This is the experience of one of the ISA members, Ramesh Bhaskar.... Ramesh has kindly taken out the time and energy to provide us a detailed account of his experience.. and thus gone down in history on our website! Thanks, Ramesh!
Ramesh says:
Here's my route of travel, Bangalore->Frankfurt->Houston. There may be changes based on where you are boarding and where you are landing, but basically it all pans out the same.
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Pre-departure advice: Pack all your bags and weigh them properly. Lock them and put down your addresses somewhere on the bags where its visible. Yes you will get tags from the airline officials to put on later, but still put your own identifiable tags. Keep your passport, I20, SEVIS and tickets on person. Some say not to put them in your hand luggage (however I did so, I-20 and SEVIS that is). The choice is up to you. The reason people say to keep it on person and not in the hand luggage is because if your luggage is lost then you can still get to your destination. Go to www.checkmytrip.com and using your Reservation number and last name get your travel itinerary. It gives you lots of useful information.
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Steps you will go through in India:
1. Airport Entrance: Keep your tickets handy, coz they will check that and let you through. Other people who are accompanying you into the airport have to buy a ticket (akin to the platform ticket at the railway stations).
2. Security Check: Security check starts 3 hours before the flight departs. So once they start checking in your luggage you can start your procedure. Send it through the scanners, for them to do their check and then collect it on the other side. They tag it or stamp it saying that its clear.
3. Luggage Check-in: Each Airlines has its own designated counter. So get to that counter, take a couple of luggage tags, write your name and address on them and tie them to your luggage. Don't forget to collect them for your hand baggage as well. As for the limits, generally it is 2 suitcases of 32 kg's per suitcase along with 1 hand luggage of 8 kg's. Laptops are excluded and can be taken along. When you are at the luggage check in counter they issue your boarding pass. If you are taking the same airlines all the way from your starting point till your destination, they will issue you your boarding passes for all the flights (not sure what happens if you change airlines in b/w). Also, you can ask them to 'Check your luggage all the way to the destination' so that you need not have to go about dragging your luggage in the transit airport and going through the whole luggage check-in process again. While issuing your boarding pass you can request for a seat of your preference.
Choosing a seat is up to you. You have choices of window/aisle. Windows seat if you want to gape at the scenery (which is clouds :D, but take off and landing are good), aisle if you don't want to keep bugging your fellow passenger whenever you want to get up and around. But you will be bugged if you get the aisle seat :D... Chaitanya suggested the emergency exit seats which seems like a much better idea. But I'm not too sure if they come near the restrooms and how that condition would be...
While issuing your boarding pass they will also issue you a form to be filled up with a couple of your details. You will also get your baggage claims. Hold onto those, they are important. Don't worry if you don't know what to fill in for all the details on the form. Fill up the form and proceed to the next counter.
4. Customs: Here you go and give them your form, he might ask for a couple of other documents like your University letter/I-20. Give them to him and he'll stamp the form and either return something to you or not. Don't bother about it, its not that important.
5. Declarations: This is basically for when you return from the US. Everyone is allowed one piece of digital equipment per kind. Meaning, you can take one laptop, one camera, one whatever else and while returning to India, you need not pay customs for it. However if you are going to be taking 2 laptops, then you will have to declare one. Otherwise when you get back to India, they will charge you customs/duty for the extra laptop, even though you took it from India.
6. Final Security Check/Check in: Here's the final security check they will subject you to in India (there will be many more to come though). By now your luggage is safely on its way to the aircraft so all you have remaining is your hand luggage. Let your luggage go through the scanner along with any jacket/belt/wallet/keys or anything else you might have on yourself. You will be scanned and you can collect your stuff on the other side.
7. Boarding Area: After the security check you are let into a boarding area. If you came in early and checked in and all that then I'm pretty sure that you have a long wait. Get up, walk around, grab something to eat/drink. Basically pass your time. Keep a watch on your luggage though. Depending on the size of the airport, it becomes more dangerous to keep your luggage in one place and watch it from a distance. So you'd rather lug it around with you at all times.
8. Boarding Flight: Once the call for your flight is made then go ahead and get on. Greet the Flight crew and find your seat. The boarding procedure is generally... first people with disabilities, families with small kids, then everyone else. Settle down into your seat, maybe ask for a drink of water/earplugs... Whatever else.
9. Take off: Sit back and enjoy the ride. If its night, then you can't really see anything outside. If its the day time then you can entertain yourself by peeking out the window.
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Steps you will go through on your route:
1. Landing: Generally after landing the plane stops at the terminal. So you can directly get off and you will enter the terminal. In some circumstances tho', there will be a bus which transports you from the plane to your terminal.
2. Reaching your terminal: Once you get inside the airport, find your way to the next terminal. Depending on the amount of transit time you have you'll either be able to roam around the airport at your leisure or you might have to rush to your next terminal. Frankfurt is rather well laid out and if you just follow the arrows you will reach your destination terminal.
3. Check-in: Once again you have a small security check-in and then you give in your next boarding pass and reach a boarding area.
4. Boarding Area: Same as India, its just that you won't see many Indians now :D..
5. Boarding and Take off: Time to enjoy/get bored again :D..
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Steps you will go through at US:
1. Landing: After getting off your plane, you can either rush to the immigration counters or walk slowly. I would recommend rushing, otherwise you will be in for a long wait. Usually 3 to 4 planes land at the same time and there's a huge queue for immigration. Queues are extremely organized here and people aren't really in a hurry to get anywhere. Prior to landing you will be handed an I-94 form and a customs declaration form. On one of the forms it will ask you whether you are bringing food items into the US. You can go ahead and check no. Generally no one checks. Pickles/powders/etc are not considered to be food items. They come under the condiments and spices category. Generally, try to pack your items so that there isn't any fragrance/leakage of oil. I guess almost everyone checks 'NO' for the question.
2. Immigration: Once in the immigration queue, wait your turn. Once you reach the officer, greet him. He will ask you for the forms you filled up, ask you a couple of routine questions and then stamp you visa, fill in some details on your I-20 and let you through.
3. Luggage Claim: Go and pick up a trolley and then your luggage. Head towards the customs area. Each flight has a designated conveyor for its luggage. Look for your flight number on the boards. Next to it the conveyor belt number will be written. That's where you get your luggage.
4. Customs: Well, I can't say much about this because I didn't realize it was customs until I passed it. When I reached there he asked me for my form and then let me through. Then I walked out the doors and was in the receiving area. It wa then that I realized that I had just passed the customs area. Its not as bad as they all say.
5. Welcoming committee: Your friends/relatives/seniors will be there to receive you. So just look for a familiar face and then head in that direction. You don't have to worry about anything after that.
6. Welcome to the US: You made it :).
Avoiding Jet Lag:
I've heard many people talking about jet lag. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Basically its this, depending on the time you are going to land, sleep or be awake on the plane so that you can hit the sack in the US when its night in the US. For instance, in my case, I was landing in the afternoon. So I slept for a couple of hours on the plane before landing (in fact I was dozing on and off throughout my journey. You could say my jet lag time was on the flight :D) and stayed awake the rest of the day. Had a good nights sleep and woke up the next day fit as a fiddle.
If you are landing in the night, then don't bother to sleep at all... Just go home and sleep. If you are landing in the morning, then get a lot of sleep on the flight.
Flight tips: Don't eat non-veg food on the flight. Its tempting yes, in fact sometimes it smells pretty good too, but then sometimes the non-veg item options might be salmon/turkey/beef or something else you don't eat/don't want to eat. It may also not agree with you. I stuck to breads and vegetables mostly. Actually that was because I ate chicken in my first meal and fell sick immediately :D. Oh yes, keep a handful of tablets with you for the flight. Also wear some warm clothing. Sometimes the flight turns downright chilly and the blanket they provide you with isn't exactly very warm. I actually wore my jacket it the flight.
Hope this helps...
Regards
Ramesh