Thought to write a blog sharing my experience which helps for upcoming travellers. On the whole the travel experience was great and smooth as i cant expect more than this as this is Evacuation flight organised by Indian Government via Air India on Vande Bharath Mission. Almost Well planned and organised. There might be few difficulties here and there, but thats ok as this execution is huge and new to all sectors. Keep in mind this is not picnic trip or normal commercial flight. Things will progress even better moving forward. Lets hope for the Best!.
Also share this to whoever in need of travel which might be helpfull to them.
I have sequenced the process and checklist as follows. Thanks to my friend Vimal who suggested the below checklist topics to cover while sharing my experience.
- How to get Flight Ticket
- Pre boarding Checks
- Transit stop process
- Post landing checks
- Hotel Process
- General Queries ( Ticket Cancellation process, Couldnt get the tickets and what to do? )
How to get Flight Ticket
1 Stay connected : I have registered on Indian high commission website on June 9th 2020 with the valid reason for my travel. Its just a single page form. Earlier you need to wait for reply from Indian High comission whether they accept or reject your request. But for me on June 9 Through my Close friend Vimal came to know AirIndia evacuation flight booking starts by Jun10th for phase 3 evacuation through whatsup. Another friend Srija confirmed that This time its open request to all so that moving forward Indian High commission wont reply us , but we can directly go to AirIndia website and book tickets on our own.
So stay connected in WhatsApp/FB/Twitter on any one Social media atleast in this time and tell your friends/known circle about your travel plan. So that you can find about AirIndia ticket counter open dates on your own or through friends/known circle.
Very Important Note: I have joined Whatsup groups named London to Chennai Mission, UK Tamil Makkal Forum which had sub groups people travelling based on particular date say for eg., 27th June travellers. This is game changer and very much useful. Contact me if anyone wished to join will add you into the group on need basis. Almost all your doubts get clarified here along with guidances. Thanks to my friend Rajesh kumar who helped me joining these groups
I travelled in Phase 3 but below you can see Phase 4 Chennai travel WhatsApp group (Also Reachout to Siddhaarth (Sid) and Shyamala in WhatsApp or twitter as they are the owners of this group. Also many others were there in the group there to clarify and provide guidance)
Phase 4 Chennai travel WhatsApp group
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BCpP9by3h01KJRviw8uPBR
Twitter Link
https://tinyurl.com/yaxwa9hz
2 Ticket Booking On airIndia website http://www.airindia.in book the tickets. Before ticket booking the site might ask you to fill Undertaking form. Ensure you book tickets on same Flight number. Mine is AI 112 London to Chennai. So search for flights from London to Chennai (So AI 112 London to Delhi and AI 112 Delhi to Chennai) . Its just 1 stop at Delhi. This is very important while you book ticket so that you only need to quarantine only on destination Chennai in this case.
3 Be Patient Initially after booking open, it might state no tickets available, Or even after you saw flights listed and you try something and after some time too you might see no flights available. But dont worry and keep trying with different dates. I struggled for an hour. My first booking bank transaction got success but the on final landing page got message that booking transaction failed. But my second booking transaction was success and landed in successful page which shown my booking reference number.
4 Check in your email inbox or spam folder if you got the eticket
5 Refunds All failed transaction refunds will hapoen around 10 days automatically. But send mail to ecommerce@airindia.in
6 Soft copy enough No need to take any printouts. All soft copy is fine for the travel
7 Pre Departure Form Submit online Pre Departure form. Pre-departure information card for Vande Bharat Mission Flights. Information you submit will be sent back to you by email. You will have to show this email (on your phone or a printed copy) at the time of check-in to get the boarding pass. Please fill separate cards for each passenger if there are other family members travelling with you.
All passengers travelling on Vande Bharat Mission Flights have to mandatorily fill this pre-boarding registration form as soon as tickets are booked. Without submission of online pre-registration form, ‘Check In’ will not be allowed.
Also days before your travel, you will get call from Indian High Commission asking you whether you have submitted the form. This is to ensure you are ready for travel.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScJ4YG8EXWELiyajS3lHVSUpOKkCTW2s95ghuUG_9jiy6merg/viewform
Above URL as per shared in twitter link (High Commission of India, London) https://mobile.twitter.com/HCI_London
8 Epass Apply for epass in TamilNadu wherever applicable.
https://tnepass.tnega.org/
9 Buy few essential safety items Buy Mask – preferably N95, Gloves – preferably Clinical Gloves, Hand sanitizer (pocket size and normal small size). Pocket size Hand sanitizer was very useful and good idea which was suggested by my friend Sourav. Take pen with you for sure to fill up all forms.
Pre boarding Checks
1 Follow the initial queue at the airport before you will be allowed to go in batches for Check-in. Ensure you wore Face mask, gloves before you reach airport. Social distancing were maintained in the queue. I didnt carry any printout. Only softcopies i carried with me which is enough.
2 Undertaking form In main check-in queue. You will be given small slip Undertaking form to fill in some basic details. Social distancing were maintained here.
3 Check-in: Check-in your two check-in bages 23kg each. They didnt checked hand luggage weight. 7kg i took for safer. Some might had few extra kgs at check-in bag. It got allowed. But dont take this as take it for granted as we dont know who checks in at the time. Or from which flight phase they strictly follow check-in kg limit. If you want your travel smooth and dont want to take any additional stress due to excess baggage issue then please strict with alloted kgs alone. In worst case if you want to over weight that too within kg or grams. Then decide before which you preffer to take out and keep that on top. But why to take risk? You can keep your solid foods, hand wipes and liquid sanitizer in hand luggage in this special case.
4 Security: Place your laptop on tray. I kept purse, mobile inside handbage. Also your belt, hand sanitizer liquid on any other liquid on tray. Ensure no liquid inside your bag. Otherwise you will get red alarm and they will check all items in bage and then leave you.
5 Boarding: Initial temperature screening.
6. Keep seated in Boarding area. If you are middle seat person then they will call you and give you PPE kit. Nothing to worry its just white gown which will cover till your knees and has head cover too attached to it wich covers your hair and ears. You can just wear it in the boarding area itself.
7 Boarding Queue Seat sequence series wise you will be called (20 to 30, 15 to 30) like that at boarding. Just get into the Plane. For very few, random extra security checks might be there as formality. Nothing to worry.
8 Foods, water, Mask, Face shield kept at Flight seat In your seat itself your food, masks, face shield will be there. Keep wearing face shield too. Also sanitize frequently before and after to take food. Sanitize along with gloves itself and even after you remive your gloves. Sanitizing hands, wearing masks and glives are very important throught your journey.
9 Flight takeoff. Happy journey...Food inside the plane not that much good. You can try some snacks. As its not commercial flight just bread cheese were there. So better take home food.
10 Step out once landed safely. Not similar to onboarding where they called you to get inside on seat sequence basis which was good. Everyone allowed to go out of the plane as normal. Here i felt social distancing was not maintained. So dont rush to take your bags or move out quickly. Safety is more important. So you decide and try to follow safety and social distancing.
Transit stop process
1 Once landed at Delhi. You need to get down to get your next connecting flight to Chennai. You will be asked to be seated on chairs arranged in social distancing.
2. Boarding pass check counter. You will be asked to stand in queue following social distancing to reach Boarding pass check counter. You just need to give your boarding pass to seal it.
3 Security check. Same as Security you have already followed on London. But social distancing was not maintained at Delhi transit stop queue for security check. So you please better maintain your distance.
4 Boarding. To figure out boarding gate from security was bit challenging. Gate Information was not displayed on screen for the flight number and even no authorities standed there to guide us which gate we need to go. There was one Information desk, but it was helpless. So we asked the shop workers in the airport , which gate for Chennai boarding and finally reached there. I informed this challenge to authorities at Boarding area so that to avoid such situations for upcomming travellers.
You will be given PPE suits if you are middle seat person. You will be asked if you need face shield. I got one in Delhi as the face shield given in London visibility quality was not clear post landed at Delhi. But the one given in Delhi was very clear. So better to utilize the option
5 Good time to have your home food at Boarding area. My friend Dharamjit packed me Methi Rotis on foil cover as wrapper which was very good idea and much safer. You dont need to touch your hand directly on food. Just remove the foil cover from top and have the food. Also she gave some snacks and biscuits. My friend Vimal gave me Lemon rice with Aalu curry. Thanks to Gautham too. So our own home foods are heaven at that time.
6 Onboard the flight. You will be asked to come on sequence number basis to join the queue. Social distancing were maintained here.
7 Food, water will be placed on your seat. Happy journey…
8 Landing at Chennai. Again similar to Delhi they didnt asked us to get down on sequence number basis. Social distancing were not maintained. So you better seated and maintain social distancing and no need to hurry to take your baggages and get down when its crowded.
Post landing check
1 Temperature screening
2 Immigration. Submit the Self declaration filled in form to them. This form will be given to you at London airport or even on Plane. Ensure while you get the form you also have the carbon yellow color copy form below that. So once you filled in the main form, This yellow carbon copy you can keep for your reference
3 Hand luggage security check.
This is automation. Just place your hand luggage on screening machine.
4 Quarantine Option Form given by one airport authority person. You will be given three options, Institutional quarantine which is free quarantine or Rs 1500 per day hotel or Rs 2500 per day hotel quarantine (practically Rs 1500 hotel option not there)
5 Check-in luggage collection. There were some complaints that some luggages were missing in most of the batches. These were sent back after couple of days. So better have essential cloths which covers for couple of days. I got all my baggages safely. After Chennai landed and to conplete this stage took around approx 45mins.
6 Hotel accomodation counter After check-in via exit area come out. Social distancing queue will be there to Submit the filled in form mentioned in step 3 to get the Hotel accomodation allotment token
7 Swab test taken on nose and throat
8 Hotel pickup by authorities in government bus for quarantine. This is bit challenging. Can get help from someone to load your luggages. Limited persons on bus were allowed. After Chennai landed and to conplete this stage took around approx 2 hrs.
9 Sanitizing of all your luggages on Hotel entrance. Hotel person will do this.
10 Hotel Form fillup given by hotel and hitel booking
11 Wait for Room allotment in reception and get into your room (some directly get the room number and some waited as rooms need to get cleaned up). Take Bath, sanitize your items like luggage handle and outer area. After Chennai landed and to conplete this stage took around approx 4hrs.
Hotel Process
1 Once you checked in to your room you were not allowed to get out.
2 Foods will be kept on chairs placed outside your room.
3 Breakfast with Coffee/tea, Lunch, Coffee/tea with snacks and Dinner will be served. Food is fine at The RainTree hotel, Alwarpet where i am staying. But for kids and aged persons they might feel difficult as you cant compare home food with Hotel food. Even for Feathers hotel also got good reviews.
4 Keep all trash outside your room. The housekeeping will pick it up.
5 All other extra you order were charged
General Queries
Ticket Cancellation Process
Thanks to friend Rajesh Kumar for sharing below information on cancellation.
- First need to call AirIndia Customer Care number.
- Confirm them you need to cancel it. Then send mail to ecommerce@airindia.in, with ticket pnr and attach the ticket also. Then ask for refund.
- Follow up again with the Customer Care about your status. Since you wont get any response through mail.
- Amount will be credited back with min 10 days to 21 days
Couldnt get the tickets and what to do?
To answer this, my friend Rajesh kumar too couldnt book tickets when it opened for his In-laws. All tickets sold out. Later he mailed to Indian high commission and also had word with AirIndia stating his situation. After followups, he got response from Indian high commission and they advised him to book tickets if available due to cancellation. But my friends need was two tickets. He followed up again and later got call from Air India stating two tickets were there and asked him whether he is fine. He gave his bank details to AirIndia and they booked the tickets for him. This happened for phase 3 june month flight. So if anyone cancel the ticket you might have chance if you followed up with High commission to consider you.
Note: All information and process were latest according to 1 July 2020. As process might keep changing double check latest updates, process or Url change if any and proceed accordingly. Will update this if anything i missed to mention and finetune if needed.
Dated : 1 July 2020
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