I recently had to travel from US to India urgently. Below are my experiences as on late September 2020.
Processes are constantly changing all around the world, so take this as an information or just a read that might be useful and refer to the latest news and airport information for up to date processes.
India was providing special flights (Vande Bharath) to bring people from US to India. they had tie ups with United and Air India.
I was to travel from Jacksonville, Flordia, US to my native in Cuddalore in the state of Tamil Nadu (India).
The best option I had was a 38 hour journey across 4 flights
Jacksonville to Washington (United)
Washington to Newark (United)
Newark to Delhi (United)
Delhi to Chennai (Air India)
I had a 12+ hours of wait time in Delhi overnight.
Better to arrive at the airport well in time even if the first leg is domestic. i arrived at least 2.5 hours earlier than my departure in Jacksonvill which was at 2.30 p.m
when I reached Newark,
I went to the gate and we were asked to stand in a queue and one of them took the temperate and was verifying if we downloaded the 'Arokya Setu' mobile app which is for contact tracing and they also wanted us to show our browser history to let them know that we have submitted the online form 'Self Reporting Form'. they said these are mandated by the Indian government.
i didn't know about these and downloaded the app right there. Within the delhi airport website they had the 'Self reporting form' which I filled and submitted online. you get a SR# which I noted down to later download the submitted form on my phone. i thought I'll use it as a proof when someone asks for it in Newark but they didn't check again.
I was also given Personal Protection Equipments (PPE) like the face shield and a full gown free of charge.
This is the food given in the United flight from Newark to Delhi.
While on the flight, the airhostess asked if we needed some forms. I asked them if it is the same 'Self Reporting Form' i had submitted online. they said yes but also mentioned that i might still want to have that form. How right were they.
At the Delhi airport, it gets a bit tougher as no one speaks much of English and they always respond in Hindi which i wasn't familiar.
there were multiple queues and you need to ask everytime what they were for. mostly people in the queue will not know why there were standing either. they just follow the crowd.
The first queue they asked if I had the Self reporting form. they accepted both hard copy or soft copy. i showed them the soft copy of the self reporting form i had downloaded on my phone.
one of the queues, I learnt was people who were needing an exception. they had to have an exemption form. In the Delhi airport website, along with self reporting form, there was one more 'exemption form' which could be filled if we needed an exemption from Covid testing and quarantine.
The reason for exemption was that either you are pregnant, or seriously ill, sudden death or you already got tested in the last 96 hours.
So I wasn't pregnant or seriously ill and i was very much alive and that i haven't tested ever i didn't fill the exemption form and i skipped that queue.
Then there were long queues for Immigration and Customs. while halfway through the Customs queue, i saw a money exchange counter. I thought i might need some Indian money in Chennai and so told the guy behind me that I'll join him back shortly. I stepped out of the queue to the counter where there were 2 queues and my bad one rogue guy just pushed his way in before to the front and was trying to change his foreign currency to Rupees. Since he was talking in Hindi, i couldn't fully follow the conversation but he was arguing with the guy at the counter that he should be given more money. the guy at the counter was explaining that he doesn't decide on the amount and the exchange rates are published on the LCD monitor above. He could either accept that or move. but that guy wouldn't just leave. he argued that he had to go till Surat and how could not manage with the money he would be given. people in the queue were getting annoyed as he took a good 15 minutes before the guy at the counter stopped talking to him and started processing mine. That guy wouldn't still leave and stand right there. i changed my 200 dollars - got close to Rs. 13,000 which i thought was sufficient for any unforeseen expenses.
by then the guy who was behind me in the Customs queue had gone past the customs check. so i couldn't join back there. i stood at the tail end of the queue - that long tail that made many shapes along its path.
i wasn't worried as i thought i had enough time 12+ hours for my next flight and i was in no hurry. how wrong.
After going past customs, there was another spot where it was all crowded and took a while to figure out that it was actually a queue. I asked the jawans there, that I had a connecting flight to Chennai and where should i be standing. they said they have 2 options for anyone coming to the airport. either self-paid quarantine in Delhi or pay Rs. 5000 and do the Covid test and board the connecting flight.
i said I'll get the Covid test. I initially thought we have to give the test and travel to Chennai and when the test results are ready they would communicate to me via mobile or mail. but as i stood in the queue i learnt that we have to wait for the result and only if negative they'll let us take the connecting flight.
and the wait time for the result was 6 hours. i was standing in the queue at 11 p.m and 6 hour wait time still sounded okay for my 10 a.m connecting flight the next morning. instead of waiting alone for the connecting flight, it was better to wait in some queu with many folks. i started to sense a problem only when i realized that the queue was barely moving. after an hour's wait, the queue moved by 3 feet, and there was at least 30 more feet visible to me.
it wasn't clear if the testing was being done at the far end of where i could see or if we have to go elsewhere from there. i checked with some officers who were sitting idly and chatting saying that i had a connecting flight at 10 a.m and if they could prioritize folks based on the timings of their connecting flights. i knew some of the folks standing before me didn't have any connecting flight at all and are Delhi based folks. The officer didn't want to do any work of that sort. he said there is just one queue for all and it is the process. after 2 more hours of wait i checked with few other Jawans they all said that they could do nothing and that the officer to whom i had spoken earlier can do any change or prioritization. i spoke to that guy again and he didn't care about my connecting flights.
At around 2.30 a.m, i was standing at the front and the guy asked if i had the hard copy of the 'self reporting form'. Luckily i had the form given on the flight filled and i gave it to him. There were 6 folks sitting there and most of them were sitting idle. there was no longer a queue at that point as folks were crowding around each of those folks. there is no clear communication of what needs to be done in what order. they collected the passport from me and let me go not telling what to do next. when i saw some people having a small form on their hand i asked them what it was and they said when i hand over the passport,they would give it to us to fill. that form had details on what my passport number was and so on. so i had to ask for that form again from that person. all the 6 people's job was to collect the passport take a copy of the passport. they don't hand over the passport at that time. you get it only after getting the test results. they just had one printer and so there was no real use for some 3 to 4 folks there as the printer was with just one person and the pass port collection was done by one other person occasionally done by one other person too. the small form was still with one person only. they knew how to create bottlenecks. At least one of them could have walked down the queue and handed over these forms well in advance instead of people having to wait there.
after they printed a copy of the passport, they handed it over to me and collected the small form from me. they could have simply had a mobile app to scan the passport pages for people on queues and really avoid these bottlenecks with printing out a copy of these passport. i asked them what is the next step and they said to just wait there in the lounge and that we would be called. i waited there for some 10 minutes and i suspected something wasn't right as many folks who were there before me were missing there. i explored what was beyond that lounge and i found an elevator to the next level. Where I saw a huge queue again people waiting to give the test. they were equally mad that people downstairs said to wait and no one called them upstairs. so, if you were expecting your name to be called waiting there nothing would have happened.
waited in this new queue for another 2 hours and around 4.50 a.m they collected the money for the test.
they don't accept card and luckily i had cash. there was just one counter for collecting the sample from nose and throat. then they made us in a lounge with a recliner seat for the next 5.5 hours. I was given a breakfast there (covered in the Rs. 5000 for Covid and Lounge charges)
i had lost hope to catch the connecting flight by then. before collecting the test result, i saw some folks were filling another form called the 'Undertaking' form. when enquired they said after the test results are handed over, we need to take it a counter where we need to present the test results and get back our passport. but before they hand over the passport, they ask us to sign this undertaking form which kind of assures them that I'll be in home quarantine at the so and so address. so, keeping this form filled up saved some time during passport collection.
I got the result as negative around 9.20 a.m and in the next 5 minutes i collected the passport and ran through the airport to catch my 10 a.m flight. But around 9.30 a.m when i reached the Air India counter for the boarding pass, they said the gates are closed and i can not board. I asked them if they can book me in the next flight. they said, since United booked the tickets for me i need to work with United in re-booking my flight. United didn't have a counter there. there was one counter that handled many airlines including United but no one was there and the phone number they listed, no one answered.
I called United customer support number and asked them to help rebook on the next flight. With masks and a noisy environment it makes it very difficult to speak on the phone. Somehow i managed to have them book a next air India flight that evening at 4 p.m. when i checked with the air India counter again, they said they see that request from United but they can not approve it as what i originally booked was a special 'Vande Bharat' flight and I can not simply be booked to any next available flight. what they could do is have me book on the next day's Vande Bharath flight. i asked them for other options. they asked be to try with Indigo flight.
after a long queue at the Indigo counter, I made payment for a 2.30 p.m flight to Chennai. around Rs. 5300 but before issuing boarding pass, they said that i need to have a epass to Chennai. i created an epass online.
you need few things to get a epass.
1. Have enough battery in your phone after all the long waits. there was charging points in the lounge then again many people will be having their phones as well.
2. have an internet connection. airport has a free internet connection, but to connect to the airport wifi you need to give a mobile number where they would send the OTP. since my India number wasn't active, i couldn't use the regular route. One of the acquaintance at the Delhi airport covid test queue showed me a 'short cut' where i could enter '1122334455' as the phone number and the next page would let me to register a pin and reconfirm. you can give something like '1234' and confirm and it will let you connect there. the connection gets reset every half hour or 1 hour but it was good enough for my purpose.
3. while registering the ePass, i had to again provide a phone number for getting the OTP and i gave the phone number of my parents in Cuddalore and got the OTP code via whatsapp.
Indigo then issued my boarding pass and for the check-in baggage, since it is a domestic flight the baggage allowance was only 15 kg and not the 23kg for international flight. i had 16.5 kg and had no space on my carry on to accommodate that. so, i paid another 500 rs. for the overweight.
Unfortunately, they checked the baggage in the same terminal (3) whereas the flight was in terminal 2 which was not mentioned anywhere on that boarding pass. they didn't have any gate information either on the boarding pass and said that I'll have to look up on it on the display inside the terminal.
after going through security check, the security verifies the boarding pass and looking at the flight number he said that the flight is actually from Terminal 2 and i was standing in Terminal 3. i asked them if there is a way i could go there from here. they said no. they also enquired how i got into terminal 3 in the first place. i had to give a history about my international flight and i was supposed to be in the air India flight in terminal 3. he then connected me with an Indigo staff going by that side and asked him to help me out. That Indigo staff guy took me to the counter at front and told the lady there that Indigo had mistakenly checked in my baggage at the wrong terminal and that it needs to be taken out and handed over to me so that i can get to Terminal 2.
I asked them would they not internally move the checked in baggage to terminal 2 instead of handing it over to me and me again having to go through the process of checking in. they said no. I asked them how much time it would take to get to Terminal 2, and she said 5 minutes. I told that lady that i needed their help in getting me all checked in Terminal 2 as it would difficult for me to get in the queue there get in time. after some 30 minutes wait there, they got me the baggage and on my request, the Indigo sent one lady staff to assist me in getting to terminal 3. First for me to get out of the terminal 2, she had to make up some story with the Security guy. She had told me not to tell anything about Indigo checking in at the wrong terminal.I said it is difficult for me to make up stuff and if she can do all that story, I'll co-operate by being silent. She said that if we tell the truth, the security will have more questions and will delay me. i will be risking missing the flight again. She filled up some register for me to exit the terminal and had me sign it. A security officer was exactly questioning why i was moving out of the terminal and she said that i missed the flight. before he was about to ask the next question, she ushered me out of the terminal and asked me to run with her to Terminal 2.
this was no easy 5 minute walk to Terminal 2. we literally ran across multiple buildings and roads for the next 10 minutes. With both of us wearing masks and me dragging a baggage as we ran, anyone on road might have thought that we are eloping. But the actual twist was that i was going to be eventually leaving her behind and get on a flight alone to Chennai. She ushered me all they way till the entrance of Terminal 2, made sure i was able to get through the entrance security and advised me to get to the Indigo counter 'fast track' and explain the situation. With all that rush, i didn't have enough time to really thank her and appreciate what she did. i ran into the terminal and followed what she had told. they quickly checked me in and i was in no time at the right gate.
The epass i had was a provisional approval one and that I had to provide the vehicle number of the cab picking me up from the airport. i had no one picking me up at the airport. i was planning to take any cab at the entrance of the Chennai airport to get where i wanted to go.
When i reached chennai airport, before exiting, the security was checking the epass and i was just told him that i was coming from US and showed the provisional epass. he just let me out.
An airport cab driver offered to take me to Cuddalore for 4000 Rs. i didn't negotiate and just went with it. it took another 4 hours for me to reach home.
Feel free to post your questions if any. will try and answer what I know.
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