A 14-hour layover in Delhi can look like a gift. It seems like enough time to see the city, enjoy a good meal, and just another place on your travel list. That was exactly one traveller’s plan, until she found out about a small catch: she would need a visa just to step outside the airport.She was flying from Hong Kong to London and had chosen a ticket with this long gap in Delhi, hoping to use it for a day of sightseeing. Instead, she ended up spending the whole 14 hours inside the terminal.Let us read further to know what exactly happened
Traveller who chose a 14-hour layover flight to explore the city ends up getting stuck in the terminal instead
A woman flying from Hong Kong to London picked a ticket with a 14-hour layover in Delhi, seeing it as a free chance to explore the city. In the video, she said, “I booked a flight from Hong Kong to London with a 14-hour layover in Delhi because I thought it’d be so cool to just see it for the day.”But there was one thing she hadn’t thought about. She only learned that morning, while boarding her flight, that even a short trip outside the airport on a layover needs a visa. Just like that, her Delhi day out turned into a long wait at the airport. She said she was now stuck there for 14 hours and would just find some way to pass the time.She said, “What I did not know until boarding my flight this morning is that even to do the day out of the airport on your layover, you still need a visa”.ID@undefined Caption not available.
Instead of staring at the departure board for the whole stretch, she decided to make the best of it
Her first find was a massage parlour inside the airport. She had slept on the floor of Hong Kong airport before this trip, so a bit of pampering sounded perfect, and she headed off to get a massage, explaining which she said, “I slept on the floor in Hong Kong airport. So I am about to go get a massage in the airport at Delhi”.It turned out to be a nice consolation prize. She called the foot massage “unreal” and also shared that the foot-and-calf massage, plus a back, shoulder and hip massage, cost her about Rs 4,000.Feeling relaxed, she moved on to a classic airport pastime: shopping. As she said, “I have just got into the shopping part of the airport now,” and she planned to wander around, take a nap and get something to eat.
Social media response
The post has since gone viral and received numerous reactions online. One user said, “You should have paid for the lounge.” Another user wrote, “I think you handled your wait time well.” “I can kill 13 hours in Delhi,” a comment added.A third user said, “The same thing happened to me. You can actually get a transit visa at the airport, but the people there are so clueless and unhelpful that I gave up, booked the hotel in the airport and slept.” Meanwhile, another person said, “Delhi domestic terminal is actually better than international with the refurbishment. I was stuck for 14 hours as well.”
