Joy turns to despair? NRIs, eager to fly out, look for ways to reach airports in metros

Tejashree was ecstatic when news came in that the Indian government will operate flights to bring back Indians stranded overseas.

She wasn't stranded overseas, but in her hometown of Guntur, in Andhra Pradesh.

The planes flying out from India could also take non-resident Indians like Tejashree who were looking to get out of the country.  She had come to India in February, to take her mother back to Michigan.

"I am having an operation and thought mother could help me out," she says over a call. She was originally planning to fly back by end of March, but by then, the government had announced the lockdown to limit COVID-19 spread.

The joy of knowing about the Vande Bharat Mission though soon turned to despair as Tejashree went about trying to book a ticket. The problem was that there was no connecting flight from Hyderabad - closest airport to Guntur - to Mumbai or Delhi, from where Air India plans to have flights to Chicago.

There were two more big hurdles.

One, she had to get an e-pass to travel by road to Delhi or Mumbai. "But I have been calling up one department after the other. Each directed me to the other. Finally, I was told that I need to apply through an app," says Tejashree.

But it takes three days for the application to be processed. Tejashree was initially planning to take the May 9 flight to Chicago, but now she will have to look for the May 14 one.

She had already booked a ticket for the May 9 flight - as you need a ticket to apply for the e-pass. Tejashree has cancelled the ticket and will now book again. The ticket costs Rs 1.36 lakh.

"The taxi to Mumbai will cost Rs 45,000. It will be higher to Delhi. I had already spent Rs 1 lakh on ticket I had booked, but Air India has refused to refund it. We may work overseas, but does it mean we have huge savings?" she asks.

Second, is the safety part. She will have to travel 20 hours on road to reach Mumbai. "Is it safe for a single woman to travel alone? I can't take my mother now. How will she travel on road for so long. If the government has a return Chicago-Delhi flight that also connects to Hyderabad, why not also pick passengers from Hyderabad on the onward journey?"

She has a medical appointment in May, and hopes to make it by then. "The last couple of days have been draining, emotionally," she says.

Many questions

Like Tejashree, there are hundreds of non-resident Indians who have been waiting for the skies to open. Now they are scrambling to get tickets on Air India and Air India Express.

India plans to bring back 15,000 Indians stranded in more than 10 countries, over seven days in 64 flights. On an average, about 2,000 Indians will be flown back each of the days. Equal number of Indians can fly out too.

But like the Guntur resident's experience, it has been hardly smooth.

Even though some of them have already booked tickets on a few of these flights, there is still uncertainty, especially on reaching airports. Many of the airports, including that in Mumbai, fall in red zones, and getting to them can be tricky.

Many of these customers took to Twitter to air their grievances. One of them said:

@CMOMaharashtra @OfficeofUT @AUThackeray I need to go from Pune to Mumbai. They opened flight booking today for 9th May. How do I get the intercity pass at such short notice? Can you please help me out?

— Avik Gandhi (@AvikGandhi) May 6, 2020

He was soon joined by another flier, also stuck in Pune and wondering how to reach Mumbai. Both of them have booked on the Air India flight on May 9,  from Mumbai to Newark.

There are scores of others going through similar dilemmas.

Ankit Patel is in a similar fix. The software professional from San Francisco had come to Ahmedabad on vacation in February. "My return flight was on March 24," says Patel. But then the lockdown was announced on the same day.

"My work has been impacted. I can't work from home as we handle sensitive data... I haven't got my salary, but still have to pay the rent of the house in San Francisco," he adds.

Though Air India has flights from Ahmedabad, but these are to the New York airport. "I want to go to San Francisco, for which flights are from Delhi. How do I travel to Delhi?" he asks.

Interestingly, Air India's schedule that is doing the rounds on social media, has flights that connect cities like Hyderabad and Ahmedabad to Delhi and Mumbai.

But when Moneycontrol tried to book tickets on these routes, there were no options. At the same time, one could book tickets to international destinations like London.

The uncertainty has left many fending for answers. "Please let know if you have information on outbound flights," requested one Twitter user.  She is from Chennai, and has been away from her husband, who is in the US, for over eight months now.

"I also have a course coming up, and if I don't reach on time, I may miss it," she says. "On Air India website, I can only see tickets from Delhi and Mumbai. And not Chennai. What should I do?" she asks in despair.

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