Propose to Girl !

Propose to Girl :

BRITISH AIRWAYS- DATV- TRANSIT VISA-H1B-HEATHROW

It is 5:08 a.m. I have not been up this early for a long long time. I didn't have to since British Airways wasn't a part of my life until now.

Right now I am supposed to be on a Flight to Heathrow and in a few hours time from there taking a connecting flight to Bangalore. 5 hr layover in Heathrow.

Why am I blogging right now? At 5.08 .am and after 2 years? Just to get the information across on why not to fly British Airways and also to give you information British Airways doesn't give you when you book your tickets. British Airways thinks their responsibility stops once they get your $1450. Am I sour, bitter ....yes I am. I am short of $1450. My travel arrangements are messed up, my vacation cut short by a day over a Direct Airside Transit Visa (DATV). WHEN YOU TAKE A CONNECTING FLIGHT FROM HEATHROW YOU NEED A DATV. YOU NEED IT EVEN IF YOU DONT CHANGE AIRPORTS. EVEN IF YOU HAVE A LAYOVER OF 1 HR. If you belong to the following countries you need one.

AFGHANISTAN, ALBANIA, ALGERIA, ANGOLA, BANGLADESH, BELARUS, BURMA (MYANMAR), BURUNDI, CAMEROON, PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA, COLOMBIA, CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (ZAIRE), ECUADOR, ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GAMBIA, GHANA, GUINEA, GUINEA-BISSAU, INDIA, IRAN, IRAQ, IVORY COAST, KENYA, LEBANON, LIBERIA, MACEDONIA, MOLDOVA, MONGOLIA, NEPAL, NIGERIA, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, RWANDA, SENEGAL, SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO, SIERRA LEONE, SOMALIA, SRI LANKA, SUDAN, TANZANIA, TURKEY, TRNC, UGANDA, VIETNAM, YUGOSLAVIA, ZAIRE (FORMERLY DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO), ZIMBABWE.

www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/doineedvisa/visadatvnationals

You can board the flight if you have a valid US visa. Check out the link .My visa stamp expired last year. I am going down to India to get a stamp. I have valid Schengen C visa. This is not acceptable. I have an I-94 valid for the next 6 months. Not acceptable. British Air mentioned they are fined 20,000 pounds. I move to next desk it becomes 10,000 USD. You get different info from each of the guys from other side of the desk. We can let you fly if you are visa expired in the last 3 months. Another lady " No it is 6 months". Then the desk lady asks me to call up Reservations: 1-800-247-9297. They mention they cant do anything about it. They just give you a number.I had to wait on the phone for 18 minutes listening to their blissful music. BTW had two cellphones dialing the number. British Air mentions its not their responsibility, not boarding the flight is treated as No Show. So you are ticket is Non-refundable. I asked them to keep the Return leg of the journey open and not refund me for the Departure Leg from BWI to BLR. I mention, I dont need your refund, please let me travel back on my Return leg so that my wife (FWD 2 weeks) doesn't celebrate her Honey Moon alone.

NO SHOW.NO REFUND. TICKETS STANDS CANCELED. YOU LOOSE $1450. YOU GET BACK AIRPORT TAXES. HE DOESNT TELL ME HOW MUCH THAT IS. YOU WILL GET TO KNOW IN 7-10 days, thats what he mentioned. I then had to rebook the same Return flight from BLR that they canceled for $792.00. I swore never will I fly British Air again after this ordeal.

Are the flights cheap. No way. Think about this to get a DATV you spend $100 + 8 hrs of your time. You need to submit your Biometric data for which you need to make an appointment at a center near you. Then send out yours docs (passport, I-94....Originals).. to any of the 4-5 of the centers in the country (USA). $50 for postage both ways. In case they end up misplacing any of your documents...good luck from then on.

www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/ApplyNow

If you need Visa info for the UK ,you got to pay for this on the phone using your credit card. They work Mon-Fri. If you need to cancel or change your tickets on British Airways you need to pay $20.

I came to know about the DATV a week before my departure. I just got my passport back from the Netherlands Embassy.I couldn't risk sending out my passport, I-94, 797 etc to the UK consulate for the sole reason that I am going down to India for a wedding. Any of my documents misplaced during the 5 days rush transit, I am stuck here in the US.

I call up British Airways call center to cancel my ticket a week before I leave. The answer I get from them is the visa rules keep changing and we cannot inform them to you. To place "you might need a VISA for your connecting flights" on your website/Itinerary is very hard to do. I understand. It doesn't make good business sense.


Was it my ignorance. YES. Can British Airways give you VISA information when you are booking tickets. Yes sure they can. Other travel websites (Orbitz) do or at least mention about it. Luftansa allows you to travel on an I-94. I am going to my home country. I am changing flights at Heathrow, I am not getting out of the airport Nor am I changing airports to go missing. I cant slip out of an airport without going thru Immigration . Unless UK believes their Immigration Clearance sucks and just cant rely on them.

All in all I screwed myself by flying British Airways. Never Will. Never Again. Even if I have a valid US visa. Once they get your money, its all misty from then on for them. Their helpline/call center sucks Camels balls. Fly via Frankfurt or Amsterdam. I am not sure about Air France. Check on that.

Okay I have vented by frustration out enough. I am on my way in a few hours. Another day, a New beginning. This time its Air-India....:-)

DATV - $100
NO DATV, NON REFUNDABLE ROUND TRIP TICKET, YOU LOOSE: $1450
TO CHANGE TICKET: $20
TO BOOK ANOTHER BA TICKET : $792.00
THE LOOK ON YOUR Future Father-in-Laws face when you present him with a Chivas Regal: Priceless

There are somethings Money cant buy , for things you can, there is British Airways waiting to suck it out from you before you do.

Gere ka chumah zor seh lageh

It’s been a year since I last blogged. I had taken a sabbatical. My previous 2 blogs drained me out completely. I had bloggers block. I am back now and hope to be as irregular as I previously was.

I was following the developments in the Indian media recently. I am proud to say we are finally shoulder to shoulder with the American media, in dishing out crap. The kissneh kisko kiss kiya occupies front page and is flashed allover the media. It’s not just the media that is to be blamed. I have seen much steamier kisses in bollywood movies and all hell breaks loose when Gere kisses Ms. Shetty. WTF people- get a life. Some god damn high court judge had the audacity to issue a warrant. That’s because next day he would get to say " Dekho beti merah naam be aayah hain paper main" Richard Gere, Shilpa Shetty aur main.......

Of all the stuff that is there to cover -the media prefers to give coverage to the nincompoops who protest outside Rakhie Sawants or Dhonis house- demolishing his half made brick wall. They fail to understand that rest of the world looks at India through the eyes of the media. An average American knows India from Indiana Jones- temple of doom. "Oh you have lots of elephants and monkeys right?” Add the Indian media to the equation and we have Dumber Americans.


Shilpa Shetty was not at the receiving end of all this. The publicity she achieved from Big brother and Gere ka chumah out did all her movies at once. There was a period when I was so tensed; I would break out in a sweat in the middle of the night. Why? Because I didn’t know what Ash would wear for her wedding or how Shilpa is coping in big brother?

All this has got me my share of limelight too. People at work able to relate my surname to the happenings in the media and letting the rest know we have a "Shetty" among them. Better watch out for me guys. Aur Mandira tereh ko akal kabh ayegah??

Yedjucation

12 yrs of schooling.. 2 yrs of Pre Univ, 4 yrs of Engineering, 2 yrs of Masters = 20
My parents actually put me through some pre kindergarten stuff too..dont rembr how many months....but thats when i really lost it I guess.

Come on babbles tell uncle ur ABC...and I would start to ramble.....A for yaapul ,,B for Badah yappul, C for Chota yappul, D for Doosra yappul, E for Ek aur yappul..F for Falthoo main time nako waste karo uncle.....

I wish I could tell it to some of my teachers at skool...they would ask us to memorize tables for ..17,18 and 19...wtf do u need 17X19 for unless u want to become a grocer..cant u just multiply it on a piece of paper and dish out the answer...

or unless its like...Mayur ..code red..code red..the space craft veering out of orbit...what is 17X19..we need to input the value here.....

Education should be common sense implementation...Masters helped me achieve that a bit...a lot of times I have gone...OOOhhhhh thats why you do it like that.....(I would have said that loud in my head..so that your fellow researchers dont think ..oh man this guy is dumb..)

How many of you know the reason for seasons...they taught me in skool its because the sun moves away from the Earth thats when it is winter and as it comes close to the earth it is summer...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO00000000ooooooooooo... did they teach u guys the same thing????? Ans: its because of the tilt in the earths axis

....just learnt abt it a yr or so back...my entire belief system came crashing down...god thats what I learnt in 4th std...what else is wrong...is 17x19 not 323....??? I was speaking to my friend the other day and he was complaining abt how he still didnt know why you would differentiate and integrate...(No he isnt in KG-2)....I just hope education becomes more practical...cramming shouldnt be a major constituent...Physics and Math was force fed into us....absolutely pointless...it has just decomposed into garbage....

I cant do much about it now can I..I am not the one who would stand up and say the future generation shouldnt go throught this...
I would tell Babbles Jr ..you know.. ur gonna study tables from 30 to 39 and when I ask u.. if you dont know 34x39 ...someone gonna get a hurt real bad...:-)..


(Courtesy RP)

Goodyear

Its been 3 mons since my gym membership expired and I havent renewed it yet. Not that I am a fitness freak its that I have lost the desire to stay in shape. I dont do weights or cardio. I play racquet ball and since my partner left to India I decided lets relax a bit ,take it easy a little and then hit the gym sometime later in the week.

The stars and the planets or for that matter any celestial objects refused to align in my favor and that was the end of the road to the gym. The same thing happened with my martial arts training too. One fine day after 1.5 yrs I decided hmmmmmmmmmmmm and then "AFSOS".

I seem to loose interest very soon. Is it the lackof motivation or will power or just sheer laziness thats gripped my system. Procrastination is another thing I have mastered in. The University refused to give me a degree for that as the course wasnt part of the curriculum. Small actions or inactions have just fallen in place to create a well greased sloth. The best exercise I get daily is opening the freezer door a zillion times to check if the food in there as magically changed from the last time I had my head in there i.e a minute back.

I have decided it is high time I do something about my fitness. I am 26 and sooner or later the inevitable will happen. When it is hard for me to see my toes . It is one thing I would like to procrastinate and be happy about.

..ok got to go...Sara Lee waiting for me....No she is not my hot next door chinese neighbour..it is the 3 layered cheese cake icecream...:-)

chao