Bangkok-Delhi- Chicago

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Hello All! I've been planning a big Asia trip for me and a friend in July. The friend and I are both US citizens living in the Chicago area. Next month we're going to do as follows:

Chicago-Tokyo
Tokyo- Hong Kong
Hong Kong- Manila
Manila- Bangkok
Bangkok-Delhi-Chicago.

I did some research and saw that for my travels in Tokyo/Hong Kong/ Manila and Bangkok I will NOT need any visa as my longest stay will be 5 days in Tokyo. (If I am wrong, please let me know).

I am very concerned as me and my friend are both employee's for American Airlines and will be traveling standby (non-rev) the ENTIRE trip. I spoke with a Thai airways agent the other day and she stated that my bag will not be checked Bangkok- Delhi-Chicago. But, instead just to Delhi. I do NOT have an Indian visa as I am told that American will re-tag my bag upon my arrival in Delhi and that all I have to do is transfer to Terminal 2, go to the transit counter and check in there, and wait.

I am a little skeptical as my bag will only be tagged to DELhi.

For those who have done this. how does it work?

thanks all!!!

machadinha

Garbled question really. And you work for an airline company? Can they not advise you?

Are you just transfering through all these places? (So where will your "big month-long trip" actually be spent?) I don't have my Thailand guidebook with me, but I doubt you could do anything there except (maybe) transfering without a visa no (it's not uncommon for a country to require a transit visa even for the shortest of periods, although this usually implies leaving the airport, or even just the arrivals hall and transit area, more precisely). I doubt it for most if not all of your other destinations too. Call the appropriate embassies or so. Or your ministry of foreign affairs. Or check their websites or whatever, or get some guidebooks from the library or a bookshop, or check some more travel websites. In short, do some more research. And then still call around to the source just to make sure.

To the extent that you seem to approach them as one "Asian" entity btw, they're all different countries of course. The one's stipulations will have nothing to do with the other's. Just stating the obvious in case it's necessary.

I likewise don't understand your Delhi question, but inasmuch as you seem to imply you're on standby and so may get stuck there, I assume you'd want at least some short-term tourist visa yes. For India these are not available on entry at the airport btw, you need to get them at home in advance. (If I recall, they're not for Thailand either.) You'll be refused entry and will get sent away, or perhaps at best spend your time in some transit lounge for as long it takes. There's a fairly recent movie based on a true story on a guy doing just that for years, what's it called.

All those luggage concerns I have no answer to and besides I don't really understand the question (what does your bag have to do with your visa anyway?), again, why not ask AA, they should know.

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