UK to India Flight Passenger experience ( 7th Jan Flight )
Background: Indian Government banned UK to India Inbound and outbound Flights initially up to 31st December 2020. Later on ban on UK flight extended up to 31st December 2020. Aviation Minister announced to open operation of flight between UK and India and accordingly first flight from Heathrow Airport, London to Indira Gandhi International Airport , Delhi take off on 07th January 2021. Flights are operating from UK to Delhi , Banglore , Mumbai , Chennai , Kolkata airports under stringent norms . There are only few flights operating between india and uk .
My Covid Journey Experience :We travelled by first flight after Flight resumption from UK to India during covid on 7th January 2021 by air india flight from heathrow airport, London to delhi airport , India after UK lockdown and new corona strain in united kingdom .
I will share my journey in 2 part:
1. My journey from London airport to Delhi Airport by flight.
I shared my Journey video from Heathrow airport to Delhi Airport , link for which given below :
I catched Air India evacuation Flight under vande bharat mission and travelled from heathrow airport , london to Indira Gandhi national airport , delhi . Passengers has to go through covid test before catching flight to india . We get tested in Shiv Pharmacy , Oxford street London on 5th January and received our covid test result on 6th january . There are many clinics in london and you can try any clinic as per your convenience .Most Clinics charging GBP 150-175 for test per person . Passenger covid test result should be negative to take flight. Please note that test should be conducted within 72 hours of departure time of flight. You must produce your test result along with fly certificate at the time of check in .
We applied for Quarantine exception on Delhi Airport website as instructed on site . We received approval for quarantine exception by email from Government . As per rules passenger having negative test report at delhi airport will be under 14 days home quarantine . Exception received for institutional quarantine and we were happy that we will go directly to our home and will do 14 days home quarantine . (Actually it not happened . why ? i will describe later . )
Although we were flying with negative covid test report, we were aware that we will tested again for covid at delhi airport . Passengers can apply for covid test on delhi airport website . Link for covid test application https://www.newdelhiairport.in/covid19-rtpcr-test-appointment-booking As per website Delhi Airport does not support covid test for kids of less than 10 years ( Display on site before our travel ). As we were travelling with 9 years old son so we decided that we will register for covid test after reaching delhi airport . (Actually this information was also wrong , watch my 2nd video on this page for further details ) .
We taken taxi from our home in barnet council to Heathrow airport , London at 4:30 PM . Our Flight was schedule to depart at 8:30 PM. We reached Airport at 5:30 PM approx and we observed that there was a long queue on Check in counter . Actually it was due to less check in counters opened by Air India ( I assume that this was to maintain Social Distancing among Air India Staff ) . We were able to check in our luggage at 8 PM so Check in taken 2:30 hours and many passengers were still behind us . I suggest passengers to leave home early keeping in the mind whatever stated above . All cafes , Restaurants were closed at heathrow airport so of you are travelling with kids keep some food with you .
As check in got late , when we reached on security counter flight was showing closed . We were worried and requested security counter staff to finish things early . We all were worried and rushed towards flight gate after security clearance .
We reached on flight late but flight was still waiting for other passengers so flight take off late .
Flight was fully booked and there was no social distancing in Flight . Thanks to Air India for providing us snacks and dinner .
Horrible Experience at Delhi Airport along with video ( A must watch video ) :
We reached Delhi Airport and our journey in Flight was similar to our expectations. But after reaching Delhi Airport we have a very horrible experience and prey to god that next flight passenger will not face like this .
Now i am sharing my horrible journey experience After reaching Delhi Airport .covid test carried out by airport authorities at delhi airport in India. Test result has taken approx 6 hours at delhi airport . Delhi Airport Authorities informed us that all Passengers will be under institutional quarantine 7 days even if result is negative. It was shocking news for us .All passengers demanding for home quarantine only which was intimated to us before we landed in delhi . All passenger were angry and lot of chaos on delhi . airport Authorities has taken our passport ( today is 14th january and our passport is still with them) .
There was long queue for test etc on delhi airport . We got our result in evening and fortunately we were negative . continuously meetings between passengers and airport authorities were in progress and after a lot of effort Airport Authorities allowed only connecting Flight Passengers to travel . As decision was taken late so many passengers missed their flight too . Air India helped some passenger to change flights etc .
Now Delhi passengers and passengers who wish to travel via taxi , train etc were also requesting to go home . We also planned to go agra by taxi and making efforts of same . We tried up to 3 AM but could not convince authorities and forced for Institutionl Quarantine . Immigration Etc taken 3 more hours and we reached hotel at 6:30AM approx . We are still in Institutional Quarantine
For more details please watch video above ( A must watch video ) video which i prepared in detail :
For Our Institutional Hotel Room Video you can watch following video :
If you have any query please comment on any video , we will revert back earliest and try to resolve your query .
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