Transportation Woes Continue

So, I finally got to London. Despite being a fairly good "flight sleeper" normally, I didn't get much sleep on the plane and arrived in London more tired than I wanted to be. Sicne the flight got in at about 7 AM, I decided to go to my uncle's place in Purley and relax a bit before heading to the Royal Holloway University of London.

Rather than taking the cheap train to Central London (50 minutes), I opted for the Heathrow Express which gets you to Paddington Station in less than 20 minutes (at a much higher cost). At Paddington, I switched over to the Central Line to get to Victoria station where I had to switch over to the Main Line to get to Purley. By the way, I have to give kudos to British Rail for the incredibly well thought out signage everywhere at the ststainos. Despite being a confusing morass of different lines and train systems headed all over the city and outskirts, I never had trouble knowing where to go at these stations. I had to switch lines, terminals, and platforms, btu at every point there were clear signs telling me where I needed to go. As the English would say, "Bloody Brilliant!"

The short ride on the circle line to Victoria extended my bad luck on the transportation front this week. While the entire tube system was running well, two stops into my ride, the train stopped and there was an announcement that there was a problem at the monument station and that we would be delayed. We finally pulled into Gloucester Road station and were informed that the train had been told to stop there indefinitely until the problem at Monument was fixed. With that 20+ minute delay, the time I gained taking the Heathrow Express was effectively wiped out.

I finally made it to Victoria and found out that my best bet was to take a train to East Croydon and then switch there to a train to Purley. All of this was relatively painless and smooth. I should also give another quick shoutout to the beauty of the big train stations in London. Paddington, Victoria (and later Clapham Junction) were all beautiful structures and I could have spent an hour in each place just wandering around watching people and admiring the architecture. There is something quite special about the environs of an English train terminus that everyone should experience.

I got to Purley and had some trouble calling my uncle (public telephones are not quite as ubiquitous as they used to be). But, I finally got through and he came by and picked me up. I was fed a great Indian meal at home after I showered and cleaned up. We watched Federer start to lose to Berdych and I was driven back to the train station so I could head to Egham, my destination for the conference.

By this time, I was definitely fading. I hopped on the train at Purley and saw that I had a 25+ minute ride to Clapham Junction where I would switch to the Egham train. The next thing I remember after getting on the train is waking up and finding that the train was *just* leaving Clapham Junction. I had fallen asleep and missed my stop. I got off at the next station and took a train back. Luckily the trains are so frequent and well managed that this was not a big problem (except for the lost time). Fifteen minutes after landing at Clapham Junction, I was on the train to Egham.

Egham is a tiny village outside London with a correspondingly tiny train station. There were only two taxis at the stand and someone had beaten me to them. Since the lady asked to be taken to the University, I just asked her if she was heading to the ACR conference and whether I could ride with her. Meanwhile, another conference attendee overheard and joined us for the short ride to the University.

The room was as spartan as I experienced during my last stay at University accommodations in France (LaLonde conference) many years ago. Despite this being the "premium en suite" accommodations costing GBP60 per night, it was a basic tiny dorm room with no phone or TV. Most disturbing to this spoiled American was the fact that like my LaLonde experience several years ago, there was no air conditioning or even a fan. I just don't understand this "no fan" business. How are you supposed to live through the summer (especially at night) when there is no air movement in the room? Luxury accommodations this is not.

I went for the conference reception and registration which was held in the beautiful Founder's Building Courtyard (photos of this will come later as I didn't have my camera). Had a couple of drinks and met several friends and colleagues. We went to the Founder's dining hall for a rather awful dinner. The "Malaysian Chicken" was rather tasteless and they refused to give me any of the "vegetable biryani" or "tomato soup" as I was told I was allowed only one of the options. A group of us then headed to the "Happy Man," a local pub where I enjoyed a pint. This time, the fact that it was slightly warm beer that tasted strong just added to the ambience and did not cause any complaints.

By the time I got to my room at about 10:45 PM, I had a splitting headache. I remember taking a couple of Advil and lying down in bed. Next thing I remember is looking at my little travel clock and finding that it is 8:30 AM.

Hurrying up and waiting ...

I just figured that my previous post was too long already and this new tidbit would go unnoticed.

I just checked and found that our 6:15 flight now shows as delayed. It currently shows as departing at 6:45 PM, but that's how things started yesterday.

Didn't I say something about deja vu all over again recently?

Communication Breakdown

So, here I am in a hotel room in Detroit - 3700 miles from where I want to be.

The story of how I got here reads like a comedy of errors. It would seem that Delta airlines has never had a canceled flight before and they had to scramble to figure out how to handle this.

First, given that they were aware of the problem before 6 PM last night, you would think someone would be responible for contingency planning. When the "computer reboot" didn't work, shouldn't it have triggered some process by which contingency plans were drawn up for dealing with 300-plus irate passengers in a 767 should the problem not be an easy fix. At numerous points during the repair process, they had the opportunity to set up backup alternatives. Apparently nothing like that happened. We were left waiting and wondering as they changed the departure time from 10:00 PM to 10:30 PM to 11:00 PM to 11:45 PM to 1:00 AM before finally canceling the flight at about 1:30 AM. Did they really have to keep us waiting until that long before canceling the flight? Still, it was only after this that things really went down hill. There were actually two sub-breakdowns here as a result of the lack of contingency planning - why did it take that long to make the cancelation decision? and, why does it take 24 hours to get a replacement plane?

Breakdown Two: I should express some appreciation to the Delta Skyclub folks who kept the club open for all of us Heathrow and Minneapolis (another delayed flight) passengers until we left at about 1:30 AM. Although they put away all food and beverages at 10:00 PM, it was nice to at least stay in the lounge with access to a minimally comfortable chair and access to a power source and Internet access. But then, when we headed down to the gate, there was chaos. There were no clear signs or lines or any indications on what to do. People clustered around various gates where there seemed to be agents helping people. On asking around, we were told that we just stand in one of the lines at gate A28 or A25 (there were clusters of people and no lines) to simply pick up hotel and meal vouchers. The line I was in took ages even though there were only about five or six people in front of me. The printer wouldn't work and the agent had to keep running from one counter to the next. Then, there did not seem to be any meaningful order in which the hotels were allocated. Some got the Hyatt Regency, some got the Sheraton, and I got the Holiday Inn. No instructions were given as to where to go, how to reach the htoel, and how to get back for the rescheduled flight. I had to ask someone about amenities (since I had responded to overcrowded cabins by packing a VERY small carry-on that only had my book and laptop) and they directed me to a gate where there would be a box with the toiletery pouches. There was still no one directing people to appropriate ground transportation. Their meal vouchers were for a whopping six dollars each! The management of the process of allocating hotel and meal vouchers at the gate was a mess.

Breakdown Three: I followed the crowd heading to the ground transportation area. WHen I got to the area marked "Hotel Shuttles," I found a relatively large group of confused passengers looking around for a shuttle appearing confused. No one seemed to know what to do and where to go. I went to the board with the hotels listed and tried to find the "Holiday Inn Southgate" and came up blank. I called the number listed for the Holiday Inn Express and they said they have nothing to do with the Holiday Inn Southgate and had no idea how I could contact them. He did transfer me to their general reservation line and the person there had no idea how I could contact the Holiday Inn Sothgate. She gave me the number for what she said was the hotel, but when I called it, I was back to the Holiday Inn Express. Several of the passengers called the Holiday Inn Southgate and were told that transportation was the airline's responsibility and they had no information on how we were to get to the hotel. As we were standing around wondering what to do (it was a long walk back and back through security to the gate), someone came by and said and told a few of the people that we were in the wrong spot and needed to head to a different point where coaches were waiting. She just said this to a few people around one cluster and walked quickly away before the rest of us before we could ask her what she said. We had no choice but to follow the group that had spoken to the lady. We trooped back into the terminal and ended up at the luggage claim. Then, everyone stopped and looked around bewildered. I went to one of the people who had spoken with the lady and they still appeared confused "Where did she ask you to go?" I inquired. "Well, here, I think ..." came the uncertain answer in a clipped English accent. I then headed away from the lost group (since I figured the coach is unlikely to be inside the baggage claim area) and found two large coaches waiting outside baggae claim. I called the group over. There were two coaches engaged in deep conversation with a Delta agent. The coach drivers weren't sure which coach was going to the Holiday Inn, but asked us just climb into one of the coaches now. The driver got on the mic and told us that the agent wasn't sure how many people still needed a ride so we just had to wait until they knew if everyone had been rounded up. He also said that the agent had no idea what to do after we got to the hotel and had no idea when we would be picked up the next day, "It could be 2:00 or 2:30 PM," he said helpfully "because the airline wants you back three hours before the flight." Overall, the process of keeping passengers informed of the process of getting us to our final destination was botched.

Breakdown Four: We finally get on our way and find that this hotel is a good forty minutes away from the airport. Now, remember this - the hotel has been told that a flood of stranded passengers were on their way. Several of the passengers had called the hotel wondering how to get there. It is 3 AM. It is reasonable to expect that the hotel is all set up to manage the coach full of tired and angry passengers, right? We get to the hotel and crawl out of the coach in a big grumpy bunch and find there is ONE person at the registration desk to help us all. We find ourselves in a long line as this one lady tries to get everyone's name in, respond to the various prompts, assign rooms, etc. Couldn't they have had all this set up before the coach arrived? WHile the lady was pleasant and kept apologizing for the long list of prompts she had to respond to, it still took ages. I was near the front of the line and was in my room by about 3:15 AM.

Breakdown Five: Still primarily the responsibility of the hotel. We asked about breakfast and the lady said that breakfast buffet would run from 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM. Since there was a long line, a few of us asked again, "Until what time is breakfast available?" "Until 10:30 AM," she repeated and that time was passed on down the line in a loud voice. This morning, I woke up late, took a shower, wore my old stinky clothes and sauntered over to the breakfast place at about 10 AM. As I asked about a place to sit down, the waitress said, "you know, we close at 10 AM - we're just clearing away the food." I told her that we were told 10:30 AM and she said that the lady (who we later found out had worked at this Holiday Inn for ages) at registration was mistaken. The waitress was kind enough to bring the food back (there were a few others who wandered in after me) for which she earned a $5 tip from me. So, I got some breakfast and headed back to the room to type up this ridiculously long post. But, I need this reminder for my complaint letter to Delta!

The adventure is not over yet. Who was it who said something like "Getting there is half the fun?"

UPDATE: I wandered out of the room at about 1:40 PM to get some lunch before the 2:30 coach and found most of my co-passengers out in the lobby with their bags. They said that the coach was already there and planning to leave at 2 PM for the airport (they *did* say 2:15 OR 2:30 when we were dropped off). So, I went back to the room, wrapped up and we were brought to the airport at 2:30 PM. It's deja vu all over again. I'm in the Delta Skyclub waiting for the 6:15 PM flight ...

The adventure begins ... earlier than planned

Yes, I'm supposed to be in the air now. But, about 30 minutes before our departure time (at around 6:30 PM), we were told that there is a computer glitch on the aircraft and that a new part will have to arrive from Atlanta to fix it. Our scheduled departure is now 11:00 PM.

Interestingly, five minutes after this annonucement, they announced that they're going to shut down all power to the plane and then bring the power back online for the computer system to see if a complete system reboot fixes the computer. Don't tell me that the latest Boeing 767-400 runs on Windows Vista!

So, here I am in the Delta SkyClub adding to my blog and watching time go by real slow ...

UPDATE: It is now 11:40 PM and they still are not boarding the aircraft. The Board still shows expected departure at 11:45 PM. Let's see ...

UPDATE 2: It is now almost 1 AM and there is still no sign of departure. Hey, but they updated the Board to show a 1 AM departure instead of 11:45. If the flight had left on time, we would be a bit over an hour from landing at Heathrow. Hope they don't cancel the flight.

UPDATE 3: It is now 3:30 AM. They told us at about 1:30 PM that the flight was canceled. Finally just got checked in to the Holiday Inn and came to my room. The rescheduled flight is at 6:15 PM. More tomorrow after some rest ...

Welcome!

Okay, I'm at Detroit airport waiting for my flight to London to start on my English adventure. I will be at the Royal Holloway University of London attending the European ACR conference through Saturday. Then, the walking adventure begins. I have no idea what kind of Internet access I will have once I starting walking the walk, but I'll try my best to post info on my travels.

Thanks to all of you for following this blog.

Thanks a lot to the huge number of contributions you made to the cause. I appreciate it. For those of you still thinking of contributing, you can still do so at http://www.justgiving.com/walk-rajiv.