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Lounge Review: American Express Lounge Delhi Terminal 3

a long hallway with doors and lights

A first-hand review of the American Express Platinum Lounge at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3. Accessible if you hold an American Express card issued around the world. Platinum/Centurion card holders get complimentary access.

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Delhi Airport may become cheaper again for fliers

Delhi Airport is one of the better airports around India, but one of the most expensive ones as well. The airport charges about INR 232 – 550 to domestic passengers, while they charge between INR 518 to INR 1270 for an international passenger. These are called the UDF (User Development Fee). Compare this with Mumbai, where you pay about INR 300 for a domestic departure. It seems that the Airport regulator in India, AERA, has now asked the Delhi Airport operator GMR Group to reduce the charges at Delhi Airport by about 78%. In the past few years, Delhi was allowed to charge astronomical rates because they had done a lot of capital expenditure in bringing up the airport, which…

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World’s second best airport, Delhi, goes under the rains

The Delhi Airport tom toms around its stature as the second best airport globally, in the 25-40 million passenger category. And I have to admit its good, way better than the sort of dump Mumbai Airport is which I have to use most often. However, there are times when the airport goes under, and this is the second time that it happened this rainy season. Here are pictures from posted on Twitter by journalist Tarun Shukla of the Delhi Airport which was flooded by the rains yesterday. Thankfully the drainage worked better airside and flight ops were not affected. However imagine the surprise if you landed in Delhi yesterday and having the need for a boat instead of a golf…

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Air India to connect Amritsar to Birmingham via Delhi on the B787

Its been in the GDS systems for a few days already, however Air India finally came around to announcing their Amritsar (ATQ) – Delhi (DEL) – Birmingham (BHX)  flight on their new Boeing 787 planes from 1st August 2013. The new route will be operated 4 times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and is aiming to connect the burgeoning Indian community in Birmingham and Amritsar. Passengers from and to Amritsar will not have to change planes at Delhi. This is the second new route for the B787 in August. The other one getting launched is the B787 flights to Australia. Here are the timings of the flight, as per AirlineRoute.net : AI113 DEL1330 – 1800BHX 788 x357…

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Something New: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3

Introduction Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3 Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class After a leisurely few days in Delhi, it was time to go back to Mumbai. I’m usually trying to look away from early morning flights, because I do my fair share on work travel, but this time, I was a little bit greedy to spend some more time at home with the family, so I booked up an early morning flight back. I arrived at the airport in good time, and proceeded to the Air India counters to collect my boarding pass at Terminal 3.…

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Tough luck getting Delhi ADF refunds: Air India, Jet Airways & Indigo are a no go

Like I mentioned about two weeks back, flyers from Delhi are supposed to get a refund for their domestic or international flights, booked before January 1, 2013 and flying after. I did not get quite the enthusiastic response which I was not expecting anyways. Here is how various airlines and travel agents responded: Indigo, booked via GoIbibo.com (enquiry for 3 PNRs) Air India, booked via PremierMiles.co.in (3rd Attempt) Jet Airways, booked directly Like you can see, the airlines and the Online Travel Agents are passing the buck to each other and no one is either clear on this, or does not want to take on the responsibility. The total impact of all these tickets I am chasing up is Rs.…

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Flying from Delhi? Get a refund.

This just looks like a Monopoly game instruction but for those who are flying out of Delhi from January 1, 2013 onwards, it could be some money in your pocket. The Delhi Airport has had to reduce their Airport Development Fee, one of the highest in the world, to more moderate levels from January 1, 2013 on the instructions of the regulator. Before January 1, 2013, the ADF used to be Rs. 200 ($4) for domestic flights and Rs. 1,300 ($ 24) for international flights taking off from Delhi airport. The entire fee is supposed to contribute to the development of the airport. From January 1,  the new ADF applicable is Rs. 100 (~$2) for all domestic departures, and Rs.…

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Flying from BOM/DEL to get cheaper January 2013 onwards!

You remember that everytime you travel from Mumbai or Delhi airports, you pay a Development Fee, which is going directly to construction or development of future facilities but will not gain you comfort today? Mumbai airport levies Rs. 100 and Rs. 600 on each domestic and international passenger as Airport Development Fee. Delhi charges Rs. 200 and Rs. 1,300 as ADF from every domestic and international outbound flyer along with a user development fee (UDF) of Rs 196 to Rs 1,068 from all flyers, including incoming ones. The combined impact of these two fees has made Delhi among the most expensive airports in the world, leading to airlines dropping the swanky airport from their plans over the past year. The…

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