wonky81

has anyone taken the JFK to Mumbai direct flight? what's it like? 15 hours sounds painful

rahulm

I've had a friend take the flight from Toronto to New Delhi (so its similar) and he simply hated it. Was too tired in the end and it said it ruined his three week vacation.

On the other hand, I have a cousin who travels to India for work regularly and loves these flights since he can work on them almost non-stop. (he travels business or first class, however)

rkkwan

I have taken plenty of 15-hour flights, and they are definitely better than a 8 hour flight followed by an hour or more on the ground and another 8 hour flight.

rhkkmk

we find that little pills help a great deal....

lcuy

What airline are you on?

(I responded to your US post, but I'll repeat it.)
I've taken Continental's 15 hour Newark to Delhi flight and it wasn't bad at all, especially since I had flown 15 hours from Honolulu to Newark that same day, then had a seven hour layover in Newark before the Delhi flight!

wonky81

taking delta

TracyB

If only i lived somewhere that i could get to Mumbai on a 15 hour direct flight!! When i fly to Mumbai...It is 1.5 hours to VAncouver, then 13 hours to Hong Kong and then 5 hours or so to Mumbai!! And there is about a 7 hours layover in HKG...

newyorkergal

Flew Delta to Mumbai in Jan. Boarded the plan around 9:30 ish, had a drink, had dinner, watched a bit of the departed. Feel asleep midnight and woke up around 9 ish for a quick breakfast - 30 mins before landing. Quiet, nice.

Flew back BA connecting through London 25 hours later missing connection flight. !@#$%. Luggage delayed, bag stolen.

Enough said. Fly non-stop.

rkkwan

CO starting EWR-BOM in early October. 4 times a week, going to daily by end of October. They leave a little earlier than DL, at around 7:30pm.

JamesA

rkkwan, any news when Jet Airways will be starting ? saw something on TV about their new 'suites', looked amazing.

blgerber

I flew this delta flight. Its not that bad. If you can sleep the first leg (it leaves at 9 pm). The only problem is that it gets into mumbai really late. If you have never been to the mumbai airport its never nice landing there, even worse at 11 pm.

garybear

I will be making my first business trip to Delhi at beginning of August, taking the Continental direct flight from Newark. The outbound flight leaves and arrives in the evening, the return flight departs late evening and arrives pre-dawn. Anyone know how much of flights are actually during daylight hours?

Another question is that I am flying from the West Coast, but almost all flights go trans-atlantic rather than trans-pacific. Why is this?

What is the best way to adjust to a 12 hr time change from California? Any other advise for a newbie to India? I am an experienced traveler in Europe and also traveled in the Far East while in the Navy, but that was a long time ago and the logistical details were pre-arranged for the ship.

rkkwan

CO82 departs EWR at 8:45p. Going across the Northern Atlantic, you get get sunrise in about 4-5 hours. It'll then be all daylight until about 2 hours before arrival. In August, sun set at around 7pm in Delhi.

The cabin crew will make sure the shades are lowered for most of the flight.

The return flight should be all darkness.

There are people who flies via Hong Kong or Singapore from the West Coast to India. However, it's a little faster going via the Atlantic, and it's too far to fly non-stop from India back to the West Coast using current air-routes, until Air India gets its Boeing 777-200LR.

Cicerone

I have not taken the EWR/JFK –Delhi flight but I take the Hong Kong-EWR flight a few times a year which is about the same length, and I love it. I was thrilled when they introduced it a few years ago, and would not go back to stop over flights. About hour 10-11 you may get a little ancy, but hang on and that passes. Overall, I find the time goes quickly and I can generally sleep for about half of it, esp if you are in business class. While CO’s business class seats are not flat beds and you tend to slide down a bit due to their angle, they are pretty comfortable.

For the 12 hour time difference (actually it’s more like 12.5 hours, as India time is 30 minutes off everyone else’s time), the main thing I think you will find is in the first day or two, when you probably hit a wall of tiredness around 4-6 pm. You will be helped by your arrival time in the evening when you can stay awake for a few hours and then go to bed. You may wake up very early in the first morning or two, some people wake up at 4 am and can’t get back to sleep, it will just depend on how you react. But try to get back to sleep that first night and the second and get an actual full night’s sleep if you can, that should help. Try not to nap the next day, and go to bed at an early (but not daylight) hour and get another full nights sleep. If you can do that, you will be a long way toward's ajusting your body clock to the local time and should be OK.

I would recommend that you pre-arrange for a hotel car to meet you at the airport and take you to the hotel. The last thing you want to deal with at the airport is the hassle of a taxi and the barrage of offers for drivers. The small extra charge for a hotel car is well worth it, IMO. Other than that, having no expectations of India will probably help you enjoy the country. I really like the country tremendously and it has come a very long way; it is, however, like no place else, and certainly nothing like Europe (for example, while dirtier, it also has a lot less crime; it also has better mobile phone coverage than many places in the US).

garybear

Thanks for the info!