New York - New Delhi - New York - Nonstop!
Locked in a tincan for 15 hours with 250+ whiny Indians and children, anyone would go mad.
But not me. It’s been a couple of days since I got back from my whirlwind 10 day trip back home.
First, the flight. Continental’s somewhat old (~two year old?) non-stop service to Delhi from Newark is, in one word, _fabulous_. The flight attendants are friendly, and did a great job of keeping people (especially kids) happy on the long (13+ hours eastbound and 15+ westbound) flight. The longest I’ve done before has been trans-atlantic 8 hour flights, and I did get somewhat bored on my way in but got around to catching up on some reading (Guns, Germs, And Steel - look for a review soon!). On my way out, I got upgraded to BusinessFirst due to Elite status and the fact that BusinessFirst was almost empty.
(Note to self: Fly weekend nights to avoid those Platinum Elite business travelers bumping me for upgrades!).
Overall, a very positive experience and I intend to fly Continental / SkyTeam for my international needs as often as I can.
Of course, none of these flights are truly uneventful, and this one was no exception. A few hours into our flight to Delhi, while I was trying hard to fall asleep in the cattle class seat some guy in the row behind me tapped me on the shoulder and the following conversation ensued:
Him: “Excuse me, kya aap mujhe mera bag de sakte hain uppar se?”
(Translation: Can you hand me my bag from the overhead bin?)
Me: <sputter><choke> <Looks at him, through the crack between our seat rows with sleepy eyes>
Him: “Yeh mere saath waali seat par gorey bhai sahab so rahe hain… aur mein inhe disturb nahi karna chahta”
(Translation: The white guy on the aisle seat is sleeping, and I don’t want to disturb him)
Me: . o O ( I’m trying to sleep too? ) Outloud: “Uhh… sure.”
And, I handed him the bag…
The trip itself was amazing. One of the biggest reasons I flew the non-stop flight was because I had a very limited amount of time, and no trip back home is ever long enough! This time around I went for the wedding of one of my best friend’s from high school and it was completely worthwhile.
For anyone looking to do a quick trip to India from the East Coast, the Continental flight is highly recommended. American Airlines also runs a non-stop flight from Chicago, but I’ve never flown on that flight so I can’t vouch for it!
technorati tags:Continental Airlines, nonstop, New Delhi, New York