India-based Airlines - Air India: ORD-HYD (Stop in DEL)

Hello All,

This is my first post here and I am not sure if this is the right place. But, here goes..

I am planning on buying our tickets (ORD-HYD) on Air India (126/127). It says it is a non-stop flight from ORD-DEL and then onwards to HYD (Same Flight-Number and Equipment). I was wondering if any one here has been on this flight/route.

Thanks.

No, but you clear immigration and customs in DEL (for India), and in ORD (for US)
If it's like Amy other flight it's a very long flight, so keep yourself entertained.

Hello All,

This is my first post here and I am not sure if this is the right place. But, here goes..

I am planning on buying our tickets (ORD-HYD) on Air India (126/127). It says it is a non-stop flight from ORD-DEL and then onwards to HYD (Same Flight-Number and Equipment). I was wondering if any one here has been on this flight/route.

Thanks.

PVDtoDEL has been on the del-Hyd leg. Not sure abt his being on ord-del.

Even when there is a plane change, most connecting domestic flights carry a mixture of international (pre-immigration) and domestic (post-immigration) passengers, and arriving international passengers going to major metros have to pass immigration/customs at the final destination.

While I have not been to HYD on this flight, there is no rational reason they would offload everyone and make them pass immigration in DEL when it is the same flight.

I have boarded this flight in DEL for domestic leg, and from what i remember, the passengers from ORD had stayed onboard.

Typically on these flights, immigration will need to be cleared at final station only. In this HYD does have customs and immigration facilities so they dont need to disembark at DEL. Domestic passengers have boarding passes marked with a large "D" to enable easy identification and also have to sign a customs declaration form.

Earlier when LKO didnt have immigration facilities for a while, pax on IC flight from SHJ would have to clear immigration at DEL and reboard aircraft to LKO.

If the aircraft remains the sAme, you continue sitting in It and clear immigration and customs in Hyderabad. If the equipment changes to a 321 from the 777 you will only do an international transit at delhi while still clearing immigration and customs in Hyderabad. More often than not you will continue to sit in the same aircraft.

If the aircraft remains the sAme, you continue sitting in It and clear immigration and customs in Hyderabad. If the equipment changes to a 321 from the 777 you will only do an international transit at delhi while still clearing immigration and customs in Hyderabad. More often than not you will continue to sit in the same aircraft.

i agree....i used to do this many years ago on the jfk/lhr - del/bom route....immigration was always at the final port....

Even when there is a plane change, most connecting domestic flights carry a mixture of international (pre-immigration) and domestic (post-immigration) passengers, and arriving international passengers going to major metros have to pass immigration/customs at the final destination.

While I have not been to HYD on this flight, there is no rational reason they would offload everyone and make them pass immigration in DEL when it is the same flight.

So let's give domestic pax a chance to get duty free and require a passport???

So let's give domestic pax a chance to get duty free and require a passport???Domestic passengers have boarding passes that allow them to board from international gates without a passport, but do not allow them to buy duty free. It is also possible that at some airports they board from domestic gates and are bused to the plane---I am not sure.

Domestic passengers have boarding passes that allow them to board from international gates without a passport, but do not allow them to buy duty free. It is also possible that at some airports they board from domestic gates and are bused to the plane---I am not sure.

at least at BOM, domestic pax also board from international terminal. they don't go through immigration checks and don't need a passport to access the gates. however the boarding pass has a big D printed on, which signifies domestic. I assume this would keep off the duty free guy to bill the domestic pax (process says you have to present passport & boarding pass, and the flight no., boarded from and destination to be punched). The comp or the human should reject this txn.

It is not difficult to put in wrong information for duty free purchase if both parties are willing. However, this process which was very easy at Hyderabad when the new airport had opened, has become slightly difficult now after some "cases" came to light.

All Said, legally it is not allowed, however if you wish to, you may.

All Pax board from international terminal only, immigration is crossed from the for domestic pax counter and a form has to be filled for customs which is handed over to customs at departure and he then stamps your boarding pass. On arrival immigration is shown the domestic boarding pass at the domestic pax counter and he stamps the boarding pass. While passing customs you walk through the green channel and shout at the customs "domestic domestic". You don't need to stand in line to get baggage screened.

It says it is a non-stop flight from ORD-DEL Note also that it is NOT currently a nonstop flight. It stops in FRA. No one knows how long it will continue. They are still selling tickets from Sept onwards as nonstop, but they may later inform you that there will be a stop..

Yes, I was a little confused with the "non-stop" flight on the Air-India website. I thought they stopped at Frankfurt too.

Anyways, the stop at Delhi is for 1hr 10mins. I was thinking that it might not be enough time to clear both immigration and customs there.

Here are the flight details if anyone were curious:

Flight: AI 126
From: Chicago, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, ORD, United States, Terminal 5
To: Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport, DEL, India, Terminal 3
Depart: 14:45
Arrive: 17:05
Duration: 14h 50m
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Number of stops: None

Flight: AI 126
From: Delhi, Indira Gandhi International Airport, DEL, India, Terminal 3
To: Hyderabad, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad Airport, HYD, India
Depart: 18:15
Arrive: 20:15
Duration: 2h 0m
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Number of stops: None

Total duration: 18h 0m
Total number of stops: 1

Yes, I was a little confused with the "non-stop" flight on the Air-India website. I thought they stopped at Frankfurt too.

Anyways, the stop at Delhi is for 1hr 10mins. I was thinking that it might not be enough time to clear both immigration and customs there.

At the moment it is via Frankfurt. However, half the striking pilots have been released to fly and a lot of the routes will be restarting this month. When this goes back to being non stop is anyone's guess, however it will happen sooner rather than later.

My father was telling me about some adv in the paper that the Newark Bombay ahmedabad flight is restarting but I haven't seen the adv myself and I don't know from when it is restarting.

As for the short stop in delhi, you don't need to worry about that. It's going to e the same aircraft. No immigration and customs in delhi. Your bags will come in HYD on the belt directly and you clear customs in Hyderabad itself along with immigration.

I've flown AI 126 once the whole way (BOS-ORD-DEL-HYD), and multiple times on the DEL-HYD sector.

Customs and Immigration happens at HYD. You will not need to clear immigration/customs/pick up luggage at DEL.

For the next month or so, the route is being flown ORD-FRA-DEL-HYD. Starting mid-next month, this route will be flown ORD-DEL-HYD. I forget the exact date...

As for the flight, it will probably be decent. AI has good legroom on the 777 (34" pitch), and the AVOD is good in Hindi (passable in English, but not the same standard). Meals on AI have always been good in my experience as well.

Thank you all for your quick replies. I have got the tickets on AI 126/127 and will post an update after my trip (in Nov).

According to AI's web page, ORD-DEL will be nonstop again starting 5 Sep.

These connectors really ought to go now.

They were a great idea when Air India were based in Bombay and helped avoid all the Santa Cruz-Sahar nonsense. AI also didn't have near a coherent network structure as they do now (strike apart).

Since the move to Palam, all operations are at one terminal and AI have pieced together a more coherent network structure (at least on paper), with civilised timings, connectivity and all. In this scenario, whilst the connectors do have some advantages, the logistical problems outweigh the benefits, I feel.

- There is still a lot of confusion (amongst Air India staff and passengers alike) whether customs needs to be done at DEL or the eventual destination. I know people who have been told one thing at check-in and reality turning out to be rather different on arrival at DEL.

- Say you're on a normal domestic flight from DEL to BOM. You need to get on an earlier or later flight. Turns out the most convenient one ends up at Sahar. No thanks.

- Worse, you're in Bombay and want to go back to DEL on an earlier flight. "Sorry maa'am, that flight is from Sahar".

- Also, if you're doing, for example, ORD-DEL-BOM, AI will put you on the JFK aircraft for the DEL-BOM leg. Now if the Chicago plane is late, what are they going to do? Make you wait until the next connector even if three domestic flights depart for Bombay whilst you sit and hatch eggs? What if there is only one connector to the eventual destination and you missed it?

- There's also no guarantee that all passengers flying XXX-DEL will be but on the connector to BOM. I've heard of more than one instance where two people flying the same international flight were booked on separate onward flights to BOM. One was a connector, one wasn't. Imagine the confusion and drama that ensued.

- In addition, there's the problem with loads and yields. Loads aren't necessarily great on the domestic legs of these connectors - especially on the widebodies or when they have 3 flights doing the same route in 20 minutes. To try and fill up the plane, AI try to sell a whole lost of seats at very low fares. And the plane still isn't full. Not good.

_____________________

I am for an all or nothing scenario, and realistically, nothing is the only option of those two. We really should have a straightforward policy of all border controls at the first point of entry (eg the American / Asian model) or immigration at first point of entry and customs at the eventual destination (the Euro model).


- With the first one, you're going to be faffing around the airport between flights anyway, so you may as well get the formalities done while you wait. That way, when you land in Amdavad or Trichy, you're home free.

- With the second one, it's immigration for all at DEL and customs at the eventual destination. Eg : if you fly BOM-AMS-CDG, you clear immigration at AMS, and get your bags at CDG. Since your bags aren't green-tagged you exit from the green/red channel, instead of the blue EU channel. Or, if you were flying BOM-CDG-AGP, you clear immigration at CDG. AT AGP, all non-EU originating bags are delivered on a separate belt, controlled by a single customswallah.

On paper, not too difficult to achieve (all they need is an customswallah at each airport, x-ray machine optional). We can also use a coloured tag edge for all bags originating in India like so many countries do (green for EU, orange for Hong Kong, blue for Korea etc).

Keeping it's India in mind, the first one is more easily achievable.


These are on the inbound. On the outbound, there's no customs checks, so immigration at DEL is all one needs to do whilst one waits.


Like I said, it was absolutely a great idea back then, but it should be done away with now for several reasons.

I disagree. The international connectors have the potential to be great, assuming AI manages to sort out the confusion surrounding them.

I haven't done a T1-T2 connection at BOM in years, thanks to these flights..

Yah, yah, we all know already : everything Air India do is wonderful (even when it isn't).

Once again, it may be nice for a few people at BOM, but BOM is little more than a glorified spoke now. And it is not too much of an ask for people to pick up their bags and wheel their trolleys a few metres to drop them off again, especially when they do it everywhere else. It does volumes for uniformity and consistency, which we desperately need in many spheres of officialdom.

And Air India clear up self-created confusion ? I'll give Sisyphus better odds.

I actually agree that AI's system is fundamentally a good one. I have seen 'mixed' domestic/intl flights in Turkey and they work fine.

AI's problems, as already stated, are (a) consistency and (b) lack of information. It is possible that the first one is being addressed. At CCU, for example, ALL AI flights, not just connectors, now leave from the international terminal. Perhaps the plan is for the same thing to happen in BOM.

Now lack of information is a congenital problem with AI. The call center will assure you that CCU-DEL flights, including connectors, leave from domestic. You have to call the airport office to get the correct information.

All air India flight numbers starting with 0, 1, 2, 3 and 9 depart from international terminals and numbers starting with 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 depart from the domestic terminal. How do I know this? Well air India came out with an advertisement about this information about a year back.

I do agree this information if printed on the tickets and displayed on web site while booking tickets will help public more.

This concept was started at Bombay about 4 years back (the hub and spoke concept), there have been variants before this, where after the merger they wanted to integrate the two airlines and used ex Indian airlines narrow body fleet for using domestic legs. And the flights would go full as as the transfer at Bombay airport was avoided. Also this concept saves time as your formalities are done at originating airport and all you have to do is jump aircrafts here which can be achieved in one hour and you avoid the process of one more check in. So it potentially saves 2 hours per passenger. Now air India can't fly from everywhere to everywhere so this is a way for it to be competitive.

Unfortunately the passenger who is absolutely clueless about this concept is the one who suffers. Since he gets taken by surprise by reaching the wrong terminal, which actually is a problem only in Bombay and no were else.

But looking at the big picture, and the loads out of ccu and HYD,, it is a pretty successful concept.

However, on a closing note, with the terminal at t3, and the hub that air India has developed, the concept can probably be done away with.

However, on a closing note, with the terminal at t3, and the hub that air India has developed, the concept can probably be done away with.
At DEL, the international connectors could be done away with with little consequence. It would simplify the process. But as long as the separate airport hassle exists at BOM, AI has the potential to make the concept very successful.

I also like the international connectors. I often fly LX or TK to BOM and connect to HYD. It's much more convenient to do immigration and customs at the final destination, and also no problem with changing terminals.