How do you guys cope w/ HYD check-in? Tranquilizers?

I'm new here - just wondering if everybody is as frustrated with HYD check-in as I am, or if there are any tricks out there to make this easier. Any other airports with similar problems?

For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, here's the deal: HYD airport clearly was not built to accommodate international travel - nobody expected the kind of growth India is experiencing right now. A new airport is under construction but won't be completed for another two years or so.

Check-in starts with having to fight your way into the actual terminal - lots of people out there, total chaos, no LH assistance outside the terminal (not much inside, either). First queue is for check-in luggage x-ray (you will also queue there if you have carry-on only and nobody told you that you don't have to have it x-rayed). Second queue is for check-in - no LH kiosk, only 2 (!) C class check-in counters, looooooooong queue. Third queue: Emigration. Fourth queue: Security. Then, time permitting: lounge. Nothing to speak of, no alcohol. Last queue: Boarding, if you did not manage to jump the queue for priority boarding.

I HATE queues with a vengenance. How do you guys cope? Am I expecting too much? (I don't normally [have to] use LH C-class check in). Also, given the labor cost in India, LH could easily hire additional staff to make this process less painful for FT.

Unfortunately you are facing an instituional problem and not LH. The airport is managed by the Governmnt, and LH has to live with the allocated space and procedures.

Sorry MNL is the same, and there they also keep the 5 million relatives outside hte terminal to nesure an slightly normal procedure inside. So you need to fight yourself through.

This may not be the OP's cup of tea, but I recommend hiring a couple of bodyguards to manhandle through the crowds. The expected norm (my experiences are with Chennai, Bangalore, and Cochin) of better treatment is accorded to those with staff or handlers.

It is not a culture (again only in my experience) that expects or accommodates self-service, independent, Western travellers.

Your description of HYD sounds very much like the one I had at BOM airport a few weeks back, albeit flying with bmi back to LHR. But then again, I quite enjoyed the different approach of the Indian authorities to airport efficiencies. Seemed to me that everyone was ready to accept 50 rupees to carry my bags, x-ray them for me and then push me to the front of the queue at economy checkin. Of course, when I got past passport control, more queues appeared, but hey, it's India, not the Western world and so you learn to live with it. Hardly, a major chore really.

Personally, sometimes I think we are too spoiled in the West. Indeed, some of us don't know we are born.

what you describe of HYD holds for most indian airports. It all seems overwhelming when you are used to european/western standards. But then these airports are handling masses of passengers in security levels they were never designed for. MAA was a pleasant surprise to me, CCU is also more pleasant since the shifted domestic travel to the new terminal in 1995. This February I witnessed how they dispatched a full SQ 777 and a full TG AB6 with only four checkin counters, four immgration counters and two security check points. Queues where no longer than 5 mins. At BOM it help to checkin late as most pax arrive 2-3h before departure. If you show up 45-60 min before departure the LX and LH counters are pretty empty.

The MAA departure terminal is nice, brand new, shiny - reasonably air conditioned too. Lots of checkin counters, great staff, airline handlers all over the place to help status pax.

God help you if you fly into MAA though - the arrivals still sucks bad. There's like 6 immigration desks out of which maybe 4 are manned at a time, that part of the terminal hasnt yet been modernized too much and gets quite hot and sweaty .. huge lines and frayed tempers especially if the carefully worked out schedule goes phut because of plane delays, and a packed LH 744 arrives right behind two packed IC / AI flights from Dubai.

Well, my experience at HYD was "ok" for an Indian airport....was on the inaugurational flight from HYD to FRA and a couple of month later back for a days visit. For me, I just jumped the queue claiming I had a flight to catch...worked pretty well...also the "lounge" is nothing to rave about. I always was happy to be in the plane after all. But at the end, I even think I'd prefer that little airport before DEL or BOM. By the way, I once managed to catch a connecting flight with just 30 min. transfer time....it helps that the Indians (no offense, really) are not to eager to really make an effort as long as they can stamp something or rip a little piece from your BP.

...a little OT, but I have to share. I recently left from DEL together with three collegues and mistakenly was handed over the wrong passport from the HON assistant after check-in before immigration. When I couldn't find my departure card I filled it out with my name and the passport number of my collegue. Neither the border control at my desk nor that of my collegue's - who is by the way 25 years older than I am - bothered to really check our identity. The saftey checks are more or less a joke....like customs is when you enter India...I mostly make fun out of it and hand them a piece of blank paper at DEL customs, which they have always accepted happily.

cheers
HON_Hunter

Definately MAA is better than HYD or BOM. Unfortunately got row 16 (middle) last night on D-ABTH (B747-400). Avoid 16 (D,E,G) as the seats do not recline half as much as the other rows. Other than that security and checkin took just under 10 minutes, terminal was pretty empty and boarding was well organised.

And it's not limited to India. It sounds just like Nairobi. The same hordes, the same lines. And only a short portion of the process is with the airlines (check-in), the rest is all airport and national bureaucracy.

Well mate - you could (and should, as a SEN) call the local LH and block yourself an exit row or something similar. Anything at all is better than some seats on an antique 744.

One thing that definitely helps: have no expectations. You can't fight the system, so why get upset ? I always arrive quite early, as they recommend, and the lines at the LH business counters (or the Singapore Airlines business counters) have always been very short. Of course, getting into the concourse and through emigration takes quite a while, and I always seem to be in the line with the most incompetent emigration official, but hey, I'm just looking forward to a nice C flight...

I've lived in Hyderabad for 6 months now, and you just get used to minor irritations like that.

Same with SQ! (at BOM)

If you want to know true hell ...

... fly through DEL, making a domestic -> international connection around 0100hrs.

ever been in CDG? ATL? Puts things into perspective...

Hehe ^