26 days and countin' - Mumbai Airport Info?

blondie07

26 DAYS!!!!! WE ARE GOING NUTZ WITH THE EXCITEMENT. Waking each other up in the middle of the night to talk about our latest ideas for the trip -- don't know if it's the excitement or the lack of sleep but things are getting CRAZY around here !!!!

I have some questions ... have been looking for the right thread to post them, but I can't seem to find one and it looks like I have lost the knowledge on how to START a thread (see what is happening to my mind? all I can think about is INDIA ... INDIA ... INDIA!!!!!!) ... anyway, the questions are about the Mumbai airport. We are going to have about 5 hours between the time we arrive in Mumbai from the US and our flight out to Cochin -- and of course in the middle of the night: midnight until about 5 AM -- and we were told that there might be some rooms with a shower, etc. (?) for rent at either the domestic or international airport (I mean the actual airport, not at a nearby hotel) -- anybody know anything about that?

Also, we are fortunate enough to be flying into Mumbai on Delta Business Elite. Anyone know if Delta's first class lounge is before we go through customs or after? Won't do us much good if it is before, so another possibility we were considering was buying a "day pass" into the Jet first class lounge -- we are flying Jet to Cochin -- anybody know if this is possible? If all else fails we may just want to hop a taxi and cruise Mumbai for a few hours ... dumb idea? Any place at the airport we could check our luggage if we decide do something like that?

HELP!!!!

machadinha

There is reported to be a left luggage facility at either of the terminals yes. See way around the weight restrictions on domestic airways?

The question of how to kill some hours there gets asked a lot, so search around some. Start by scrolling to the bottom of this page, where you'll find a number of "similar threads." Opening any of those will again give you similar threads at bottom, etc. ad infinitum.

Try also these sites:
http://www.csia.in/
http://www.toandfromtheairport.com/mumbai.html

Note that the latter won't always be completely up-to-date by nature, for instance the Centaur Hotel that receives a favorable mention there was recently reported here to have closed down.

I don't suppose that 5 hours in the middle of the night (or by day for that matter, which if anything would mean more traffic of course) + getting off and on of planes and going through customs and finding your bearings will leave you with much time to do anything much by way of sightseeing, but that's for others to fill in. From previous reports I never got that impression either, and as usual with airports, downtown is some ways away I believe.

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blondie07

thanks for the info, M ... i had already looked at the airport website and couldn't find much there, but the similar threads have been especially helpful, as you said ...

steven_ber

Hey blondie (I've always wanted to say that , I think it's a line from 'The Good, the bad & the ugly')

Double check your flight times to Kochi, then triple check them, Kochi airport is closed for about 12 hours a day for runway repairs (I think), and if I remember right, it's 12 daylight hours, some flights have been re-sceduled, some have been cancelled, call up the airline or your travel agent.

It's been about a week since I read about it, so my times might be out (but it's definitely daytime), I'll see if i can find the article I read.

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Train information.

blondie07

Steven: You scared the hell out of me, so I googled ... from the Business Standard:

[Almost 200 out of 400 weekly domestic and international flights in and out of Kochi will be severely affected with the airport authorities deciding to close the runway from 10 am to 8 pm every day for seven months starting November this year. (2008)]

Looks like we are good to go, but thanks a lot for the heads up. That could have been quite a surprise.

Blondie

steven_ber

Oops, sorry, that's not the article I read, but I think that article will be correct, the Business Standard seems a very reliable website, I often get news items from their website.

Oh well, back to being very excited again.

nycank

DL Biz Elite lounge does not exist in BOM. DL shares its lounge facilities past immigrations in the departure lounge. No Airline to my knowledge has a lounge past the customs @ BOM.