Bits: Indian visa changes, Sofitel Terminal 5, how HfP impacted East Coast Rewards

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• Michael says:

  18 Mar18 March 04:16

  The Indians are doing only what UK embassies abroad have been doing for some time. Getting a tourist visa for the UK these days is not an easy or cheap process.

• Pat Butcher says:

  18 Mar18 March 05:29

  I’m going to Asia this year. Couldn’t decide on a stop in India for a few days on the way. This makes the decision a lot easier!

• fiona says:

  18 Mar18 March 05:40

  Re the visa fees- they have cost £92 for a few years now. If he had booked for later in the year it may have been best to hold on as we may yet get visa on arrival. India will lose a majority of uk visitors because of the fact that everyone will have to visit a centre. Up to less than a month ago he could have got the visas without an appointment. There was a months notification of change .

  • richie says:

    18 Mar18 March 08:01

    It only changed on 16th march. You could have applied in the post ad long it it arrived by then. So Thursday 12th march with next day delivery. Granted the system isn’t the easiest .

    • SB says:

      18 Mar18 March 08:35

      The problem is also that the bureaucratic Indian regime are a stickler for 6 months passport validity too, so one passport update (frequent for children), or others in the party travelling delays a visa application, scuppering a family trip. Knowing about it a month ago would make little difference. The hassle now is too much. Even the photos required for an Indian visa are not standard ‘photo booth’ standard passport size, and one helpline number is permanently engaged, the other costs 94p per minute. What a mess.

      Visa upon arrival due in October but the process still needs to be completed before arrival, on the computing equivalent of a ‘ZX81’ website.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/11426221/New-Indian-visa-rules-require-British-tourists-to-provide-fingerprints.html

      • richie says:

        18 Mar18 March 08:50

        most photobooths do the bigger indian and american visa photos.
        i agree the phoneline was engaged a lot but i just kept on calling and calling and it only took a few mins

  • Jordan D says:

    18 Mar18 March 09:11

    Agreed – whilst the process has changed, the price hasn’t … been £92 for a while. And sadly, I have to take that hit for my partner who travels with me to India for this first time this Christmas, on her UK passport. (I have visa free travel there through other means).

  • Charlie Whiskey says:

    18 Mar18 March 15:56

    I too was in the very last stages of planning a 4 week holiday in India – my fourth in five years. But the sheer hassle of now having to travel up to London and having separate appointments made me cancel and recover my 241 BAEC Voucher. When India finally decides we are welcome tourists and acts accordingly I shall indeed go back to this fantastic country, but for us it is New England in the Fall instead.

    • JohnG says:

      18 Mar18 March 21:47

      A huge part of the reason why India makes it a hassle for us, is because we made it a huge hassle for their citizens to come here (at least you wouldn’t have to find a few £k for a deposit, and/or someone to vouch for you from India)!

      I’m not saying it isn’t cutting their nose off to spite their face (I won’t be travelling to India with all the hassle) but I can see why they don’t like the idea of us messing their citizens around considerably, while giving our citizens easy, no hassle, entry in return.

• Richard says:

  18 Mar18 March 06:00

  I’m in Goa by the pool right now – got my visa 3 weeks ago. I agree with the pricing, but they did mine by post, and turned it around in 5 days. Complete an online form, print it, post it with photos, pay via their online portal. Main issue was the poor service from DX returning my passport.

  Or have the rules changed in the last fortnight?

  • Rob says:

    18 Mar18 March 06:52

    It has changed.

    • Richard says:

      18 Mar18 March 07:19

      My last trip to India me thinks….

  • richie says:

    18 Mar18 March 08:03

    Dx were brilliant returning my gfs. The guy called saying he was at my house and nobody was in . Could he post it.. Also got a txt from them this morning saying mine will be delivered today. I’m hoping they will do the same as nobody will be in again. Well worth 10.20 delivery

• Jason says:

  18 Mar18 March 06:27

  Gutted about the Sofitel, booked the Sheraton, next month, but ideally would have liked the Sofitel but couldn’t justify more than double the price 🙁

• ups says:

  18 Mar18 March 06:47

  On the subject of East Coast, you can only redeem nectar points on their advance tickets. I decided to sacrifice 500 valuable nectar points as I never travel on east coast but wasn’t able to use it on a first great western booking on their website.

  • Rob says:

    18 Mar18 March 06:52

    Thanks for testing, now we know. Makes the Nectar deal a lot less interesting.

  • The_Real_A says:

    18 Mar18 March 10:11

    “valuable” 🙂

    • ups says:

      19 Mar19 March 19:16

      Of course! 🙂

• erico1875 says:

  18 Mar18 March 07:06

  You cant do it by post now, unless maybe you use a submission company who will charge you for the service.
  Once more I have been thru this painful process.
  You have to make an appointment at a vfs Global office.
  The form has to be filled in online. Printed ,Signed and presented atwith 2″ photos.
  Even the slightest error, can not be corrected by hand and will be rejected and the whole proccess needs to start again. The guy in front of me, came down from Aberdeen, a 240 mile round trip, only to be sent away for Putting a 2 instead of a 3 in the date.
  Total cost of a single entry tourist visa is £115 per person.
  Unless they start “visa on arrival” , this is my last trip.

• What's the Point says:

  18 Mar18 March 07:16

  We had flights booked for Mumabi last November (Avios booking). I found the online website for the Inidan visa so laborious and intrusive I through bit of a wobbler.

  Cancelled both of our flights and went to Istanbul for a long week ed instead.

  Won’t ever be going to India again until they fix their IT and make the process easier.

  • Johnny5a says:

    18 Mar18 March 21:06

    And these are the same people that a lot of software development gets out sourced to …..

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