I made it on time for the coach - it left five minutes past the hour....thank goodness for IST (Indian Stretchable Time ). Your instructions were spot on...thanks! ^

Got to the international terminal in about 15 min...and the coach is airconditioned too ^

Great the coach is indeed nice. I'm glad you made it.

When you return, I'd love to hear which lounge(s) you visited and what they were like. I have a list of what looks like 6 lounges, 3 from AA and 3 from Diners Club, although AA and Diners Club might be referring to the same lounges by different names.

I am preety sure there are only 3 lounges there. There is also a bar area which some airlines class as a lounge too. I wouldn't really class it as a lounge though as anyone can walk into and pay for a beer.

There aren't now at least 4 lounges available to the general public with entry contingent upon airline AND class of service or status? That is, the three "public" lounges upstairs (separate from the restaurant up there) and the one "public" lounge on the ground floor?

The Air India lounge upstairs?
The BA mini-lounge upstairs or was that just temporary?
he ITC Maurya Sheraton lounge upstairs?
And the Clipper (aka fmrly. referred to by some as the Oberoi lounge) downstairs?

In any event, I'm glad I've been checking in with only sufficient time to get to the flight and not need the lounges there as of late -- especially since it's too often you can't even find a seat.

Where abouts was/is this? Was there any space to have another lounge upstairs?

For a little while early this year, BA was using the small room right at the top of the stairs (i.e., stairs leading upto the ITC Maurya Sheraton lounge); it was the room to the right just before the door to the restaurant that you come across right before entering the ITC Maurya Sheraton lounge and it seemed a carve-out from the restaurant itself. [I don't know who is using that additional seating area as of late or not since I've been able to cut my arrivals down to just in time (due to special circumstances).] I'll try to check out things myself more next week.

Yeah even I try and time my check-in so that I can just go straight to boarding.
You know what really gets on my nerves is the Immigration que for Foreign Nationals upon arrival at DEL. Recently my collegues got out 30 mins before me as they were Indian Nationals. Once the que started at the start of the escalators upstairs before the immigration department

I think that was is now called the Ashok Lounge...

There are 4 lounges that I saw:
1. The Clipper Lounge downstairs (didn't go inside but it looked like it had been renovated or something.
2. The Ashok lounge which looked like a little room leading into a restaurant
3. The ITC Sheraton Lounge...went there because its the only one that allows smoking. The "Smoking Section" is just two rows of seats on one side with no separation from the non-smoking section.
4. The Air India Maharajah lounge

The last three were upstairs....and I do mean stairs because they didn't seem to be accessible via escalator or lifts.

The ITC Sheraton lounge was definitely one of the Diner's club lounges as I saw a couple of folks getting in that way, and they did have paid access as well, but I didn't ask how much. Food was passable - few snacks. Foster's/Kingfisher beer and a bartender.

The Person of Indian origin card will cut down some people's time and get them out in an even faster line on arrival, all rather often.

The line for other foreign nationals has become much longer in the past 10 months than it has been for most of the preceding 5 year period.

Do you know how long it takes to get one of these cards?

Got mine in 4 working days at the embassy in SIN.
http://www.embassyofindia.com/pass_services_pio.htm

"� For adults, the fee is S$570 (Singapore Dollars Five hundred and seventy only), and "

Quite expensive!

Still better over 15 years than a 1yr multiple entry visa that costs S$130. Plus it allows one to buy/sell property in India and repatriate the money overseas (I think up to US$100,000 a year without any hassles or Reserve Bank permission).

Yeah its worth it in that regard. I still have 4 years of my Visa left. So will probably think about it when towards the end.

How difficult was it to get your card? I am sure its going to be much harder here though!