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DEL or BOM for in terminal transit hotel for early morning international flight?

DEL or BOM for in terminal transit hotel for early morning international flight?

Old Sep 5, 2022, 12:20 pm
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DEL or BOM for in terminal transit hotel for early morning international flight?

Which transit hotel is a better experience, the Holiday Inn Express in DEL T3 or the Nirmanta in BOM T2?

Situation: elderly family connecting in either DEL or BOM as separate indian domestic ticket. Picking up AY metal next morning for 8am departure to HEL. They want an easy and smooth experience as possible.

During January/February winter months, so not sure if the "fog" is still a problem at DEL and needs consideration as well.

Looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.
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Old Sep 5, 2022, 1:31 pm
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Niranta is nice and you are picked up by someone once you get out of the gate. Fog in DEL is a factor.
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Old Sep 6, 2022, 3:05 am
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I've never stayed at Niranta but have used the HIX in DEL a couple of times. Experience was good both times.

But if the flight is in January then I would avoid DEL as fog will definitely be a factor.
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Old Sep 6, 2022, 6:39 am
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Originally Posted by miles_navigator
Which transit hotel is a better experience, the Holiday Inn Express in DEL T3 or the Nirmanta in BOM T2?

Situation: elderly family connecting in either DEL or BOM as separate indian domestic ticket. Picking up AY metal next morning for 8am departure to HEL. They want an easy and smooth experience as possible.

During January/February winter months, so not sure if the "fog" is still a problem at DEL and needs consideration as well.

Looking for suggestions. Thanks in advance.
January is definitely a high fog risk time for DEL — way more so for late night/early morning times than say mid-day daylight times (and more so for early January than say late January/early February), but morning delays happen too because of fog.

My big concern with the fog for an AY departure out of DEL would be if the DEL-departing AY flight is delayed so long that they may misconnect at HEL (if they have an onward flight out of HEL).

We primarily use the HIX T3 for stay-at-terminal overnight transits for DEL T3 international arrivals connecting (on separate tickets) onto domestic departures out of DEL T3. In the other direction, the HIX T3 is also fine.
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Old Sep 7, 2022, 8:17 pm
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Thanks all for the suggestions. No luck in DEL or BOM routing. Looks like AY inventory out of HEL to USA was phantom award space.

Ended up paying the exorbitant BA YQ for J out of BLR to LHR connection and then onwards to USA. I guess no fog issues out of BLR but not keen on them connecting in LHR in a little under 2 hours. At least it is BA to BA T5.
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Old Sep 8, 2022, 10:49 am
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Is fog an issue for long haul international flights? I assumed that those planes are equipped and the pilots rated for instrument take offs & landings. And there was a big todo in the papers a few years ago about the Delhi airport finally implementing everything required for low visibility operations as long as the planes & pilots support it.

I've always booked my Delhi winter tickets with the assumption that the domestic flight may be delayed by fog, but the international flight would be fine. Do I need to rethink this?
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Old Sep 8, 2022, 1:50 pm
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No the big players are all rated Cat IIIb and now can land in near total fog. Since visibility is a factor when you taxi to/from the gate, the capacity of the airport is still reduced and things are slow(er).
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Old Sep 9, 2022, 2:57 am
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Originally Posted by miles_navigator
Thanks all for the suggestions. No luck in DEL or BOM routing. Looks like AY inventory out of HEL to USA was phantom award space.

Ended up paying the exorbitant BA YQ for J out of BLR to LHR connection and then onwards to USA. I guess no fog issues out of BLR but not keen on them connecting in LHR in a little under 2 hours. At least it is BA to BA T5.
BLR does get fog in twilight hours.. often 6am-8am departures are delayed (domestic atleast).. it's much much lesser than DEL and hardly anything in last 3-4 years.. I'd recommend keeping LHR connecting times for atleast 3-4 hrs as backup..

Did you try EY award routing? I'm assuming QR showed nil as usual.. If flying to US west coast - BLR now has a JL flight to NRT that might be useful?
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Old Sep 10, 2022, 4:09 pm
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Originally Posted by galaticos
BLR does get fog in twilight hours.. often 6am-8am departures are delayed (domestic atleast).. it's much much lesser than DEL and hardly anything in last 3-4 years.. I'd recommend keeping LHR connecting times for atleast 3-4 hrs as backup..

Did you try EY award routing? I'm assuming QR showed nil as usual.. If flying to US west coast - BLR now has a JL flight to NRT that might be useful?
Yikes, the BA metal flight out of BLR is around 7am IST (in late Jan). Also, the layover in LHR is barely 2 hours and that the last LHR to SEA flight but it is BA to BA metal so hopefully in T5. I was going to request 'assistance' for them so they can get shuffled at LHR. Do they re-do security check in the intra-T5 international connection?

Their final destination is DFW and the routing they got was BLR-->LHR-->SEA-->DFW. The last being on AS metal in coach but that is not a long flight. They didn't want to come to JFK, spend the night w/me or at a hotel and get on the 1st AA flight at 640am departure from JFK to DFW the next day. They wanted to go straight through if possible and get home.

They did have an option to overnight in LHR and take the BA metal next day from LHR to DFW but I advised against it because I thought at LHR you have reclaim checked luggage if you overnight. Did I get that wrong? If LHR will hold checked luggage then I will look for a routing with LHR overnight then. Edited to add: Ok confirmed that BA will hold luggage overnight at LHR and booked them now w/ overnight in LHR so no worrying about flight delays or missing connections. Thanks for the suggestions.

No availability on JAL. I thought JAL didn't provide straight routing from India to/from USA without breaking it up into segments when using AA miles. I see the JAL BLR to NRT leg in coach but frankly they are on the old side to do coach on such a long trip since they are continuing on beyond Japan.

Nothing on EY or QR showed up. Seems like QR seems like they are holding back or charging like 200K AS miles 1 way or something ridiculous.
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Last edited by miles_navigator; Sep 11, 2022 at 8:55 am Reason: confirmed BA will hold checked luggage overnight at LHR <24 hours on same PNR
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