This is not meant to be an exhaustive description of air travel in India, just our experience. So we have flown twice in India, once from Delhi to Hyderabad and once from Hyderabad to Madurai (then Madurai to Sri Lanka, but we'll discuss that later).
L and I have flown many many times, within Canada, the US, the Caribean, Mexico and Europe. And granted everywhere has somewhat different procedures but India (maybe Asia) has some ones I haven't encountered yet. Now some of these maybe because you need a visa in India maybe not. Here are some of the things I noted on our last trip:
Luggage
Interesting, the weight limit for checked luggage is less, 15 kg which is about 33 lbs. but the overage charges are very reasonable. I think it cost us an extra $33 USD for our four suitcases (all the stuff we brought for 2-3months) which were probably all in the 45 lb range (since the delta limit was 50 lbs per piece).
What we learned our our last trip is that Spice Jet has a limit on the weight of your carrion baggage, 7 kg, roughly 15 lbs. Normally you'd think 15 lbs wouldn't be an issue for a carry on for vacation (a few books, iPad, kids snacks) until we made the decision that we weren't bringing checked luggage.
This is how that decision was made.... So Friday my job while L was at work was to pack for our one week trip to Sri Lanka. I take a look at our SpiceJet itinerary and their website to check luggage restrictions etc. to find out that we are supposed to check in a second time at our transfer point (Madurai) but that ticket counter closes 60 min before the flight time and our plane if on time lands 55 min before our next scheduled flight time. So I try to call SpiceJet, to be told yes you need to get off the plane and check in again and luggage is not checked through to your final destination. And I try to explain that my itinerary says we have a 55 min layover and the check in counter closes 60 min before departure so how can we do that with or without checking luggage. I'm told airport personal can help us. Ok. I ask one of the ladies from Lens office if she'll call maybe she can get a more in depth answer in Hindi vs English, same answer. So we discuss when L gets home, and we decide to go with only carry ons as he missed a flight from London once because ther wasn't enough time to get his check luggage on the plane.
Okay so that decision is made, right then we start thinking about okay at means we can't bring any liquids greater than 100ml, shoot there goes our sunscreen and bug spray!! And toothpaste, shampoo, gel to tame the hair etc, but mostly the sunscreen as we are going to a beach! Luckily some of the sunscreen we purchased in India is in small bottles so we could pack those. And then we emailed the hotel and asked if the driver could stop at a pharmacy or supermarket on the way to the hotel.
Then we put everything in the back packs and duffels and he we're under the limit. They did weigh them at check in at Hyderabad and we were good (just). So crisis averted and we stopped at a grocery store to buy some toothpaste etc.
L and I have flown many many times, within Canada, the US, the Caribean, Mexico and Europe. And granted everywhere has somewhat different procedures but India (maybe Asia) has some ones I haven't encountered yet. Now some of these maybe because you need a visa in India maybe not. Here are some of the things I noted on our last trip:
Luggage
Interesting, the weight limit for checked luggage is less, 15 kg which is about 33 lbs. but the overage charges are very reasonable. I think it cost us an extra $33 USD for our four suitcases (all the stuff we brought for 2-3months) which were probably all in the 45 lb range (since the delta limit was 50 lbs per piece).
What we learned our our last trip is that Spice Jet has a limit on the weight of your carrion baggage, 7 kg, roughly 15 lbs. Normally you'd think 15 lbs wouldn't be an issue for a carry on for vacation (a few books, iPad, kids snacks) until we made the decision that we weren't bringing checked luggage.
This is how that decision was made.... So Friday my job while L was at work was to pack for our one week trip to Sri Lanka. I take a look at our SpiceJet itinerary and their website to check luggage restrictions etc. to find out that we are supposed to check in a second time at our transfer point (Madurai) but that ticket counter closes 60 min before the flight time and our plane if on time lands 55 min before our next scheduled flight time. So I try to call SpiceJet, to be told yes you need to get off the plane and check in again and luggage is not checked through to your final destination. And I try to explain that my itinerary says we have a 55 min layover and the check in counter closes 60 min before departure so how can we do that with or without checking luggage. I'm told airport personal can help us. Ok. I ask one of the ladies from Lens office if she'll call maybe she can get a more in depth answer in Hindi vs English, same answer. So we discuss when L gets home, and we decide to go with only carry ons as he missed a flight from London once because ther wasn't enough time to get his check luggage on the plane.
Okay so that decision is made, right then we start thinking about okay at means we can't bring any liquids greater than 100ml, shoot there goes our sunscreen and bug spray!! And toothpaste, shampoo, gel to tame the hair etc, but mostly the sunscreen as we are going to a beach! Luckily some of the sunscreen we purchased in India is in small bottles so we could pack those. And then we emailed the hotel and asked if the driver could stop at a pharmacy or supermarket on the way to the hotel.
Then we put everything in the back packs and duffels and he we're under the limit. They did weigh them at check in at Hyderabad and we were good (just). So crisis averted and we stopped at a grocery store to buy some toothpaste etc.
Note - if you travel this route Hyderabad-Maduarai-Columbo, we did have to get off the plane in Madurai, go through immigration leaving the country and then go through security again and reboard the plane, but so did 90% of our original flight as it was the same plane going to Sri Lanka. Madurai is also a tiny airport, we were the only plane , which probably only held 100 people so picking up checked luggage and reboarding wouldn't have been an issue. Now we know that for the way home and maybe we can buy some presents. Tea or cinnamon anyone!
Immigration
I've filled out immigration paperwork prior to landing in a number of countries when entering a country, but prior to our flight from Madurai to Colombo, Sri Lanka we had to fill out paperwork and see an immigration officer to leave the country. That's why everyone had to get off the plane in Madurai, everyone did.
Security screening
There are separate screening lines for men and women. The mens lines are staffed by men the women's lines are staffed by women and in the womens line there is a private area after the metal detector to be screened with the wand or patted down.
All carry on bags get stamped after they've been screened. I should say your tag on the bag gets screened. That tag is checked for the stamp as you go through the gate. At which point it is screened again. The bag is opened and checked, and you also get re-screened with the wands (women again in the little cubicle so they can 't be seen).
No alcohol
On both our Air India and SpiceJet flights (within India and to Sri Lanka) consumption of alcohol was not permitted. And they made an announcement to that effect.
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