[NPV]

Looking for suggestions on where and which mobile service provider's SIM to get for a ~10 day visit to London. Need UK local calls, 3-5GB Data and international calls mostly to India.

[binand]

Originally Posted by NPV

Looking for suggestions on where and which mobile service provider's SIM to get for a ~10 day visit to London. Need UK local calls, 3-5GB Data and international calls mostly to India.

Airtel's IR plans are good. For my visits to UAE I take the 4000+GST pack (30 days validity, 500 mins outgoing talktime for +971 & +91, 5GB of data) which suits my purpose very well. Call quality is excellent and data is fast & stable. I see the same plan is available for UK on their app. Top-ups on a per-day basis will cost 650+GST.

Jio's is even cheaper I believe.

[V.Narayan]

Not an international airport but Domestic T3 at New Delhi has security queues that take 25 to 35 minutes to cross. I have experienced this about 4 times in the last 6 weeks. And then of course this being hamara desh queue jumpers abound giving rise to flared tempers et al.

This may be connected to the semi privatisation of the security system and manning.

I'm in one such queue right now at T3. Have been for 34 minutes and counting.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Not an international airport but Domestic T3 at New Delhi has security queues that take 25 to 35 minutes to cross.

It's the same in Mumbai apparently. News articles and friends' experiences talk of long queues, and there have been advisories to reach the airport 2.5/3.5 hours before domestic/int'l flights.

Crowds at Mumbai airport are so bad, international travellers advised to reach 3.5hrs earlier. Domestic passengers should reach at least 2.5hrs prior to flight time, as per Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport’s latest advisory

https://www.cntraveller.in/story/cro...reach-earlier/

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Not an international airport but Domestic T3 at New Delhi has security queues that take 25 to 35 minutes to cross. I have experienced this about 4 times in the last 6 weeks.

I'm in one such queue right now at T3. Have been for 34 minutes and counting.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

It's the same in Mumbai apparently. News articles and friends' experiences talk of long queues, and there have been advisories to reach the airport 2.5/3.5 hours before domestic/int'l flights.

I wonder what is the root cause. Holiday travel can account for a 20% to 25% jump given that this is air travel and not rail travel. Also I don't know if number of flights has gone up significantly. T1 at Delhi is only partially operational and I believe shut at Mumbai {I could be wrong on that}

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Also I don't know if number of flights has gone up significantly.

On the contrary, aren't the no. of flights lesser considering the reduction of operating fleet mandated by DGCA on Spicejet (and perhaps, even Indigo).

It may well be because of the semi-privatisation as you mentioned: I've observed that the Security check has started taking longer because the frequency of cabin bags being flagged and manually checked has gone up significantly.

[V.Narayan]

Any one took a flight out of Delhi's T3 or T2 last few days after the Govt put in place extra X-ray lines and CISF teams to cope with the crowds. Any feedback. I'm asking as on 20th I need to take a flight out of Delhi with a family group of eight including one very senior citizen on a wheelchair.

[Shiftlock]

Hi all,
I will be travelling to Dubai next week through Oman airlines, which has a layover at muscat. I have the necessary visa requirements for Dubai, my concern however is the requirements for transit visa in Oman. Layover for both outgoing and return trip is <5 hours. Can anyone please shine some light on wether I would require a transit visa or not? different websites are giving conflicting information and hence my confusion.

[Dr.Car]

Originally Posted by NPV

Looking for suggestions on where and which mobile service provider's SIM to get for a ~10 day visit to London. Need UK local calls, 3-5GB Data and international calls mostly to India.

Hi, I was in the same boat as you a few years back. I visited London, Bournemouth and Dublin (In Ireland) for a 10 day trip back in 2019. When I landed at Heathrow, there was a store right at the arrivals terminal and had all kinds of SIMs. I just told my requirement which were pretty similar to yours and the sales person present there suggested the Vodafone SIM.

The cost was around 20 GBP (Approx. 2000 INR). It included 30 GB data (Usage in whole Europe), 250 mins. Outgoing calls to India for a period of 25 days.

Signal and Network Speed

The signal strength was pretty good and 4G speeds were much faster than we have in India.

You won't be getting good signal while traveling in the Tube stations and underground tunnels but Vodafone had launched a free Wi-Fi service back then for their users which was in the initial stages but still worked properly. I am sure they must've expanded it to more Tube stations now!

Usage

Trust me, you won't be needing any more data than this for 10 days. I used Google maps navigation, video calling, Uber booking etc. and even after this I had 18 GB left on the last day. As for calling I think 250 mins. are more than enough. Also, you can do WhatsApp calling with your relatives in case the free mins. end. Vodafone also has a dedicated IVR no. through which you can get to know your real time data usage and calling usage as well.


Comparison with International Roaming

My father activated International Roaming from Airtel which costed around 3600 with a validity of 12 days. It had only 3 GB data but was better on the calling front since it offered 100 mins. Of calling everyday to India and unlimited Incoming calling which is really great.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend this option unless and until you need to make/take very important official calls on your own number only. I would much rather recommend more data over calling since you can make calling with data as well but not the other way round and so, getting a local SIM would be a better option.

As far as I remember there's another telecom company named EE which also had pretty comparable services but costed a little more back then. I think the best option would be to compare both and tell your requirements to the Sales person who would surely assist you!

P.s. When you insert the UK SIM into your phone and open WhatsApp, it'll prompt you to either keep using your original no. or use the new number. Just make sure you click the 'use old number option' Your WhatsApp will keep working with the original number even if you remove the Indian SIM so no worries there!

[EV NXT]

Originally Posted by NPV

Looking for suggestions on where and which mobile service provider's SIM to get for a ~10 day visit to London. Need UK local calls, 3-5GB Data and international calls mostly to India.

There are several local UK based service providers that give you SIM’s for as little as £10. Thats £5 for the SIM and £5 talktime which includes local and international calling. Recharges are available if you run out of talk time. Local calls are charged at very low rates.

India calling (international) can be done at low rates by picking up an India card for £5 which should last you for 10 days unless you are into long calls.

Data is available at extra rates but one can use the free wi-fi at most hotels for browsing and mails.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Dr.Car

Data is available at extra rates but one can use the free wi-fi at most hotels for browsing and mails.

Originally Posted by EV NXT

There are several local UK based service providers that give you SIM’s for as little as £10. Thats £5 for the SIM and £5 talktime which includes local and international calling. Recharges are available if you run out of talk time. Local calls are charged at very low rates.

Thanks guys, I'm back in India now, I had a wonderful trip

I finally ended up just buying the Airtel International Roaming pack a day prior to departure from India, I took the Rs.3999 pack and that was good enough.

Except when inside the tube network, almost everywhere else, mobile data was good, in fact I hardly used WiFi!

[carboy]

How is the Bombay domestic airport looking these days? Are there long lines like they say at Delhi?

I am flying out on Sunday. How early should I be at the airport?

[carboy]

When printing out the e-ticket, is it required to print out all pages? The pdf these days is 3 pages long - with page 1 having the itinerary, Page 2 having the price you paid & page 3 having the rules.

Is it ok to print out all 3 pages or is it fine to just print out the itinerary.

Asking for my Mom who wants to keep a physical copy.

[binand]

Originally Posted by carboy

When printing out the e-ticket, is it required to print out all pages?

Asking for my Mom who wants to keep a physical copy.

You just need a soft copy. Here in Bangalore I observe nowadays CISF personnel only need the barcode; they have a scanner and a display unit that shows passenger details.

But if your mother insists on a paper copy - remember that the important information are: Barcode, ticket number, Pax name, Booking reference / PNR, Flight number, Departure & Arrival airports, Departure date & time, ticket status.

So use the print preview feature and check if all the above (with Airline/Aggregator branding) fits on one page. If yes, print that page.

If not, see if you can get away with printing it on one sheet, back-to-back. Not optimal, but quick-and-dirty.

If not, use the DOM inspection tool of your browser to remove irrelevant DIVs so that the important parts fit on one page. Then print that page.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by carboy

When printing out the e-ticket, is it required to print out all pages?

Two things: the ticket and the boarding pass.

Does your mum have checked-in bags? If yes, she can ask for the boarding pass at baggage drop. If not, you'll need to have a print of the boarding pass as well.

Since she insists on having a physical copy, give her a print of the ticket: which includes the flight and passenger details, and a print of the boarding pass. If she's ok, carrying a pdf / email on her phone of the boarding pass will suffice right from airport entry, all the way to the aircraft.