Blogging from SFO Airport

Wow...The power of internet. Here I am with the first leg of my journey back home is done. I've come to San Francisco from San Diego. The flight just one and a half hours. And thats what I'm doing. HEHEHEHEHE.




Nows the big one...San Francisco to Singapore via Hong Kong. A humongous 14 hour ordeal. I dont know how I will spend time, knowing that I sleep really bad in flights. And unfortunately my DELL XPS can at best work for 4.5 hours only.

Had huge trouble with my check-in bags. Apparently, it was 18 lbs over weight. Dunno how much that translates into in terms of kilograms, but the maximum allowed in a United flight is a lousy lowly 60 lbs. Compare that with a maximum of 75 lbs allowed in Singapore airlines, United sucks big time.

I simply cannot understand their process. Here I am flying out of the US, on a major carrier (read Singapore airlines) but connecting through United's flight from San Diego to San Francisco. This is written perfectly clearly in my ticket. There's no way in the world that I'll forego my journey and yet United will not allow me to check-in bags with the same weight as Singapore airlines. One thing which is all the more surprising is that they're both affiliated to the same group - Star Alliance.

So, here I am arguing at the counter about whats right and whats wrong and the way it should work but to no avail. The check-in counter lady did not budge. Tired of the argument, I relented and asked her how much would it cost me. She said since my bag's 78 lbs, it would cost huge. I was shell-shocked to hear the amount.

It would have cost me a phenomenal, earth-shattering, 3-hundred-frikkin-odd dollars for that weight. I told her that no ways I'm gonna pay that much. Then she gave me an alternative. She said if I were to remove 8 lbs then I would have to just pay USD 50. So there I had it. Pay 50 or chuck everything to bring down to 60. I removed out some of the unwanted stuff and some more stuff I moved to my hand luggage and finally I was down to 68 lbs.

I thought I went rather early to the airport, but with all the time I spent first arguing and then later re-arranging, I was left with just 30-odd minutes before my departure. Having taken all my stuff, I hurried to the security check. It was starting to sink in. I was heading HOME. YIPEEEEE.

Flying in an airlines in the US is a pain in the frikkin ass. The security check is so severe that you're bound to forget something or the other at the scanning machine. And thats the exact thing that happened to me. With all the adrenalin pumping because of the baggage ordeal coupled with the thought of heading homeward, made me forget my digital SLR camera at the scannin machine.

Luckily, when I was sitting down at a chair bang opposite to the scanning machine, I saw a security attendant open my camera bag remove all my stuff and pass it through the scanning machine AGAIN!! They were probably suspecting that it contained some sort of explosive. And then I shouted, its mine....its mine. Thus I was finally united with my camera.

PHEW!! All this and I've just finished the first leg of the journey. Wonder what else is in store for me. For all those who dont know, I'm gonna take a 3-day break in Singapore. Will be meeting my dear friend JK. I'll be meeting him after nearly 3 long years. I'm sooo looking forward to it.