it is relatively smooth these days specially where remittance is of a personal nature. your bank should also have your know your customer details on file so even the AML requirements should be relatively easy provided you dont suddenly fund your account for an amount which is not as per the regular pattern of your account

paperwork should be relatively simple - i recall from a couple of years earlier the only statutory form required to be completed is Form A2 and a FEMA declaration (they used to be very straightforward forms). any additional form is your bank's requirement and not statutory. the bank has to satisfy themselves of the legitamacy of the transaction and that's what may lead banks to follow different procedures and some banks may make it tougher to remit than others

as pointed out by other posters you will have to go across to a bank branch and cannot do this online (no bank i am aware of offers this online)
if you have a good relationship with the bank (read lots of Rs.kept in the account) and the amount is substantial dont forget to haggle over the conversion rate

Expedia India
 

so i book a return trip (6 segments) on expedia india the other day (using a TA site after 4yrs - prefer booking directly or through company TA)

booked it cause they offered a great fare and that 2 in INR (so no conversion markup on cc).... all booked - confirmation received - e tickets issued through AA - all good. receive my CC statement - the charge is 5% more than the amount shown under my trips on expedia and is a USD charge levied by AA - Mumbai.....

write to expedia explaining the charge and the discrepancy between the receipt issued and the fact that though receipt issued is in INR, charge is a USD charge. they respond promptly (a few hours) that they charged me RsXXX and any discrepancy is from the merchant bank (dudes - that's your or AA's bank and not mine) and i need to take it up with them

wrote again explaining once again (politely) and stating merchant bank is their responsiblity as they processed my charge. havent heard from them so will wait a couple of more days and then use the receipt and the email to dispute the charge - it doesnt look like this was intentional but seems more like a systemic failure somewhere

i will probably have to book the same tickets again at a higher cost (this time using AA India or some other routing) but hey what the heck, i dont like paying more than what i was told i would pay

sorry, just wanted to vent a bit :o

I would dispute that. You paid a INR price so they shouldn't bill you in $'s

hmmm..Ideally u should be having two documents.. one is the invoice and another a charge slip.. what amount does the charge slip show ?? is ur cc issued outside India ??

IMO this depends on where the CC is issued ..

it was an online txn on expedia.co.in so no charge slip other the emailed receipt. the CC is an Indian cc - so my cc statement shows a USD charge converted to INR instead of a INR charge. problem with a conversion is one get hits for conversion markups (2% to 3.5% depending on the issuer) and a bad exchange rate - in this case surprisingly bad - a crazy 5.48% difference over the INR receipt issued - way too high

anyway i am not losing sleep over it - if i don't hear from them in a couple of days, i will just dispute the transaction

Off course.

if its a indian CC and u transacted in an indian site and got an invoice in INR, then no reason for billing in USD and then converting.. U r right to dispute IMHO..

luckily i didnt have to dispute the tn. expedia responded earlier today asking for the cc statement based on which they will reverse
a ^ to expedia for sorting this out - gives me a lot of confidence in expedia knowing that they sort things out i something goes wrong

+1 ^

IAD-DEL roundtrip cheap fares please
 

Hi Folks, my husband and I are flying IAD to DEL end August/early September for our annual yatra to India to visit family. I'll be returning end of September, my husband will be flying back mid-November. We're looking for cheap fares from IAD to DEL and back. We'd like to stop over in Europe for a few days on our way to India.
Any suggestions or tips? Thanks,
Vintyma

Hey folks,
Is Trident still part of HHonors? I cant find Trident on the HHonors website.
And I dont find HHonors mentioned in Trident website.

HI,
This question is better posed in the budget travel forum.

It seems that you are looking for a round-trip travel (IAD-DEL) with a stopover on the way in Europe.

Suggest you use a website such as ITA (search for ITA Matrix Software). Use the multi-city option and search.
Also, you should try using alternate airports such as IAD, BWI, DCA. Consider PHL / EWR as well. As you can get there easily on Amtrak.
Good luck!

The Trident in Mumbai used to be the Hilton Towers, but then they renamed it to the Trident.

Thus, I think the Hilton affiliation was removed.

You may have stayed in a Trident during a gray area when the switchover was taking place...

oberoi & hilton canceled their partnership in 2007 so trident properties are no longer a part of hilton....

Yep I believe they are just the Trident now.