Flying to the US - Not the ordeal it could have been

So yes, the visa finally came, the tickets arrived, the uncertainties disappeared. I went to the airport on the 4th of Jan to finally come to the US via Dubai and London. I was clearing immigration at Karachi airport when the chap at the counter asked me if I had a transit visa for the UK. I was going to stay in the airport at London and had done my research and, until this point, was sure I did not need a UK transit visa as long as I had a valid US visa and tickets to the US via UK. The chap let me through at my insistence that this was the case. While sitting in the departure lounge though my confidence dissolved. Lucky thing I had my cellphone. Called trusty old Ahmad who, I think, was sitting in a coffee shop at the time. Someone there had a laptop and someone also knew a travel agent. Within 15 minutes my worries had been put to rest. My research had been correct. I did not, in fact, need a transit visa for the UK. Stupid immigration officials planting last minute doubts in people's minds. Gha!!!

The Emirates flight... two hours to Dubai was a breeze even though the chap I was sitting next to was a quiet old grumpy looking sort who insisted on usurping the arm-rest, didn't eat a thing and spent the flight with his nose in the Khaleej Times. So I arrived at Dubai... what an airport.. it just seemed to go on and on and on. Anyway so the flight to London was boarding and the chap at the gate asked for my ticket through from UK to US and wanted to see my US visa. I guess that they check that you do have valid travel documents and won't be stuck in the UK. So I got on the flight to London. The 8 hours passed pretty quickly. Emirates is an incredible airline and only near the end was I starting to get sick of the plane. Incidentally, having a pretty girl sitting right next to you and also collapsing to sleep onto your shoulder every now and then on a long flight is a nice perk ;)

So I arrived at Gatwick airport where I would have to wait six (yes, SIX) hours before I boarded the American Airlines flight to Raleigh-Durham airport. The AA staff weren't at the counter yet so I had to wait half an hour there and was appalled by the lack of seating area for transit passengers. Finally the AA chaps showed up. They were British and were business-like to the point of being cold and rude. They asked an endless stream of questions.. where was I going to stay, could I prove that? Who was paying for my stay in the US? Could I prove that? Where did I buy my luggage, did I pack it myself, had it been in anyone else's possession. Thankfully they didn't ask for proof of that. I had all my documentation but carrying receipts for suitcases is asking a little too damn much. After that fifteen minute interview they finally gave me a boarding pass and I was allowed to proceed to the departure area after clearing a somewhat personal security check. The departure lounge was huge and I was hungry and tired. But when you convert pounds to rupees and discover that a tuna-fish sandwich costs 500 rupees you figure holy hell. I finally gave up doing that and went and bought the thing anyway. Yeesh! So after five and a half interminable hours the call for boarding came. Another somewhat personal security check... but this one by a cheerful British chap and then I was on the plane.

My first observation was that American airlines was virtually a bus when compared to Emirates. The seats were narrow and the leg space was minimal (also criminal). It was a 9 hour trans-Atlantic flight. Were these people crazy? But hey.. at least there was an entertainment system in every seat. Fifteen minutes after take-off we were informed that they were sorry but the entertainment was not working. After six reboots of the system we were informed that the system was not going to work. Cursing my luck I slumped into my seat and prepared for the long-haul. Luckily I was so exhausted that I slept for all but the first and last hours of the flight.

Finally we landed and got off the plane. I had two concerns at this point. First the NSEERS special registration that everyone from certain countries (Pakistan included) has to go through. I had heard nightmare stories about clearing immigration in the US. Stories of harassment, body cavity searches etc. Disturbing stuff. Secondly, had my luggage made it? I had been on three different planes. Chances of luggage getting lost are kind of high. So while I was standing in line at immigration I was worried. Sure enough, when my turn came, the chap took one look at my documents and politely asked to me to proceed to a waiting area around the corner. So I plonked myself there and waited outside a somewhat forbidding looking door that said "Secondary Registration". When everyone else had been processed, he called me back and asked me some routine questions. Had I been to the US before, why I was here etc etc. Then back to the waiting area. Five minutes later I was asked to go through the forbidding looking door. But all the menace ended there. The immigration officers were exceedingly decent, very polite and almost wanted to get the darn formalities over with and be on their way home. Something went wrong with their system so they had to redo part of the process but I was not harassed or violated or threatened or anything. They even went and got my suitcases from the baggage claim and opened them up, went through them, and then packed them very neatly again. I was told to go down to the baggage claim and that my luggage would arrive shortly. So off I went. Luggage ended up on the wrong belt so I was standing around for half an hour waiting for it in the wrong place before I spotted it on the other belt. Right then that wasn't so bad.. so I went outside, grabbed a cab, shared with another Duke student who had just come in from California and arrived at Duke in the night. Taxi driver was a lady from New York who couldn't get her head around the fact that I had just spent some 25 hours travelling. Hehehe... and now there is work to be done... so more shall follow.