We had Dubai and London free visits on our way to New York from Mumbai.
Recently my husband and I went to the US for a short trip as he had some business and I wished to visit my daughter and son in law who live near New York. We booked on an Emirates flight which would take us from Mumbai to New York via Dubai. Our initial flight which should have taken off at 4.20 a.m was four hours late which made us miss our New York connection. There was no other flight that day to New York, hence British airways stepped in to take us to New York via London.
I was very happy as I have a soft corner for UK where Ispent the initial years of my married life. We had some time in Dubai airport for duty free shopping which we would not have had if our earlier flight was not delayed. Some of our co passengers took the opportunity of staying in Dubai overnight and taking the next day’s flight to New York.
We got into the British Airways flight which was again delayed and we missed the through flight to New York. We were put on a later flight to New York from Londn which meant that we could buy some English chocolates and clothes on the way. We decided to count our blessings and di just that. We reached New york on the same day we had started(we started at 8 .30 a.m from Mumbai and reached New York at 9.30 p.m the same day) though we had spenct some twenty hours travelling.
It was biting cold as the mercury had dipped below zero. Added to which our baggage had gone right back from London to Dubai as they had no time to load our bags. We shopped for new clothes in Norwalk as my husband had business meetings and could not use the same clothes for thre days. We neither had a toothbrush, nor overnight or arm clothes.
Our bags did come. Three days later. Though our things were all intact, our bags had loosened zips, non working locks and the like and were in a sory and pitiable condition. So we had to buy new bags. Our ten day trip to the US cost us quite a bit(we are hoping to get a compensation-but from whom? Emirates or British Airways is the question) more than what we expected. But we had an adventure, chances to shop in Dubai, London and Norwalk. Quite a trip, isnt it?