Luggage Transfer at Delhi with Air India (Domestic to Domestic)

I am flying Air India from Amritsar to Mumbai with a 110 minute layover in Delhi Airport.

Our flight from ATQ will arrive at DEL at 8:10AM and our next flight to BOM leaves at 10:00AM.

My question is how reliable are checked baggage transfer at Delhi airporrt? 1 hour and 50 minutes should be plenty enough time for the checked luggage to be transfered to our next flight... However, since we have so much time, I could also only check the luggage to Delhi, and then, pick up the bags and re check them in Delhi Airport onto our next flight (the advantage being that in case our second flight is delayed, we have the option of booking another flight with another carrier...)...

Any advice would help.. I'm mostly intersted in hearing from people who have connected domestic to domestic with Air India and checked bags...

With Terminal 3, the process of transfers at DEL has improved considerably.

However, I would make sure to book it on 1 ticket instead of 2 - if your original flight is delayed or cancelled, AI will only send you to your final destination if it is on a singe ticket. If it is on multiple tickets, you'll be stuck at DEL.


Also, the baggage claims at DEL are ridiculously slow. It took me a good 1 hour to collect my bags last time I was there. If it takes you an hour to collect your bags, you will be dangerously close to the 45 minutes before departure that checkin closes at. Especially if your inbound flight is late.

seems to me that you are on a single pnr....you shouldn't have any problems....

PDVtoDEL, thanks for the info. I have a single reservation but was still considering rechecking my bags just to make sure they made the connection...

To me, I am basically trading off between a convenient and relaxed connection (assuming I check my baggage all the way through) and the assurance of having my bags arrive at the destination (if I recheck my bags, it is highly unlikely that the lugage woudl not be at the destination)...

In any airport, I'd assume the odds that the luggage would arrive, with a 1hour50 connection, are really high... I just heard so many negative things about Indian airport that I was kind of worried in this case...

Obviosuly, if the luggage belt at Delhi is slow (Dubai is the worst I've seen :-) ) then it certainly is not worth risking missing the flight ...

So I guess I'll check my bags all the way though (and maybe take as carry-on the stuff I'dd need to be fine for 24hrs...)


Thanks a lot for the help

The answer should be easy. Collecting bags in DEL and rechecking involves two more steps. If you don;t trust the airline ramp staff to transfer your bags from one aircraft to another, why would you trust them when two more steps are involved?
This is one of those questions that make one scratch their head.

I think it's a reasonable concern. The airlines have been handling luggage for individual flights for a while; it's normal, however many steps it might take. Transferring luggage automatically from one flight to another may take fewer steps, but it's not all that common in India.

But given all that, I would still say that if the luggage is properly tagged, I would let them transfer it.

agreed....i fail to understand why this is an issue....while i have had misplaced luggage due to transfers in north america & europe, i have never had any problem with baggage transfers in india....it could be because i've taken less connecting flights in india & more in the other places or it could be because stuff like this can happen or not happen anywhere around the globe....once again, i fail to understand why this is an issue....

I agree. All my misplaced luggage events have actually happened outside of India.

The OP is basically asking "can I trust the airline to transfer my luggage"?
Well, if only we could predict these events exactly.

Sometimes luggage gets misplaced on a non-stop flight too. What can you do?

At some point, you have to trust other people to do their jobs. If they dont do their jobs, there is really nothing you can do.

Hi all,

We (four) are flying Mumbai to Bagdogra via Delhi with a 55 minute layover - single ticket on Air India. (The other Air India flight via Kolkata has 50 minutes layover.) We are proceeding to Sikkim immediately from Bagdogra so we want to make sure our luggage arrives with us. It is a very short visit so we dont want to get stuck a Bagdogra. What steps can we possibly take to ensure that baggage gets transferred ? Early check in, special instructions at check in, labelling - whatever we can do to help ourselves. Appreciate all suggestions and advice. Thanks a lot.