Swanhunter

Having done 3 round trips in the last 7 weeks (and been a reasonably regular visitor for the last 5 years), a few notes on the experience. Any comments from other BOM travellers welcomed!

Arriving

• Invariably BA arrive on a jet bridge gate, disembarkation is always through door 2.
• If immigration cards haven’t been given out on board there will be people waiting at the top of the bridge to hand them out. Note that there are two pieces to the form. The main part is retained at immigration, but the small slip at the bottom is for customs – keep it handy.
• It is a short walk along and down to immigration. At the time both BA flights arrive you normally avoid a queue, however coinciding with an Air India flight from the Gulf might lead to a modest wait. There are normally plenty of officers so things should move fast. There is an F/J line, which is sporadically open.
• Baggage reclaim is off to the left. Before you get there, you will need to show your passport stamp to a bloke stood at a checkpoint.
• Reclaim is normally pretty swift (around 10 mins) and the bags normally make it off in some form of priority order. You can also be pretty certain the crew bags will be the off very rapidly.
• Walk on to Customs (there are also loos here, the only ones airside on arrivals). Passengers with a small quantity of luggage often now get waved through. Those with more – or looking like a good shakedown opportunity – will have the bags x-rayed. In the unlikely event of an issue with Customs, don’t let them take you out of the main customs hall.
• Once past x-ray, you’ll need your little slip from the immigration form to get out of the customs area.
• There is now a long corridor. On the right are hotel and car desks, plus a couple of airline counters. If you haven’t booked a pick up you can arrange either a car (expensive) or pre-paid cab (quite cheap). Cabs come in a/c and non a/c version.
• On the left towards the end is the doorway for transfer to the domestic terminal. This can be a monumental pain to use, so consider taking a cab there instead for a few hundred Rupees and 30mins max of your time
• You exit the terminal on the right, where there is a long line of name cards from the various hotels and companies collecting people. If you can’t see yours, go back into the terminal to either call the hotel or arrange a car from the aforementioned desks. The policeman might say no, just ignore him.
• From here, it is a short walk through a crowd of people to the car park. This can look a little daunting, but is normally fine. Keep your stuff with you and observe normal big city rules. There may be people hanging around to either help with your bags or just look at you. Ignore them, and if anyone tried it on tell them ‘no’. Invariably they will shuffle off.
• It’s worth getting the drivers card so you get into the right card. It’s dark in the car park and it can be difficult to see through a tinted windscreen.
• Welcome to Mumbai!