First time arrivals: avoid late nights

steven_ber

This makes a lot of sense, I remember landing at Heathrow (coming direct from Chennai on BA) and the pilot saying something like "the 200 passengers going on to Toronto should go to.....", I was shocked at the high number.

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Aishah

Interesting, Steven, and I'm thinking hang-on I'm coming from Sydney or NZ, what's that got to do with it because these planes are also arriving late (some of them). But then figured out it's to do with changeovers at Bangkok or Singapore - European, US planes coming through there too?? But actually there seems to be a lot of Indians returning on the flights I get on.. And they have only been to Bangkok or Singapore.

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JuliaF

What I find worse is the 3-4am departures from Delhi. What with the 3 hour check in, taxi etc you have no sleep and then you get on the plane and they give you breakfast! That used to really wreck me.

Luckily this last time I had a 2pm departure - much more civilised!

Hop

The Bangkok / Singapore routes are more to do with other connections as well. Eg Chennai -> Bangkok with Thai departs Chennai at midnight 30. This is because this flight leaves Bangkok in the morning, goes to Chennai then on to Dubai, back to Chennai and then finally back to Bangkok at around 5.30am, ready for the plane to do another run.

There are lots of reasons for Singapores flights. Partly to do with hubbing at Changi - get everyone into Singapore overnight from India for the morning for connecting flights. Partly for plane utilisation - planes are expensive and need to be used 24 hours a day to maximise revenue and so some flights need to be done overnight. The 2.5 hour time difference means India is great for overnight plane utilisation. The Singapore flight to Chennai leaves at 8pm, arrives Chennai 10.40pm local time departs midnight back to Singapore and arrives at 6am. The plane can then be fully utilised during the day for flights to Hong Kong, Bangkok, KL etc, and then back to India for the overnight return flights and back in Singapore at 6am for another full day. With the 2.5 hour time difference, it makes more sense to utilise the night hours for these flights. Also finally, you can arrive in Singapore at 6am, do a full day, and be back in India that night - but I'm sure thats not a real reason why the airlines schedule it that way.

Rasika

Yeah, I love being in Auto in India at dawn, and seeing the colours of India slowly welcoming me - and traffic is much better too.

But I was thinking of the spate of people arriving in Delhi alone after say 9pm who want to get on to say Rishikesh - just spending a night in Delhi won't really be relaxing if they are getting up at dawn to get an early train or bus, there are all these tales of taxi drivers taking you to their brother in law's hotel (luckily no shops open at that time), and unless they are checking in to a dive it is false economy as good hotels in Delhi would cost at least... 2k rupees?

Things are better in Delhi now with the new highway, but Mumbai is same-same, and even during the day I was worried the driver was taking me to some den of iniquity to sell me into slavery. I can't imaging taking a night taxi into town alone when I don't know the roads at all.

These days I am perfectly happy paying upto 30-40 pounds more for morning arrival, but before I would just go for the cheapest option.

Aishah

YHA is cheap at 750r for a single. Includes heater or air conditioning. I find it hard to imagine people rushing off to Rishikesh after a long plane flight - I suppose if you are young you can do it! I'd be staying a night or two in Delhi recovering from jet lag.

Hop - I somehow missed your post when I did this one - many thanks for the good explanation.

machadinha

Rasika, if there's one thing I agree with it's we see a lot of questions here by first-timers who think they can get running from the start, even if it's at 2 AM.

And I suppose some of them can... Just wouldn't be my way of going. I'm not the only one here to say I found something like buying toothpaste daunting enough just upon arrival.

I dunno, the flights I've had would arrive very late-night'ish, by the time you're outside dawn is breaking and on your handful of Rupees 1-hour-something city bus ride into town (speaking of Delhi, btw) that's a nice introduction to your temporary new home indeed. It obviously helps to know where you're going, but I found it nice the first time as well. Looking at camel carts passing by and stuff, I remember what struck me most was how I should have fallen off my seat at the sight, but instead you're more like, Hey, that's nice, a camel cart, of course, why not (I do hope there are still camel carts in Delhi or its outskirts?)

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billytiss

I had quite an experience with this late night arrival. It was my first flight to India and there was a nice Taxi driver. I asked a person working in the office of Airport if I can trust the person. He said yes. We were two, we set in the taxi and drove to the city center. The ride was magically adrenaline one. But out of a sudden the taxi stopped in the middle of nowhere. We were put in one office and 5-7 men appeared. We were surrounded by them and they were just selling us flights telling to us that all buses are not operating and that the trains are not working and so on and were not allowed to leave the office. This negotiation was very scary and at the end I knew we will need to run out. Where can I run away - nowhere. I looked at my friend (we were 2 girls) and said to her. On 3 we run out. So we did. I put on my face a dangerous look, needed to really intimidate the taxi driver. They put us in car and just left us in the middle of Delhi streets. It was really scary and about 2.30 in the morning.

We found train station and by luck there was a young men (student) who decided to protect us in the night. We talked so much, that we missed the train )

In one way it was a very interesting experience, yet it could end up much worse.

machadinha

That does sound pretty hairy

It's a good reminder though, such stories are sadly not all that uncommon as one might like them to be.

Glad you got through alright! & Met a better guy to make up for it. And welcome to IndiaMike, btw

billytiss

The Indian boy madly fell in love in just 6 hours. He was crying and it was heart breaking to see him like that. Thank you for the welcome

kmalik

Back to the original topic, I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. I have arrived and departed from India at all hours. However, the best experiences have involved Virgin Atlantic (2 times). It left LHR around 10 PM and arrived into Delhi around 10 or 11 AM. I recall that the departure times have been equally convenient. And, it has worked well when traveling from the US as well - arrive into London during the early morning hours sans luggage (checked through), get a hotel and sleep for a few hours, walk around and have a nice early dinner in London and head to the airport ready for a restful flight.

Without making an extreme statement, I do find the treatment of passengers to India well short of that afforded to travelers to American or European countries. I do not believe the airlines would casually schedule arrivals and departures into major destinations between 12 to 4 AM in Europe or the US. I guess they get away with it, hence have no reason to change. If the flights at more civilized hours get better business, may be they'll learn...

machadinha

Heheh. Sounds like India alright! What contrasts, eh. Looking forward to more stories