Filling eVoA for VNS arrival but landing elsewhere?
 

Varanasi has had terrible morning fog this week, our flight from BKK-VNS (Indigo flight 98) wound up diverting to CCU and spending the hours there. The flight today was retimed to 9:30am departure from BKK, but tomorrow is still showing 6:55am and fog is forecast to be bad again. Flights all week into VNS have been rough in the morning, so risk seems high.

We are on a family trip and it’s no big deal to buy new tickets, diverting and wasting a day in the CCU airport can’t be in the cards for us and I’d happily pay to avoid this. We are headed to JAI, Varanasi was only meant to be a 30 stopover to see Sarnath and the Ganges.

My question is, does it matter that our online application listed VNS as our arrival airport? Can we arrive in DEL or to JAI tomorrow instead?

No issues at all.

I did just that, well, an equivalent mix: BOM for MAA. The agent raised the issue, looked a little grumpy, but I think that was a wrong side of bed moment, and it all went smoothly once he'd got over it.

no problem at all....just explain the situation if questioned at immigration....

Thanks, wound up landing in VNS after all. But almost wish the flight had been canceled and we had never left Thailand. We endured the crummiest week, terrible burning smog compounded by darkness and cold. Nobody in my family will ever agree to return to India after that experience. My daughter’s asthma is just now clearing up and we’ve been gone for days. The best part was hotel staff refering to “fog” and me repeatedly correcting them and saying, “no, this is smog.” What a shame, I’ve been visiting India for 20 years and never have seen anything like that. It will be a long time before I even consider booking something there again.

And oh, from the hotel staff calling it fog to the newspapers just talking about the cold, never been somewhere that people ignored a problem in front of their faces like this. I guess heaven forbid some tourists might learn in advance how bad things are and cancel plans!

no one is ignoring it....you can call it pollution or smog or fog or cold or whatever else you want but its a genuine problem that most cities are trying to deal with....the supreme court has passed a number of judgements to help reduce the pollution, different state governments have implemented policies to counter this problem....but all these things will take time & more effort will have to put in....

fog is just the general term that's been used in this part of the world forever, even when pollution was not a problem....most people here think that fog & smog are two names for the same thing....they know what it is & that its a problem, but they just call it fog....

the reason newspapers are talking about the cold is because this is the coldest winter north india has faced in decades....no one is ignoring the real problem....the pollution problem has been reported to death & measures are being taken to counter it....there is just something new for the newspapers to talk about right now....

Take two issues with this post

a) in this part people do not care to differentiate between fog or smog or hazzy air - just because it is crucial for YOU to diferentiate doesnt mean they have to
(howw many times I have asked for vegeterian alternative at a restaurant in US and thet have offered fish?)

b) your lack of prior research should not resuklt it local people trying to hide anything (even on FT, "wintwer challenges" in Delhi and other northern india airport have been well discussed for many years. My family have cancelled Taj trips many times (too much heat in summer and pollution issues in winter)

At the same time many thousands actually visit northern india every year in winter - still - even after being fully aware of the situation

Its buyer's beware situation.

In 70s and 80s, there were no signs in new york city anywhere asking visitors to stay away from Bronx
No one was hiding anything