The Ramble: Navigating Chaos at Delhi Airport

Navigating through Indira Gandhi International Airport is no easy feat, as I discovered during my lengthy layover en route to Kathmandu. What if I told you that despite having lofty ambitions, Delhi's international to international transit experience feels like being in a chaotic maze with little guidance? Join me, Josh Bogle, on Tray Tables and Time Zones, where I recount my personal journey through this bustling hub. This episode promises to shed light on the ins and outs of making the best of a challenging situation.

Listeners will gain insights into the potential of Delhi Airport to transform into a key international transit hub, provided it overcomes its current hurdles. I share firsthand accounts of outdated infrastructure and communication gaps that leave travelers bewildered and frustrated. Despite having ample space and passenger volume, the airport's inefficiencies put a damper on its promise. Hear about my experience with a fellow traveler facing similar obstacles at the transit hotel, and how the aging A319 business class flight to Kathmandu mirrored the airport’s overall disarray. This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the real transit experience at Delhi Airport and the kind of improvements required to elevate it to world-class standards.

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Transcript

Josh 0:27

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Trad Tables and Time Zones. Presents the Ramble. I'm your host, josh Bogle. On this episode of the Ramble, we're going to discuss Indira Gandhi International Airport, otherwise known as the Delhi Airport.

Josh 0:43

So I've flown through Delhi Airport one time, and one time only. But from that experience of about eight to nine hours on the ground and moving through the airport as a international to international transit passenger, I felt like I was able to gain a really good sense of what works at the airport and what doesn't. The reason I was flying through Delhi was basically because of points. I was using points to fly business class on United and what was available was a flight into Delhi and then I had about an eight or nine hour layover and then a flight on to Kathmandu and while it wasn't my ideal routing, bu it was a good deal on points and it kept me in business class, which would be a nice way to have the trip because it's a fairly long flight. So that was kind of the situation of how I ended up in Delhi airport.

Josh 1:34

Now, I hadn't heard a lot of great things about it and as I started digging into the research and trying to figure out what I was going to do for eight hours. While I was on the ground, I came across a lot of reviews that weren't the best. I kept reading that Delhi Airport was really pushing hard to make its way into the international transit business. So if you've flown to a lot of the big transit airports before Singapore, Hamad in Doha, Dubai, Incheon in South Korea, Narita some of those very large, well-known airports that are known for their ability to move passengers off of planes, you know, have a layover and then on to another country. They're really good at it. And so Delhi, apparently because of its location, which makes sense, the opportunity was obviously there for them to become a bigger transit airport, right, but they're certainly not there yet, and I'll kind of explain why.

Josh 2:34

So these reviews that I was reading were not the most complimentary and a lot of it centered around the transit experience in that it was kind of a pain. There was a transit hotel that a lot of people had problems getting to from the transit area because they were being held up in certain areas and having to wait on people, and basically the flow of information from the arrival side to the departure side was not very smooth. And even if you were flying on someone like Air India, who's you know this would be a major hub for them. Obviously there was not a great level of communication to the passengers or between the airline itself to help people move quickly through a transit situation, whereas if a lot of the major transit airports, for example Singapore, it's very easy you get off the plane, you go through a security checkpoint, a transit checkpoint, and then you're off and you're in the departures area and you're ready for your next flight or ready to go to the lounge or whatever you do to spend your time until your next flight. But this didn't seem to be the case in Delhi.

Josh 3:43

So when I got on the flight I was excited because it was a trip, but at the same time I had a little bit of trepidation because I didn't have a whole lot of faith that it was going to be easy. I knew that I had plenty of time that I could figure out whatever issues I may run into, but I was thinking this is going to be a fight and initially I thought that I would get a hotel in the airport. So I thought I'll get there, go to this transit hotel and you know I would get in four or five hours of sleep and then maybe go grab some breakfast before my flight. But the more I read these reviews, the more I thought nah, I don't know that. I want to do that Because if I got into a situation where I paid for the hotel and then, for whatever reason, couldn't get there or couldn't make the reservation or I ran into issues at the airport, whatever it may be, I didn't want to, you know, have to fight to try to get that refund or whatever that may be, because it seemed like that people had run into that issue right.

Josh 4:39

So I decided you know what it's eight hours, I'll just hang out in the lounges, I'll maybe take a nap, you know, in a chair or whatever, I'll have some food and then I'll just go about my next flight. And at that point I had a couple of options on lounges. There was a priority pass lounge which I had access to, and then there, reading the reviews, neither got just sterling reviews, but it appeared that the Plaza Premium Lounge, which was a Priority Pass Lounge, was certainly the best option to go with, because there was not a whole lot of kind words to be said about the Air India Lounge, but the Plaza Premium Lounge at least received some good marks for having enough places to sit and food and things like that. So, okay, fine, I'll just hang out in there, I'll look around the departure area, maybe go in some of the little shops and stuff, because I'd never been to the airport so I did want to check it out, right. So, anyway, that was kind of my plan.

Josh 5:46

So I nixed the hotel idea and just went straight with a lounge layover plan. So I get on the flight and I fly into India, into Delhi. Okay, get off the plane. Fine, not a big issue. We fly into Terminal 3, which is a domestic and international terminal, but it's the main international terminal, obviously. And also Air India is Star Alliance, which is United's alliance, so I didn't think there would be a bunch of issues. I thought, if anything, given that they're partners, it'll be more of an easy transit, right, because theoretically the information should flow from one to the next.

Josh 6:29

So I land and you know how it is usually of arrival areas, especially international, are pretty bland. They're big, long hallways that funnel you toward either the immigration and leaving the airport, or it funnels you to a transit area to transit to your next flight, and so that was pretty well marked. It wasn't a huge issue to find the transit area. Once I got to the transit area, that's where the fun began. So it's a big room, or at the time it was a very big room and they had several counters and there were several different lines going to each of these counters. But the signage, let's say, was really bad right, like it was really hard to understand where I needed to go. So I kind of I asked a few people who really couldn't they really didn't have much to tell me. They seemed not to really know where I needed to go, even though I was just a regular transit passenger. It wasn't anything difficult, but they didn't really seem to understand well, so they kind of, just, you know, threw their hands around and pointed at an area and I was like, okay. So, after going back and forth for a while, myself and several other people that were transiting international to international, we kind of made our way to the same desk, right, and there was a desk that was manned by a couple of different people. At least two of them worked for Air India or they had Air India clothing on, so I assume they worked for Air India, which was who I was flying with.

Josh 8:01

After getting off the United flight, my flight to Kathmandu was on Air India, and so I finally got up to the counter and this lady looked at me like I maybe had bugs coming out of my eyes. I mean, she just looked at me like she had no clue what I was even saying. And that's when I was like, oh, this is going to be fun. So I give her my information and my my tickets and the paperwork that I'd printed off, you know, so that I could easily tell them you know, this is my next flight, this is the time, and so I shared all that with them. I kind of got told just to stand there for a while. She's on the phone, on the computer, back and forth and doesn't really seem to have a grasp of what needs to happen next.

Josh 8:48

And I noticed that the people that are also in line with me there was another gentleman that was working behind the counter and the passengers that were also trying to get to the transit area they weren't having any better luck. It was just kind of a throw your hands up free for all, trying to make people understand what was happening. And it seemed really weird because even though I'd read those reviews. You know, I thought that I had managed to set myself up for the easiest possible transit. It was very smooth, all the same. Alliance partners, you know, international to international, there wasn't. You know, I wasn't entering India or anything like that, I was just moving through and I'd never had issues with this before.

Josh 9:26

But this, this was turning into a bit of a beating. I was starting to get pretty damn pissed off because it was taking forever. I basically got told to go sit in a chair and wasn't told any information besides. Sit in the chair, right, and they had these hard chairs that were sitting there and there was a few people here and there and wasn't told anything, just told to wait. And I'm like, okay, so I'm sitting in this hard ass chair in the middle of the night. All I want to do is get through transit security and get into the departure terminal so I can go to the lounge and get something to eat, I can relax for a little while, I can maybe walk around, but at that point I couldn't do any of that because I was stuck in this damn warehouse of a room with no information and everybody around me was in the same boat, like they weren't helping anyone get through. Nobody was getting through easily.

Josh 10:17

And then a gentleman came up who actually had a reservation at the transit hotel and he was trying to get to the transit hotel and they wouldn't let him go through. Like they wouldn't even let him get to the transit hotel, like he was trying to explain to them I have a room and I have it reserved at this hotel. Here's the reservation. And they would not let him go through. And he was steadily getting pissed off because he's watching whatever he paid disappear because he couldn't make it to the damned hotel. And we sat there for ever. I mean, they pulled a few people here and there and they would send them through the security but there was no lines. I could see the security checkpoint, like it was on the backside of this giant ass room and they were just standing around. Nobody was doing anything, you know. So we check in with them and they would just basically tell us to sit back down and just wait.

Josh 11:09

And honestly, I don't even remember how long I was there. It was a couple of hours, I shit you not in a hard plastic chair trying to get through transit into the departure terminal. It was unbelievable. I was so pissed off by the time I got through there that I couldn't believe it. You know, I kept thinking. You know, here's this airport that wants to become this major transit airport and they can't even move 10 passengers through the transit area in a reasonable amount of time. So it just was a shitty, shitty experience. So it just was a shitty, shitty experience. Look, I understand there's been some time pass since I was at Delhi Airport, and so what I hope is is that they've made some changes and they've gotten better at the process of moving people through and that people aren't still being stuck in this limbo transit area like I was. Because I mean, I can tell you right now that I thought about every other airport that I'd ever been through at that point and I was begging that I would be at any of them instead of being in Delhi airport, because it was such a fucking beating. I just it was a miserable experience. I finally got through after a couple of hours of waiting for apparently no effing reason and made it into the departure terminal.

Josh 12:25

The Plaza Premium Lounge was fine. I mean, I don't really have any complaints. I actually had a little bit to eat there. The food was fine. It wasn't great. It wasn't bad. You know, they had things to drink bottled water and soda and those things, which was nice. The one bad thing about it is it is a plaza premium lounge and there was a bunch of ways to gain access, not just priority pass, but there was some india credit cards that had access and things like that as well. So it was busy. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was busy in there, but I still, you know, was able to find a place to sit, was able to get some food and everything, and so that's what I did. I hung out in there, I walked around the terminal a little bit, checked it out. It was nothing special, nothing particularly amazing about it. It was pretty unremarkable, to be honest with you. So finally made it on the plane to fly to Kathmandu. I was in business class on this A319, and this plane was sold and had seen a lot better days. I mean, we made it and it was fine, but, holy shit, the plane was kind of just another representation of the airport.

Josh 13:33

Right, there's a lot of things that India has going for it and that Delhi airport has going for it, and it could come that transit airport that it wants to become. You know, it's got a lot of passenger traffic and it's got a lot of space. It's big, but none of it works together. It seems like at every step there is a divider. On one side of the divider there's people and on the other side of the divider there's people, or there's a computer on one side and a computer on the other side, and none of it can talk to each other Right, or if it does, none of it meshes together. It's just kind of a jumbled mess. So, while there's tons of potential there, at least my experience sucked and I would actively avoid using that as a transit airport again, like I would avoid it at all costs. I would go pretty much anywhere else I could to avoid that airport because it was just. It was just a shitty experience, you know. I mean there wasn't anything great about it and if I could transit through somewhere else I would do it in a heartbeat.

Josh 14:38

Now, is that to say that one day this airport won't be a great airport? No, I mean it has. Like I said, it has plenty of potential and it has the traffic, I think as of last year. In fact, they moved almost 7.36 million passengers last year, so that's a lot of people and I think they're building it out to be able to move a huge number, a lot more than that. But having the space to do it is one thing and actually having the infrastructure as far as technology and people that understand how to move everything through and work seamlessly, they are very far behind the other major transit airports.

Josh 15:21

So if you asked me, should I fly through there? I would look at you and I would say no, I would say avoid it if at all possible. Now, if you're getting some crazy ass points deal where, say, a regular business class flight? You know, going through anywhere else is at a hundred thousand points and they said you can do a transit through Delhi and it would only cost you 45,000 points. And they said you can do a transit through Delhi and it would only cost you 45,000 points, then I might be willing to do it. I mean, I could probably be bribed via points to go through there, but I would know what I was getting into. I know that when I got there it would likely become a beating, but other than that, if all things are equal, no way, not at this point, maybe down the road, but beyond that, I would not transit international to international through Delhi airport at all. So that's my review of Delhi airport. It's like I said, it's got a ton of potential, but it is. It is not there yet. So, like I said, avoid it if you can, unless you get a really great deal or you're flying into India to be staying domestically, then go for it, but just know that transiting through that airport is a massive pain in the ass and it's not set up well. As long as you're aware of that and you're ready for it, then you'll be okay, but it is, it's tough to deal with.

Josh 16:42

All right, everyone. That's the ramble for this week. Now I did want to take a second here and just say that I can't thank everybody enough. The podcast this week passed 250 downloads, which was a big milestone in the life of this little podcast. For everybody that has listened and for everyone that will listen, thank you, because I was so excited when we passed 250 that it was a great day and I'm really, really proud of what the podcast is becoming and hopefully, what it will become in the future, and none of that's possible without you all listening to it. So thank you so much for listening. It means a ton and I really honestly appreciate it so much.

Josh 17:30

If you would do me a favor, be sure and rate and review wherever you can do that. Give us some love. Also, be sure and check us out on all of our socials, especially Instagram, threads, tiktok, facebook. We post across all of those, mainly Instagram, but Instagram will feed to a lot of the other ones, and so I've been really trying to implement a posting on Instagram along with that week's episode. So if I have any pictures or video that reference back to the episode, I'll try to post those at the same time. So you should check those out, because it'll show a lot of the places that I'm talking about in the podcast.

Josh 18:07

And lastly, if you know anybody that's really into travel or that wants to get into travel, man, please share the show. That helps a ton too. The word of mouth is one of the best ways to get the show out there. So if you wouldn't mind sharing it with your friends and family, that would be greatly appreciated. But with that, let me just say thank you again. I appreciate everyone listening and we'll see you on the next one. Thanks, bye. Outro Music.