India-based Airlines - Crazy thought experiment: Using the Air India Silver

I'm planning some downtime in the next couple of months and have been struck by this wild idea of visiting every commercial airport in India - thanks to reading about Pratibha Patil's pork barrel project - the Jalgaon airport.

First of: How many commercial airports are there in India (and commercial being defined as airports served by commercial operators and not charter flights?) Would that mean all airports with an IATA code - see that Jalgaon still doesn't have one
Secondly, I think only Air India has an unlimited travel pass - Silver (not considering Platinum since flights to mofussil India might not have a Biz class anyways). Would that be the recommended weapon of choice? Have no interest in MR/points out of this exercise
Thirdly, assuming that I use the Air India Silver Pass, what is the maximum number of airports I can hit in this 15-day period?

I wish I was a big-time blogger and could offer up an award for the most successful routing! But nevertheless, look forward to seeing what the best FTers in India can come up with. In the meanwhile - I'm going to hit the Air India website and try my hand at a routing as well!

ps - would there be any interest in doing this as a group?

It looks like there are over 100 commercial airports in India:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_India

Some of them are pretty hard to fly to. For example, I believe that only SG and 9W fly to RJA (Rajamundry, AP). AI Silver Pass won't help you in this case- you'll have to visit it by land.

It would be great if you could post a detailed trip report should you do this. I'd love to see pictures of some airports/towns I don't normally get to visit.

assuming that I use the Air India Silver Pass, what is the maximum number of airports I can hit in this 15-day period?

i would imagine you could do 4-5 flights a day depending on how you time it....

but why on earth would you want to do this though????

Sounds like a fun idea to me :D

1. If I counted right, it looks like there are 63 Indian airports that you could fly to on AI (and IX), and somewhere in the range of 10 or so other Indian airports with scheduled commercial service that AI does not fly to.

2. Since one destination is served only by IX, you might want to find out if you can book IX flights on the Silver pass. For flying into the other airports, you probably have to use surface transport or book separate trips. Scheduling these into your AI pass trip could be difficult.

3. Not sure. Are you trying to visit all the different airports or just going for maximum segments or maximum airtime?

List of Indian airports with AI and IX service:

Agartala, Agatti, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Gaya, Goa, Gwalior, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kanpur, Khajuraho, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Kullu, Leh, Lilabari, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pathankot, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shillong, Silchar, Srinagar, Surat, Tezpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli*, Tirupati, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam

*IX service only

That's 64 -- let me know if you found others :)

EDIT: Map for reference (http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=IXA,+AGX,+AMD,+AJL,+IXD,+ATQ,+IXU,+IXB,+BL R,+BHO,+BBI,+IXC,+MAA,+CJB,+DED,+DEL,+DIB,+DMU,+GA Y,+GOI,+GWL,+GAU,+HYD,+IMF,+IDR,+JLR,+JAI,+IXJ,+JG A,+JDH,+JRH,+KNU,+HJR,+COK,+CCU,+CCJ,+KUU,+IXL,+IX I,+LKO,+IXM,+IXE,+BOM,+NAG,+IXP,+PAT,+IXZ,+PNQ,+RP R,+RAJ,+IXR,+SHL,+IXS,+SXR,+STV,+TEZ,+TRV,+TRZ,+TI R,+UDR,+BDQ,+VNS,+VGA,+VTZ&PC=%23ff0000&RC=%23000080&DU=mi)
EDIT2: Added Dehradun

do you earn the regular amount of miles with the silver & platinum pass????i would assume you would but you never know with ai....

I would guess it's a fixed amount of miles, but with AI who knows, maybe they will give you miles for all the segments flown lol

Actually, if OP is considering this, I would get Platinum pass simply because there will be so many segments and the upgrade price spread out over all those would be worth it

Actually, if OP is considering this, I would get Platinum pass simply because there will be so many segments and the upgrade price spread out over all those would be worth it

agreed....& if you get miles for the segments flown then that's a decent amount of bonus miles for flying in business....

Sounds like a fun idea to me :D+1!

However, only one of our frequent posters here would enjoy the airline you would have to use to fly to each of these! :p

(When listed in the forum, I thought this thread was how to use the on-board AI cutlery in some creative fashion! ;) )

silver pass is for 35000, platinum for 75000. from 1st april air india is offering varied cuisine in j class on longer flights. if you do this alone, in one day you would have seen all the in flight entertainment on offer and would be thoroughly bored for the next 14 days. i would recommend company. 2 in economy equals 1 in business. you could apply for a limca record or something by doing this. otherwise it is going to be a very boring exercise.

air india domestic has only 3 all economy aircrafts. 2 of them based in bombay and 1 in kolkata. the routing is bom-idr-bho-del-sxr-leh-sxr-del-bho-idr-bom for 1 aircraft, bom-nag-bom-ixe-bom-goi-bom-nag-bom for the other aircraft.

for the kolkata aircraft, the routing is ccu-ixz-ccu-ajl-ccu-. so apart from this on the airbus fleet you would have the option of business class available apart from the atr and crj sectors. i am assuming express flights would not be valid on this pass.

are you planning on getting down at each and every airport and visiting the city, or would you just want to transfer from one flight to another. i can come up with an itinery for you if you want.

to pass your time, you should really write a blog about the whole experience.

It would be great if you could post a detailed trip report should you do this. I'd love to see pictures of some airports/towns I don't normally get to visit.
I definitely will if I do it. Right now, as I said, its just a crazy thought experiment that I'm trying to work my way through :)

i would imagine you could do 4-5 flights a day depending on how you time it....

but why on earth would you want to do this though????
Dont make me quote George Mallory!! :)

Sounds like a fun idea to me :D

Thanks!! :D


1. If I counted right, it looks like there are 63 Indian airports that you could fly to on AI (and IX), and somewhere in the range of 10 or so other Indian airports with scheduled commercial service that AI does not fly to.

2. Since one destination is served only by IX, you might want to find out if you can book IX flights on the Silver pass. For flying into the other airports, you probably have to use surface transport or book separate trips. Scheduling these into your AI pass trip could be difficult.

3. Not sure. Are you trying to visit all the different airports or just going for maximum segments or maximum airtime?

List of Indian airports with AI and IX service:

Agartala, Agatti, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Allahabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Gaya, Goa, Gwalior, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kanpur, Khajuraho, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Kullu, Leh, Lilabari, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pathankot, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Shillong, Silchar, Srinagar, Surat, Tezpur, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli*, Tirupati, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam

*IX service only

That's 64 -- let me know if you found others

Thanks for this very useful information and putting it up on GCmap. Great to get a visual idea of what this would entail! Given the Silver Pass, I'm going to aim for maximum segments and by air only - so no surface transport. If there is only one connection to an airport - then its fly in and fly out on the same aircraft.

The way I see this is as one large Travelling Salesman problem; so the first order of business is getting Air India's route map down in a computer-readable format - excel or text. Then say, if we were to start from Delhi (from where I would assume that AI has the maximum connections), we work our way through the network with aim of maximizing segments.

do you earn the regular amount of miles with the silver & platinum pass????i would assume you would but you never know with ai....
No idea, but I doubt that they would allow this product to earn miles, given the potential for abuse :D And anyways, like I said in the beginning, earning miles is not really the driver behind this


(When listed in the forum, I thought this thread was how to use the on-board AI cutlery in some creative fashion! ;) )
:( Sorry about that, didn't realize there was a word limit on the title. Can it be edited?


Actually, if OP is considering this, I would get Platinum pass simply because there will be so many segments and the upgrade price spread out over all those would be worth it
Thats true - will keep in mind but don't ever see it passing the spouse-filter :)

if you do this alone, in one day you would have seen all the in flight entertainment on offer and would be thoroughly bored for the next 14 days
:) Just got a new Kindle and planning on the new iPad (on which name, I think Apple really dropped the ball after a long time). I understand the risks of boredom but shahadil, this is just a thought experiment for now :)

you could apply for a limca record or something by doing this
Hehe, I think outside of this community, I would most possibly be pelted by global warming activists and considered a lunatic by others :D


air india domestic has only 3 all economy aircrafts

are you planning on getting down at each and every airport and visiting the city, or would you just want to transfer from one flight to another.

Shahadil - would it be fair to say you're someone intimately knowledgeable about AI? :) I didn't know that about all-economy flights but I've been on a couple of VNS flights that turned out all-economy - last minute metal change?

No plans to get down at the airport really, it will just be transfer from one flight to another. The aim is to maximize number of segments (and thereby number of places on the network visited).

i can come up with an itinery for you if you want.

Thank you, that would be lovely. The other reason I'm doing this is is as a programming exercise - just started learning Python on the side (fyi if anybody is interested - Udacity (http://www.udacity.com) is a great, free online course that takes you through the basics of programming. I'm working my way through this and the Travelling Salesman problem that this presents is a great exercise to run through)


to pass your time, you should really write a blog about the whole experience.
I definitely will, what else will I have to do :D I'm also hoping that irrespective of whether I do this or not, I can put together a complete post on what is possible using the Silver/Platinum pass as future reference for someone who is interested in thinking this through

yes i have extremely intimate knowledge about air india domestic...or the way i like to say indian airlines.

it would have probably been a last minute change to vns....but not there as per the standard schedule. though was it out of delhi or bombay?

if you do plan on aircraft to aircraft transfer at certain airports, i would recommend you get in touch with air india commercial and tell them what you are doing for a seamless hassle free experience, or you might end up missing flights.

i am sending you a goodie to your inbox...something to start with.

No idea, but I doubt that they would allow this product to earn miles, given the potential for abuse :D And anyways, like I said in the beginning, earning miles is not really the driver behind this

just checked with my ta....you do earn the regular number of miles with both the platinum & silver pass....^^

silver pass is for 35000, platinum for 75000.

according to ai, there are a few other points to note before buying one of these:

1. taxes will be collected at the airport for each sector flown....these could range from inr 300 - inr 3,000 depending on the sector & class flown....

2. silver pass tickets are offered in 'e' class for economy & 'j' class for business....if a seat is not available in either one of those classes then you will have to pay inr 500 for an economy class seat & inr 1,000 for a business class seat....

3. you earn miles for the sectors flown....while 'j' class will earn you a decent amount of miles, 'e' class is one of the lower mileage earning classes....

so ultimately both the silver & platinum pass is not as good a deal as it initially seemed to be....still, in indialogue's case it will be value for money....

This is a very interesting idea and one that has me intrigued. The two week limit is a bit tight, but otherwise I'm very tempted. I did similar things with JetBlue and their All You Can Jet passes but those offered a month-long window. Trying to do it in two weeks - and paying the individual per-departure taxes - might skew this one too much towards a bad idea. Then again, this one earns miles better so maybe not so stupid.

I did similar things with JetBlue and their All You Can Jet passes but those offered a month-long window.

i wish they offered it this summer....i could have put that to good use....

I did similar things with JetBlue and their All You Can Jet passes but those offered a month-long window
Care to share your thoughts on how you went about routing? Any trip reports/experiences that would like to share as well?

Care to share your thoughts on how you went about routing? Any trip reports/experiences that would like to share as well?

All is here in reverse chronological order... http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/category/aycj/

Dont make me quote George Mallory!! :)


I wouldn't quote Mallory if I were you.

according to ai, there are a few other points to note before buying one of these:

1. taxes will be collected at the airport for each sector flown....these could range from inr 300 - inr 3,000 depending on the sector & class flown....

2. silver pass tickets are offered in 'e' class for economy & 'j' class for business....if a seat is not available in either one of those classes then you will have to pay inr 500 for an economy class seat & inr 1,000 for a business class seat....

3. you earn miles for the sectors flown....while 'j' class will earn you a decent amount of miles, 'e' class is one of the lower mileage earning classes....

so ultimately both the silver & platinum pass is not as good a deal as it initially seemed to be....still, in indialogue's case it will be value for money....
Add the cost of hotels and meals, it shoots up cents or paise per mile cost further.

I wouldn't quote Mallory if I were you.
:) Touche.....

All is here in reverse chronological order... http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/category/aycj/
Thanks oliver2002!