Toward India

We have spent time before in Goa and Kerala. We love India, but it is the most frustrating country in the world - a cautionary tale unfolds before we even leave Vietnam.
I have made six calls to the Virgin Airways Contact Centre to change the date of our Bangkok - Delhi flight. Over four hours on the phone and all I got was erroneous information and bad advice from Ashu, Yamini, Anesh, Abhi (twice) and Paul. I am not exaggerating. Yamini told me to go to the Virgin counter at Bangkok airport to get our tickets endorsed. I was to discover that there is no Virgin counter at Bangkok airport. Three times I had to fax a copy of our tickets to them. The whole story is hours long, boring and sad to recount. It was a comedy of incompetence on the part of the Virgin call centres. Abhi had never heard of Vietnam so had trouble even appreciating where I was calling from!
All of these call centre travel professionals are based in Delhi and Mumbai.
I am good at remaining calm when all seems lost and as an introduction to India perhaps Virgin have helped prepare me for what is to come.

p.s. I arranged our new fights (myself) for the Bangkok - Delhi leg at the airport early on the morning of our departure. A lucky encounter with a local manager of Jet Airways turned the tide of my torment. He could have turned me away but instead made me smile and all for no extra charge.
Virgin are a good airline but somehow they created impossible from the incredibly simple.
tip: Avoid paper tickets if you think there is any chance you may want to change a flight.

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