Originally Posted by
PUCCI GALORE
Why one earth did this misconnect happen - there was any amount of time for them all to make the flight? Why were their bags with them? Did some idiot not tag the bags all the way through to London? Is that why they were so late - did they have to go and get their bags? I just do not understand.
Perhaps you need to have tried it to realise how bad it is.
The domestic and international terminals at BOM are nearly 5km apart; minimum connection time domestic-to-international is 2h30m I believe. You have to take a bus between the terminals and the frequency isn't super-high (every 20 minutes?), plus of course, it won't run on schedule.
Unless things have changed, the bus drops you land-side at the international terminal having spent about 20 minutes driving inside the airport perimeter (thankfully not on the public roads as I believe used to be the case).
You'd then have to clear exit formalities, clear security, and get to your gate.
In the well-oiled machine that is Indian airport operations/bureaucracy, very little needs to go wrong here to make two hours evaporate. c.f.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22364280-post127.html