There isn’t much to write about the flight itself. It was the first time I’d properly flown Business Class, so that was pretty great. The seats were a lot more comfortable than what I’m used to, obviously, and the food was pretty fancy. The flight staff was really friendly, which was a nice bonus. Most of the flight was spent in a sort of low-level business meeting with my boss, interrupted by bouts of sleeping and eating. This happened a lot, as KLM and Delta both seem to strongly believe in the idea that a well-stuffed passenger is a happy one.
The one significant bit is that our flight out of Dubai was delayed by about 30 minutes. This left us with an hour or so to transfer in Amsterdam. As you can imagine, this can lead to bad things with baggage transfer. More on this later.
After about 18 hours of traveling, we arrived in Boston. To be completely honest, I had been dreading this part of the trip. I’ve heard so many horror stories of people going through US immigration, and I don’t exactly have the best passport in the world, so I spent the entire trip bracing myself for the worst.
I was through in about 10 minutes.
So, mind thoroughly blown, I went to the baggage carousels to wait for my bags. And of course, one of them doesn’t show up (I had three). See above note re: short transfers and baggage chaos.
After filing a baggage claim with Delta (this after walking through customs without having a single bag opened!), my boss and I grabbed a taxi and headed towards the apartment that my company had ready for me*.
Some folks at the office had come over to the apartment earlier to make sure things were ready for me. They left me the company cell phone, the badge that would get me into the office, a public transport (T) card with $15 on it, and, how great is this, two bottles of water and a bowl of apples and tangerines. It was quite touching.
The next few hours, I spent in a sort of daze. I had to stay awake as long as possible (it was 6pm), so I had to find a way to entertain myself for a while. Internet wasn’t working (this leads to the Comcast Saga part of my trip), so I couldn’t write any emails or whatever. I called the guy whose girlfriend owns the apartment to ask if there was any place nearby I could get a toothbrush, as mine was in the missing bag, and then went out to get that.
Around 9pm, I gave in, had an apple for dinner, and passed out.
*A note on the apartment for those not in the know. Long story short, my company has a few people who travel in and out of Boston, so it made sense for them to have a place to house them, rather than put them up in a short-stay place (~$100 a day) or a hotel (~$150 a day). So as a temporary solution, they rented this place. This worked out really well for me, as they have the place until the 1st of January, which gives me plenty of time to find my own place.
