I had an awkward experience today in DEL. I'm aware of the rule that you must take your luggage if you leave the airport. Sadly AI flights to and from HND are timed horribly and don't line up with international connections, so you end up with 18-20 hour connection times.

I had the check in staff at HND short check my bags to DEL, I cleared immigration and picked up the bags on arrival as I have done before on similar long layovers.

Today when I went back to check in, something was flagged and the agent had to call someone to override it after checking my Indian visa. Then again at the gate it flashed red, Unable to Board on the scanner and they had to override something.

I don't remember this in the past. I have a similar connection in 3 weeks and want to make sure there aren't big issues. The HIX in the airport is outrageously expensive that day, so wish to go to Gurugram or Aerocity as usual. I do have a long term multiple entry visa, so that's not an issue.

Probably just something with your ticket, and not the situation.

I flew an international flight into DEL on the 22nd and had a connecting AI domestic flight to GOI on the 23rd about 20 hours later. Took my luggage and left the airport and didn't have any issues on the domestic flight.

I don't think it has anything to do with leaving the airport. Sometimes tickets pop up with different problems when scanned during check-in. A couple of months ago it took AI over 30 minutes to check me in for a domestic flight. Everytime they entered my PNR an error would pop up. It took multiple calls & intervention from a couple of supervisors to rectify the issue that they ultimately couldn't even explain to me in the end.