enroute Paris to Delhi, Saturday, 1995-10-07 08:00 local (Z+5.5)
I think we have crossed the border between Pakistan and India, but I'm not sure. I'm sitting in the back of the upper deck with some very disgruntled passengers. They're mostly French, and all have paid for either first class on business class on Air India. This is the start of Tower's subservice for Air India, and Tower has only a minimal business class and no first class. These people are pissed, and the French do know how to be rude when they want to be.
Shortly we will land in Delhi, and we'll see if ths little scam of getting me into India without a visa is going to work. Will they notice that there are two first officers listed on the general declaration? Will they care? A complication has arisen in that I'm getting off in Delhi (hopefully) while the rest of the crew is going on to Bombay. If they make all of us clear customs at Delhi, there shouldn't be a problem. If, however, they wait until Bombay to have the crew clear customs, I may have a problem. They could ask something like, “Hey, if you operated the airplane down here, how is it the airplane can go on to Bombay without you? Of course, they won't say “hey”, and they will accompany the question with that curious rolling of the head Indians have. Actually, they don't always do that.
I go up early yesterday in London and took Air France over to Paris. Things worked well there (finally a change for the better). I got ahold of our office there, and they said, no problem, take a taxi to the hotel, and that they'd put me on the gen dec (short for General Declaration—all crew members are listed on it—it's what allows crew members to get through customs without visas). The taxi ride into Paris took an hour and fifteen minutes, cost $60. Spendy, but the crew member doesn't have to pay. The driver gets his money from the hotel and the amount is charged to your room, which of course is paid for by Tower or Air India or somebody.
C.J., remember when we took that boat tour on the river Seine and the one end of it was a turn about the Statue of Liberty. I looked out my window when I got to my room and there was the Seine, with a tour boat turning about the Statue of Liberty. The French, of course, gave us the one in New York City's harbor. In return we gave them this small copy (much smaller) as a token of our appreciation, or at least I think that's what happened.
The hotel was the Nikko. All Nikko hotels worldwide are owned by Japan Air Lines, and as one might expect, the Japanese give their business to their hotels. Other than crew members, almost all of the guests were Japanese. The staff appeared to be evenly split between Japanese and French. It's a much nicer location and facility than that which Tower normally uses—right on the river, about a mile away from the Eiffell Tower, a great place for running.
They've just started our descent. Who knows, I may continue this in some kind of immigration holding area. I figure the worst thing they'll do is make me wait there until the flight I am to operate leaves—that's about 6 hours from now.
Terry