Getting to Dubai - Nick Crnokrak

Met a few classmates in Chicago's O'Hare airport waiting for the trip to start. I really need to thank United Airlines for the wonderful service I received on this journey. I'm a big fellow and the journey involved two flights to get to Dubai. Since I'm a big guy and I knew that this would be a 15 hour flight, I decided to purchase business class tickets using my points and extra cash so I could fly comfortably in the plane to Dubai. I checked in at the counter and received my seat assignments for the first leg (Chicago to Washington D.C.) My second flight was not "released" from their system yet and the kind woman at the United Airlines ticket counter told me that I would not have a problem when I arrived in Washington D.C. She reassured me that they would have my Business Class ticket at the gate. I boarded the plane and had a wonderful time in Business Class.
I struck up a conversation with the person next to me and found out that he was a lawyer that had a satellite office in the U.A.E. - his home office was located in Portland, Oregon. We struck up a conversation about doing business in Dubai and he was very informative on the challenges a person from the United States would face when dealing with the culture in Dubai. Family is usually always first and meetings are cancelled if a family matter comes up. When doing business in Dubai, I needed to understand that the person whom I would be talking to wants to get to know me before they will do business with me. Also, you will always be considered an outsider. Getting to know the person over the years helps but the culture is blood deep and us "Westerners" will always be seen as outsiders. We had such a good conversation in the plane, he invited myself to be his guest in "The United Club" while we wait for our second plane to be ready in two hours. The United Club is the equivalent of a golf clubhouse within the airport. We continued our conversation and had a great time. The United personnel offered us free drinks, free snacks, computer workstations, the latest news on flat panels, I was in Executive Business heaven. United Airlines has a person behind the counter told us the the plane would board 45 minutes prior to the flight. I had her look up my seat to make sure I was still in business class - she said - "No problem your number 10 on the list." So with a little over an hour to kill, I had a wonderful conversation with Mike (the lawyer). It is now 45 minutes to flight time - we both walked to the gate for the next leg of the journey - a non-stop flight from Washington D.C. to Dubai - totaling 13 hours in the air.
I arrive at the gate and I hear over the loudspeaker "Ladies and Gentlemen your flight has been overbooked - we are looking for people to give up their seats in exchange for a $300 credit and they guaranteed to be on the next flight." SInce I am on a tight itinerary with the MBAe group - I decline. I go up to the gate to get my ticket and the person tells me that I do not have a seat in Business Class and that I have a seat in Economy Plus - they would refund the difference in my ticket. They showed me where my seat was and it looks as though it has plenty of room, but I am stuck in the middle. Ok fine, I can't argue - there's nothing to be done, nor are they willing to work with me, so I walk to the plane disgruntled.
I find my seat - I have a wall in front of me but there looks to be a lot of legroom. I sit down and wait for the people to fill in the seats around me. I was in luck - the people that United assigned to seats surrounding mine were ex-military. Remember how I said I was a big person? I'm 6'1" and a big shouldered person. The people sitting next to me are the same build as myself. I never knew the three of us would bond so well since we wouldn't be able to breathe if our arms were down and we had to keep them crossed in order to get some small sense of comfort, from a seat specified by United, to be put on this plane that would comfortably fit my 8 year old. I asked the stewardess for the complimentary United Airlines pry bar, so that If I needed to get up to use the bathroom I would be able to. She didn't think my comment was funny - but I heard her snicker when she saw the entire row of five - yes, five seats together - packed in like sardines. After 3 hours in the air - the person next to me had his foot fall asleep. He had to get up. I was relieved. I could stretch out on one side. He came back after 30 minutes and tried to fall asleep. An hour after that - I had to go to the bathroom since the stewardesses gave us plenty of liquid to drink. I was surprised and elated to go to the bathroom and have the realization that I have more room in the airplane's bathroom than in my seat. I would end up getting two hours of sleep on that 13 hour flight....
We land, I de-plane and go through customs, then wait with our MBAe group. I board the bus and off to the Hotel. We arrive in 15 minutes and I can't wait to freshen up and go out to dinner. Phil and I go out to recon the area and after about 30 minutes return to the hotel for dinner. We had a very nice Chinese dinner and about halfway through the meal - I start falling asleep. Ok, we finish up and I am ready to get some sleep....then I check in with the family and check e-mail. Everything looks good.... I'm going to bed after being up all day...see you all tomorrow.

Please excuse grammatical and spelling errors....
Sent from my iPad

Nick