Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

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krishk24
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:49 pm

Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by krishk24 »

Hello
I am considering traveling to India for a week. I am a US citizen and fully vaccinated

I googled what the options are and came away really confused on which countries to transit through on my way to India.

I also realized that 72 hr. prior Covid negative test is necessary when traveling from the US to the transit country (on my way) and then the same test may be needed when traveling from India to the transit country (on the way back).

Can someone please shed some light before I book my ticket ?

Thanks much !
teeda_k8s
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:57 pm

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fullly vaccinated)

Post by teeda_k8s »

I had a friend of mine who recently moved to India, he went from SFO->Delhi. And the other friend travelled from Newark->Mumbai.
Travelling domestically first(in US) and then a direct flight might be easier.
codedude
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:15 pm

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by codedude »

It is the new normal. Just follow the rules. Find the most restrictive allowed time for your covid test between your target country and the intermediate stopover country and satisfy that. Before you get on the plane, you need to upload your covid negative test to an India govt website. After uploading, get some printouts of the uploaded data. It is possible the airline or someone else may want this. YMMV.
dimdum
Posts: 218
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:50 pm

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by dimdum »

Covid test needed both way. US>India and India>US.
There are direct flights from both US coast (Newark-NJ, Chicago, SFO).
Don't travel via Europe, take a direct flight from US to India.
steadyhand
Posts: 210
Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:56 am

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by steadyhand »

I had recent experience traveling via the middle east and would say avoid that. Their rules are fickle and you may be stuck there and may need to come back on a direct airline on short notice costing way more in the end. A direct flight from the USA is recommended. I used United.
spectec
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Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:00 am

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by spectec »

Regular traveler to India once or twice a year for the last 12 years here. My two main routes were US-London-India or US-Dubai-India. I preferred US-Dubai-India because I liked Emirates and I really like the A-380 (and the 777). I also strongly prefer the long segment of 12-14 hours plus 4 hours as opposed to two segments of 7-9 hours each. Dubai also afforded more backup options for alternate connections if the first flight encountered delays.

I haven’t traveled there since March 2020 so I don’t know how COVID has changed schedules, and of course pre-trip testing now affects logistics. But would like to hear what you decided to do and how it worked out for you.
Last edited by spectec on Mon Sep 27, 2021 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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an_asker
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Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:15 pm

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by an_asker »

krishk24 wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 9:05 pm Hello
I am considering traveling to India for a week. I am a US citizen and fully vaccinated

I googled what the options are and came away really confused on which countries to transit through on my way to India.

I also realized that 72 hr. prior Covid negative test is necessary when traveling from the US to the transit country (on my way) and then the same test may be needed when traveling from India to the transit country (on the way back).

Can someone please shed some light before I book my ticket ?

Thanks much !
I cannot really answer your question from personal experience as I went direct (EWR-BOM-EWR) - plus internal legs - earlier this year. But DW has an upcoming flight with transit and I will be happy to update next month! I hope she has an easy transit.

Like someone else responded, these dang rules are fickle all around. :oops:

If it were me, I would suggest that you go direct. Newark to Delhi or Mumbai are your best bets. Where are you located and what's your destination in India?
vinhodoporto
Posts: 300
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2019 9:14 am

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by vinhodoporto »

I would fly direct from US to India as well... reduces complexity and the risk of getting stranded in a third country either due to a positive test or just due to rapidly changing rules

I’m a fully vaccinated American who has travelled to both Europe and the Middle East this summer. In both cases the testing requirements changed during the trip. In Paris I saw several vaccinated people turned away at the check in counter because they didn’t have the right test results (or didn’t have them in the right format). This cost them at least another night there plus whatever changes to the flight cost. In the Middle East country I was in you had to get a very specific test within a specific time frame both coming and going, as well as test in the airport on arrival and again after a certain number of days in country. Their websites weren’t always up to date so if I had been traveling on my own I could very easily have accidentally fallen afoul of the rules. Fortunately for me it was a work trip and our people in country were fairly on top of the latest requirements. Just fly direct and avoid all of this.
an_asker
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Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2013 2:15 pm

Re: Traveling to India via Europe or Middle east with Covid-19 restrictions (US citizen and fully vaccinated)

Post by an_asker »

DW is on her way back from India. Didn't have any trouble in or out of India, though she did get into a panic (while in India) when the online system did not show all her return trip flight legs using the PNR number - it showed only her final (USA internal) flight leg.

Going, she got her RT-PCR test. Here we don't have a free guaranteed option to get test results, so she used the same place I had used a few months ago. These folks return the results the same day. I had paid $75 in June; for DW, they charged $165. Yes, full scale price gouging going on in USA :oops:

Once she landed in India (Bengalooru)*, she had to take - and pay for - two tests. A nasal test and a saliva test (IIRC). Total cost - in dollars - about $12 (Rs 900). Once again, YMMV - I was required to take no tests when I landed in India in June (Mumbai).

For the return, she did the RT-PCR test on Wednesday for a Friday flight, and had no issues at the airport. In London (Heathrow), her connecting time was just about an hour. So I was a bit antsy; however, not an issue. Apparently British Airways deputed an employee to help the passengers - there was a group of them headed to the same US bound flight. So, it was all ok.

Hope this helps.

PS: Do realize that YMMV (or I should say, YMWV - because this is still a fuzzy situation, and could likely change tomorrow)

* - I think that the fact that she landed after October 4th helped her, because that is when UK eased certain restrictions for India passengers (and India did likewise for UK passengers).
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