At the airport, we are sent from one door to the next, each patrolled by a guard who is not keen to let us in. Eventually we find the right entrance and I am allowed through because I have a passport and a paper ticket. My colleagues with electronic tickets are less lucky, having to be rescued by a BA member who assures the staff that they do have tickets.
The BA office is a crowded office with 6 people ahead of us and only one man dealing with customers. The other four staff, who do not appear to be doing much, are polite and ensure that we have seats, but will not help us. I am told that “We are operations staff and not Customer Services”. My message to British Airways is that if it does not organise its staff better, it will not have any customer, hence will not need any operations so these staff will be redundant as well as unhelpful.
Meanwhile the one Customer Service person is embroiled with an old couple who insist that they wish to arrange an itinerary for a friend who is travelling in July (it is January and there are some of us who need to rearrange flights because of industrial action). Despite being told that it will take half an hour to complete, they insist and the hapless man has to do it. Just to make matters worse, they pay him in cash, so all the notes have to be counted and logged by denomination before putting them in the safe. I was surprised that the procedure did not require serial numbers as well. Finally, the old couple leave and the queue starts to move again. Another BA staff member comes in and appears to know what she is doing. When we tell her that we have transferred to Lufthansa for the previous day, she asks why we do not just take the BA flight on the same day. This is an attractive option, giving us a bit of a sleep the previous night and getting to Heathrow direct. After a lot of probing by us as to whether the flight will really go and equal amount of reassurance by her that it will, we rebook on to that flight. So in theory, I just arrive 24 hours earlier – I wonder what the practice will be?
I spent the afternoon catching up on all those things that I had wanted to do. The chess club web site is up to date and I have loaded a lot of stuff on to www.gracetremayne.com The first five days of the log are there and hopefully more tomorrow. The other three went out site-seeing in Bangalore and came back happy and ready for a meal in town. I was happy just to go with the flow. Off we went to the centre of town in Rickshaws, two in each racing off to MG Road, thanks to my mad colleague offering to double the fare for the winner. We dined on the roof garden of a 13 storey building, which gave fine views over Bangalore and much cleaner air. The food and ambience were far superior to Indi Jo and yet it worked out cheaper, probably because of the greater competition in that area. After dinner we had a pleasant stroll around the centre, including crossing the roads when every cell in my brain said that it was a stupid thing to do. I am still here to tell the tale. When we were ready to return, we had Rickshaw drivers fighting, almost literally, for our fare. And so ends another eventful day.
Pictures
Bangalore by night Author in Rickshaw
