Air travel procedures

This long weekend we (me and my wife) had a trip to Singapore , a small country on a small island  with lots of sight seeing ,restaurants with tasty food,good shopping and a vibrant nightlife scenes.We had already booked our tickets on SilkAir two months before .Singapore is also home to low cost flight likes Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia.  Our flight was at 3.15 pm. we started from our house at 11.45 am by a taxi to Bengaluru International Airport which is located 4 km south of Devanahalli. There was hardly traffic in the road we reached there by 12.45pm.The passenger terminal in Bengaluru International Airport is a single, fully air conditioned, four-level building with 20 gates. For international flights check in opens 2 hours prior to flight departure time.

Departure procedures

You can also check in from your home by phone ,fax or online.They need not stand in the long queue.Then we collected our boarding pass and deposit our luggage at check in counter. The airline staff will be verifying passport and will give the boarding pass and ask us to deposit our luggage.

Weight of cabin luggage and check in baggage
Each passenger can have at the most 7 kg and not larger than 115cm baggage.The hand carried or cabin baggage should not contain metallic devices like scissors, knife also perfume, gels, and aerosols. Exemptions will be made for medication ,baby food and special dietary items.your check in baggage can have up to 20kg per person. For excess baggage you should pay an excess fee, it depends on air carriers. You may have to declare your laptops before checkin your baggage. Make sure your name has been printed correctly on boarding pass so that you don’t have any trouble at immigration clearance. It is also good to have your names labeled properly on your checkin baggage , it will be easy for you to identify your baggage when you arrive your destination.

Immigration Clearance
You should have passport and boarding pass as you clear immigration into the departure transit lounge. Immigration officer would be checking the purpose of visit and he would allow or disallow depending on the records and purpose of visit. For any employment related travel , it is good to carry the letter from your organization as a proof along with Passport, Visa and Boarding pass. For tourists you may have produce the proof of stay such as hotel booking details. On your boarding pass departure gate details will be printed , once you are done with immigration clearance you need to wait near that gate till flight arrives and gate is open.

Arrival Procedure
After enjoying 4.5 hrs of time in the flight we reached Changi airport at night 10:55 PM. Singapore time is 2.5 hrs ahead of IST. After filling in the Immigration form you need to submit it to the immigration officer. There would be information screen which displays the baggage claim belt number for each flight. You can collect your baggage from respective baggage claim belt.  If your baggage is missing or damaged you can proceed to the respective airlines ‘lost and found’ counter.

Foreign exchange
You can have your foreign currency ready with you when  you travel. You can also convert your currency in all airports. No commission will be charged for all foreign note transactions.

My friend and wife was waiting outside to receive us. For more Singapore details wait for our next post.

Tags: air travel