Ready to travel? ...got baggage ready? ..head to airport...



At airport, there are 3-4 sets of formalities.



1. Luggage screening through X-ray...not mandatory for hand luggage, but useful if you plan to check in your handluggage as well...

2. Check in at the counter...Ask the lady at the counter if you wish to check in your hand luggage as well.. Also ask her to to "thorough" check in to London, if you have to change a flight midway.

3. Immigration check - Embarkation form submission and routine Q&A with GoI official

4. Security check and hand-luggage screening

5. Board the aircraft



One thing to remember... If you are with a small child and lots of luggage, do not hesitate to approach persons in the respective area for fast-tracking your process...you don't need to stand in the queue for any process, holding a sleeping child and luggage. Just let them know and they will put you ahead of everyone. This is equally true in India, and UK.



--------------------------------------------

Let me elaborate on point 2 above...At the check-in counter..



In cases where you have to change a flight, tell the lady that you wish to do thorough check-in to London. This ensures that your luggage reaches London in the same flight as you do and you don't have to again claim and check in the same luggage in Mumbai. When you do thorough check in, you will also get 2 boarding passes in Bangalore itself..one for Bangalore-Mumbai and another for Mumbai-London



The luggage allowance that Jet gave was 30 kg for check in luggage and 8 kg for hand luggage. However, I had 34 kg check in and 12 kg hand luggage. Since my check in baggage was heavy, lady at the check-in counter correctly smelled foul (!) and insisted on weighing my hand baggage as well ! She tried to act tough initially and asked me to reduce check in weight..When I told her that I can't handover anything to anyone, since noone is waiting outside, she relented.. Finally I checked in 32.5 kg weight and carried around 14 kg of hand baggage in my trolley...Once check in counter was crossed, rest was easy.. The flight was good, though they had less water bottles available with them ! During the flight, they gave us a landing card which was to be filled up and later submitted to immigration officials in London.



Finally..pick up an embarkation form from around Check-in counter...you need to submit this when you go for emigration check.



------------------------------------------------



Once landed, we came out through aerobridge and walked along as per various signs...this essentially involves following all passengers as all of them necessarily head to Immigration Hall.. You need to walk a bit after coming out of aerobridge to reach immigration hall...alternatively use flat escalators, instead of walking..

Its advisable to reach immigration hall ahead of rest of the passengers of your flight..this will reduce the amount of time that you spend in queue...Once at immigration desk, you need to present the landing card, work permit and passport etc...after a few questions etc, I was asked to go to health control since I was on work permit.. health control is is in the immigration hall only, but is at at the extreme left.. There I presented my X-ray ...once cleared, I went to Passport Control desk (or some similar name) just outside health control room...After clearing all of these, I went for baggage claim...


I collected a trolley from the extreme right corner of baggage claim room where all trolleys were kept..Since there are several conveyer belts, you must look out on indicators as to which belt will your luggage be on...



Since it took me nearly 30-40 mins in immigration check formalities and queues, luggage was already lying next to conveyer belt..I picked up luggage and came out through the green channel (nothing to declare)..

After passing through green channel etc., and walking a bit further, you would reach

the information desk... Just near to it, you would find many cab drivers etc holding placards.. Look out for me there J Worst case, call me from someone’s mobile at 0798 344 8752… Look for some Indian face and they should be happy to help you..

Love.

Ashish