Out of the world "Check-in" !

Well, as almost all of you asked me what was the deal about the "check-in" and "uncheck-in" maybe I should explain it a bit more in detail!! :)

So this is what happened: all excited and prepared me reached the check-in counter of the Gulf Air. With mixed emotions sprinting through my mind, I gave my bag, the female at the counter weighed it and even put the tag without questioning the over-weight!! I was so happy that this time also, that extra kilo had passed! Oh well, who knew that such feelings of happiness don't last! The female took my ticket, paper visa, and my passport. After doing her stuff on the computer, she got up, gave me a look, discussed something with her colleague and went to discuss further with her senior officer. Here she comes now... "You will have to wait for some time." Me: "wait? for what"? The female: "actually your PNR doesn't show that you are allowed to enter Lebanon". I, devastated: "what? How come? I have the visa!!!" The female, coldly, ignoring completely my plea: "Sharad, take mam inside in our office. Sir would like to talk her." Hmmm! This didn't really sound normal to me! And while I was thinking about what the hell was exactly going on, she took out the tag from my bag, tore my boarding pass and said: "I am unchecking u."

Le speechless me!!

Never ever in my life had I heard about such a thing!! "Uncheck me in"?!! I don't even know if that literally means something, but oh in real life apparently it does! So, I took my 31kg bag and other belongings and followed "Sharad" to their office to talk to their boss. Apparently as I had received the entry visa (something similar to "On arrival") from Beirut, it wasn't stamped on my passport. According to their Boss, they had not received an "Ok to Board" signal from the Gulf Air Beirut office which hadn't received it from my boss! Well, of course, they hadn't received it! Only if the new and stringent rules were made public! They had to confirm that I had actually been granted the visa and hadn't just fashioned an official visa from somewhere! No confirmation was ever going to come on that day as everybody in Beirut was fast asleep, oblivious to the whole chaos! Optimistic me waited till the gates closed, yet there was no "Ok" from Beirut. And so eventually, it was time to go home, again. Whatever happened was so damn unexpected that I was quite numb for some time. I was so lost that I think the officers at the desk must have thought that I was mad to ask same questions three to four times! Well, even if they did think that they didn't show and they were very kind :) Meeting such nice people is always like a "silver lining to the dark cloud".

However, nobody had a clue from where did this unusual rule come from! Not my boss in UN, not my travel agent and not me. We were told that due to the security purposes such a rule had been created and was being strictly implemented. (Maybe I was the first victim of such a rule!) So after millions of emails, phone calls to and from Cox and Kings and from UN Lebanon Field office and relentless work of my boss and Aashish, finally that "Ok to board" signal came and it looked like this!