It was still in effect in Delhi at the beginning of February. I had no idea I needed a printout. Neither my guidebook, nor my travel agent, nor the airline told me. I usually have a printout with me in case I need to look up times in the air, but I've never once been asked to show a printout to get into an airport (especially when the machines to print your ticket are inside the airport!). I remenber being asked to show you had a passport in a past trip somewhere in the world, but never a print out of the initerary. I didn't even think to bring a copy since I had checked in for my return flight online and had emails with all my info saved on my phone and on the cloud. When I checked in online (KLM), I clicked on print at the airport, and it didn't tell me I needed anything. I consider that wrong. It should have told me or not let me pick that check in option.

I got to the airport and didn't have a paper copy (well, I found out that I didn't have the paper copy I started out the trip with after emptying my entire backpack in front of the security door and getting all nervous and frustrated that I didn't know about the requirement). I tried to show the guy my email with the "it's time to check in" message, but he seemed confused and that didn't seem good enough. I had booked through a travel agent and they had a guy at the airport, so he talked with the security guy and eventually got him to see that my name was on the manifest list and let me in. Why do we need a printout if they can just check our name on the manifest? That seems safer than any word doc I can make up on my computer and print out.

Clearly there are other people like me who don't realize they need a paper copy. I just can't believe that people don't scream this requirement from the rafters (my hotel, travel agent, emails from friends with advice about India, the airline, and my guidebook all didn't mention it). I'd like to save other people stress (and it really was quite stressful) by letting them know. It's definitely going in my list of recommendations for friends.