Travel Karma

I have always hoped to be upgraded to Business or First Class on one of my many long-haul flights. Unfortunately, that has never happened :-( Once we got into Economy Plus on British Airways thanks to a friend of a friend who worked for BA.

For this trip (nonstop Chicago to Delhi) I had signed up for an aisle seat at the end of a 5-seat inside row (777 configuration is 2-5-2). As I checked it throughout the last week or so, the middle 3 seats were empty and I had visions of being able to lie down to sleep. It was still open before my swimming group Wednesday morning, but when I got home they had filled up. There was an aisle seat open on an outside row nearby, so I switched my seat. (I figured it would be better to have one person crawling over me than 2 or 3!) As we got onto the plane, I noticed that the seat next to me was empty. Before I knew it, they were closing the doors and no one had arrived. So I had a double seat to myself, plus two sets of pillow and blanket. I was able to get my feet off the floor and (sort of) lie down to sleep. Plus I just didn't have to deal with another person in those close quarters. It turned out many of the center seats that had looked filled were actually empty, too, but I was happy with my double. I went to sleep shortly after takeoff and didn't fully wake up until we were about 6 hours away from Delhi. (13+ hour flight). I missed dinner (no great loss) but they left me a snack pack so I had something to eat when I woke up. However, the apple in my handbag was the best-tasting. They served us breakfast about 90 minutes before landing -- veg cutlets and paneer tikka with fresh fruit. Sorry, no pictures.

We landed about 8:00 PM. My India cell phone still had a charge and I called Dan. By 9:00 I was through Immigration, Baggage, and Customs, met Dan outside and we got into a prepaid taxi. It's not even 10:00 and I've had a shower and unpacked the little that is necessary for the next two nights. Now I'll find out if I'll sleep...