An Indian shares Repatriation flight experience for the community

I had traveled from Tokyo to Mumbai via the special repatriation flight on May-28, with my 12 yr old son, organized by Indian Embassy Japan, under the Govt of India Vande Bharat Mission. The entire journey was very smooth, and really many thanks to the India Embassy and Air India staff to make this possible. I’m just sharing my experience here – in case it is beneficial to others. If any specific queries, feel free to PM me.

* Selection / Booking Process Overview *

Once you have registered your interest to go back to India with the Indian embassy by email or by filling google form (now closed), Embassy may contact you to confirm the exact compelling reason for the travel. If they already have the details, then they will skip this part. Once they have the reason from all interested people, the Embassy will do a subjective evaluation and prioritization and depending on your case you will be informed if you have been selected. Once selected Air India Tokyo will then contact you with the ticket fare and ask for passenger details and passport copy and then ask you to make the payment in JPY to their Japanese bank account. The fare for Mumbai in the first flight was JPY 77,700 for Economy and JPY 236,000 for BusinessClass. The fare may of course change for the next round of flights depending on the situation or destination, so please treat this just as a reference and wait for exact fare to be communicated by Air India once they contact you for your ticketing. Business class seats are very limited in this flight – only 18, and on first come(paid) first served basis. For either class, If you don’t make the payment within the deadline (usually 1 biz day) then they will allot the seat to the next customer in waiting. So you need to be really prompt and ready to make the payment within the deadline, as soon as you receive the email. Once Air India will confirm that they received the payment in their account, then they will issue you a e-ticket and then your travel is confirmed and you can start your preparations to leave Japan.

Actual Travel
1. Plan to reach the airport early. Flight was for 12 pm and they asked us to be there 4 hours before, but if you can reach even earlier – it is better. As there is a long queue for checkin (can take 2 hours just for getting the boarding pass at the checkin counter, standing in the queue). Airport (terminal 2) was almost empty and only 1 flight was scheduled at that time. So we could see and hear, pretty much only fellow Indians at the Narita T2 terminal ! Very unusual sight in Japan – already started feeling like India.. Mask wearing is mandatory all the time at the airport, plane, everywhere – as we all already know..

2. They ask to bring a form (undertaking) which was emailed by embassy in advance – that travel is completely at own risk etc. if U haven’t brought it with u, u can take one from the staff and fill it there also – 1 per each person in the family.

3. Then they will take temperature using thermal sensor gun and write it on a Paper, if your temp is high they have the right to deny u the checkin, and cancel your ticket.. don’t know if that happened with anyone, hopefully not..

4. Then once your turn comes u can checkin your bags and take boarding pass. cabin baggage was strictly 7 kg. And though we had extra laptop bag, they allowed us but asked to put the laptop bag inside the cabin bag – as they were quite strict about 1 bag 7 kg. So plz be very careful about that and don’t take it lightly..

5. Then do normal security check, immigration – which was all pretty much empty.. At Japan immigration, they made us sign a form that we may not be allowed entry back to Japan, and in some cases – may even lose residential status in Japan (for PR that was not the case, and they gave separate form for PR, which just said that I am traveling at my own risk against the advisory of not to travel). So they were really giving strong message not to travel at this point unless it is emergency or no intent to come back soon, as there may not be an easy return to Japan possible in near future (due to the entry ban in place for Indians except those who have PR) – so really think carefully before making this trip.. Short term visitors should of course go ahead without thinking.. but for work visa holders – it’s a risky move, many people who went in March are still stranded in India unable to come to Japan for their work..

6. Then just wait for boarding – again only Indian ppl were there at the waiting area outside the gate.. Only 1 water vending machine was there and all shops were closed, so plz bring your own snack if u want for the waiting period, and also JPY cash coins, to buy water at the machine

7. Once boarding started, they asked ppl to board in small batches. A kit with Masks, sanitizer sachets, facial shield/guard was distributed to every passenger, and also food packets were distributed at same time while entering the plane. 2-3 packets of snacks (sandwich, namkeen, juices etc) were there with 2 bottles of water. All the food is Pure VEG only. No Non-Veg food is provided to anyone.. And it is all well organized and well packed. But still, I would suggest to have some food (eg paratha, fruits, dry snacks etc) for the duration of this whole travel – you never know what u may need in case of delays..

8. Once seated, the crew told us that they will not really be coming to us during the flight and no need to call them unless necessary (to avoid unnecessary contact between crew and passengers). The cabin crew – all of them had PPE equipment on all the time, and they were very polite while talking to us. Extra water can be provided by them when needed, so we can call them for that, but food itself was really sufficient for the flight – however if u want proper food like Paratha, thepla, rice – feel free to bring your own, as this is just snacks kind-of.. Also inflight entertainment is totally switched off, so plz have your own means of entertainment like mobile phone etc on which u have some movies or songs to keep yourself entertained,unless u can just sleep and eat throughout.. Charging point shud be there most likely at the seat, but I don’t remember exactly.

9. Flight duration was bit more than initially announced as wind resistance was more. Flight took off at around 12 pm JST and landed at 6:30 pm IST.
10. After landing, ppl were asked to get off the plane in small batches again, starting from biz class and then to economy and senior citizens/those who needed help/assistance. No real chaos or running around was seen anywhere and everyone was very calm and process seems to have gotten very streamlined now after so many repatriation flights having come in from other countries in last 3-4 wks.

11. The next steps are mentioned in the paper of which I have attached a copy in one of the images in this post. And the whole thing was pretty fast, as the airport at Mumbai was also pretty much empty. Duty Free sales seems to have started at Mumbai airport now – although shops were closed mostly, but they were willing to sell items like liquor etc if anyone needed.

12. There was a form to be filled in duplicate i.e. copies (with basic details like name, port of entry etc etc) which ideally they shud have given in the plane itself but some ppl didn’t so we got it after getting off and were then asked to fill in (1 form per passenger). This is a declaration which goes to ministry of health as well. You can refer comments section for a copy of this form just for reference, it’s quite simple (I couldn’t attach it to the original post images). They will also do a temp scan here and if all good, then They will do a xerox of the form, and give the xerox back to us – we shud keep this with us safely. SIM card can be bought there at a counter and Arogya Setu app is mandatory to be downloaded, and health status submitted thru it.

13. After immigration, baggage and customs, move on to hotel selection (for 7 days quarantine stay). They shared a list of hotels with prices – now prices of 5 star hotels also reduced significantly and max is INR 4500 per night for twin occupancy(INR 4000 for single) – though there are cheaper options for budget hotels around INR 2000 too , includes 3 meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and WiFi in the room.

14. Then once selected the hotel, wait for transport to be ready. there were 4 other passengers who selected same hotel as us, so we were asked to board a mini BEST bus (fare was basic : INR 60/- per head). Some ppl got their baggage into the bus with help of some other hotel’s staff, but for me – I was told by the staff that airport staff can’t touch the bags and our hotel staff nobody was available that time there, so I had to take the bags (quite heavy) inside the bus by myself. Even after getting down at the hotel, we were asked to take down the bags by ourselves into the hotel. I helped some senior citizens with that, but this might have been problematic if those guys were alone. So senior citizens (parents etc) are better advised to travel with light baggage if possible – just to be safe.. Also, since it does take time to get to the hotel, depending on your location (and especially if outside Mumbai eg Pune, it may take even longer) – plz have some food with you from Tokyo, as there are no shops selling any food at the airport..

15. Once we took the bags inside the hotel gate, we were asked to sanitize our shoes by stepping into a tray with some sanitizer, and then sanitizer was sprayed on all the bags. From that point, hotel staff was ok to carry the bags inside. Then we checked in to the hotel, had to do the payment for 7 days upfront – either cash, card or online with a payment link. By the time we got into the room it was about 10:00 pm.

16. Once in hotel room, we got dinner even though it was very late in our room in packed disposable box. We cannot go out of the hotel room in these 7 days, food is served at the decided times (breakfast, lunch, dinner) outside the room and the staff will push the bell, place the boxes on a table outside the room and then leave from there, so that we can take inside. Staff is also wearing PPE equipment Always while placing the food boxes.

17. After 5 days, we have to undergo COVID-19 testing at the hotel as per ICMR guidelines, conducted by some private lab, approved and in coordination with the local municipal authority (BMC in our case in Mumbai). The test is done by the lab specialist visiting our hotel room, and takes just 2 min of time. They collect our throat and nose swab sample by inserting a long cotton bud in throat/nose 1-by-1. It sounds / looks scary, but it’s really nothing, just a slight tickle you will feel and it will be finished. They will collect the sample in named test-tubes placed in plastic bags. Make sure your name is correct on the sample bag sticker. There is also a small form to be filled giving our home address which will be sent to BMC so that they can follow up further if required.

18. The test result can take 48 hours to come. A copy of the report will be emailed to BMC and one to us (at the email we gave at the time of filling the form). The lab that did our test, had online reporting as well, they sent us a web link for our report after registering us – where we could check the status whether report is ready or not.. So I was checking the link every 3-4 hours – finally got the report as Negative at 1 pm on Thursday Jun-4, and forwarded that to the hotel reception who called up the BMC health official.

19. The BMC official took another 3-4 hours to come to the hotel, and once he was there, he did temp check and asked us to sign the declaration of home quarantine and put stamp on the wrist for Jun-10 end of quarantine.

And then we could immediately checkout. By 7 pm we were free to go home. We could ask some relative to get their own car, or in my case I just asked hotel to arrange a car to drop us home. That was the end of our hotel quarantine stay !!

https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/Guidelinesforinternationalarrivals.pdf

It’s a long post I know… But just thought that some of the details might help someone.. Although I may still have missed some minor things here and there..

Disclaimer : The info presented above is true to the extent of my personal experience and interpretation. There could be different experiences for people based on their own situation and circumstances. So in case of doubt if need official confirmation on any queries, best to reach out to the Indian Embassy in Japan.

Post Credits:
Kirti Jain

End of post

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