I don't think he will be able to travel on a visa that's not currently valid. But there is a concept of emergency visa - which is issued in cases of death in the immediate family. Takes a day or two to issue. He should definitely contact the embassy and see if that's something that he can travel with now.

Contact the embassy, they can either validate the existing visa or issue an 'X' visa.

Thank you to you both.

AI188 connecting for Al1106, where does immigration happen now ?

Pre covid, I know it was at final destination , COK ( then flight number was also different AI48)

Should be DEL IMO.

Hey all - quick question. I realized that I have 300K miles expiring in Air India in 3 days. I/wife can't travel on leisure travel before November and AI has international sectors opened up only till Oct - so can't book an international award flight, and it's gonna be challenging to spend all this on domestic (leave aside poor conversion rate). Seems like AI is not gonna extend miles expiry once again. Any bright ideas?

You could book other *A flights further in the future... or say from a nearby airport like DXB or AUH etc.

However, the best option as I've told others here on FT often... donate generously to the Help Piper See The World Charity. 80G cannot be provided though.

No, it should be at COK only. AI has designated a handful of VB/Bubble flights as international connectors - AI 1102, 1126, 1174 and 1106 (like the old 0XX-3XX). You will not enter the domestic side till you reach the final destination if you are on any of these flights. Someone I knew flew a connection on 1174 recently and immigration took place at BLR.

what did you end up doing????

i've got a bunch of miles expiring as well over the next few months & have been waiting for ai to open up award availability to usa....it seems like nothing is available post may to any destination in usa from anywhere in india....hopefully they open up inventory soon....

i have about 150k air india miles expiring on the 31st of august & have a trip scheduled to dc over the next few months....ai redemption availability is terrible at the moment but i have found one flight that sort of meets my requirement....

at this point of time i have 2 options....the first would be to fly ai business to sfo for 160k miles & then take a connecting flight to dc....the second would be to fly ua business to ord for 200k miles & take a connecting flight to dc....

the flight from sfo-dc & ord-dc are roughly the same price & the wait times for the connecting flights are also similar....the later would of course be a shorter flight....

so what would you all do????spend 160k miles to fly ai & then take a longer flight to dc or spend 200k to fly ua & then take a shorter flight to dc????

DEL-ORD on UA seems to be a B787 with 2-2-2 seating but fully flat seats. I would choose UA over AI...

If DEL-SFO was 787 on AI, then I would choose A.I....but I think it is one of the 777's with 2-3-2 seating likely in business.

UA ORD. Flying to SFO means you lose out on more than a day. And being in the air with AI or UA isn't worth it at all.

UA ORD. Flying to SFO means you lose out on more than a day. And being in the air with AI or UA isn't worth it at all.

unfortunately you are right about the configuration....the ai flight is on a 777....this was one of the reasons i was leaning towards ua as well....

losing out on a day would not be a factor for me as i would be flying in a couple of days before i need to be in dc....but i just did 15+ hours a few weeks ago on ai & it was not the most pleasant experience....

as criminal as it is spending 200k miles to travel one way between india-usa, i'm leaning towards ua being the preferable option....