Originally Posted by hauteboy
We're headed to India in Dec/Jan and are doing a side trip to the Andamans and a stopover in Bahrain on the way back to the US. Was hoping to find a same-day connection from the Andamans to BAH (may be possible, changes at MAA and DEL or BOM). As it stands now, our tickets are out of DEL.
Our Indian Airlines flight arrives at 10:45 AM. Expedia is showing a connection from S2 (Air Sahara) to GF in DEL, departing MAA at 11:40 and into DEL at 15:35, then departing DEL to BAH at 18:55. That gives 3:20 for a connection in DEL and 55 minutes in MAA.
The other option is departing MAA at 13:40 9W (Jet Airways) that gets into DEL at 16:15, leaving ~2:40 connecting time, I imagine that would be very tight especially if we would have to wait for baggage then taxi+ checkin at DEL..
Via BOM might be better time-wise, but no Biz class on that day. Another option is overnight in DEL, which is a pain as we would be there ~16 hrs but wouldn't be able to go to Agra before the 8 AM flight the next day.
As much as it pains me to say this (especially as being airside at Indian airports is no fun):
I'd pad more time than 55 minutes at MAA to make a connection, especially in January. The DEL fog in January can really wreck the flight schedules from some of the other cities or set them back for a bit of a delay and then some.
I'd try to manage an overnight in DEL and find something different to do there rather than stress it out.
When not able to have the schedule wrecked without major chain reaction, I'd plan 2 hours for a domestic connection within India, to be on the safer side, and 3.5 to 4.5 hours between DEL domestic and DEL international just to create some more breathing room.