Fun with airlines

My trip turned out to be a bit of a mess. The flight from Pokhara to Kathmandu was over 1.5 hours late. I got to the Jet Lite check-in counter an hour before the flight and they simply said, "The counter is closed. You missed your flight." It was tough to chip past their incredible indifference to get "Go try Jet Airways. They go to Delhi.", a suggestion obviously motivated not by compassion but just a desire to be rid of me. I managed to get a flight, but it got me to Delhi just under two hours before my connecting flight instead of the three hours they request. Turns out that airlines in this part of the world seal all baggage and check-in a couple hours before a flight - I guess for security. In Delhi, Sri Lanka Air was very helpful, but it required special handling to get me on the connecting flight. A rep spent the next 45 minutes running all over the airport, cell-phone constantly at his ear, manually retrieved my bag from the arriving flight and personally escorted it through security to the next flight, and then went through a bunch of special handling to get me cleared and get a boarding pass. There were also four Nepali guys in the same situation for a connecting flight to Dubai and we all had a fun time chasing after our long-legged friend to "wait here" and then watching him zoom around to then quick, quick follow him again. It only took a bit of common language to share the humor of it all. In the end, I did make my flight to Colombo and I hope the Nepali guys got to work on time in Dubai. Very high marks for Sri Lanka Air; I'll fly with them anywhere. Jet Lite? Arrgh! Take a train, or bus, or walk.