I've written this description for a friend who is traveling from Nepal to the United States; it's not only her first time abroad, but her first time on an airplane. I remember getting a similar training as a kid when I was an exchange student. The rules of how to use an airport feel very obvious when you know them, but they are not the first time around. I also felt like a novice the first time I used airlines in South Asia, especially with regards to the security procedures. Hopefully this summary will help.
Below is a more detailed description of the steps involved. The last few sections are only if you're really interested in the details.
First you will need to enter the building. To do so, present your identification and ticket for the current day. If you have an e-ticket, you should be prepared to present a printout or some documentation of your ticket. If you need to make changes to the ticket itself, you can either do this via an airline city ticket office before reaching the airport, via a travel agent, or in India you can use the windows that face the curb outside the departure area at the airport. Reporting time for international travel is usually 2-3 hours before flight time. Note that in Delhi there are two terminals, one for international and one for domestic flight, that are so far apart they might as well be separate airports.
Once in the building, you should take the bags you want to check to the xray machine. They will seal the bag with a fiberglass tie, plastic zip ties, and stickers after scanning it.
In Nepal there is an extra step here if you are leaving the country, which is to pay the departure tax at the Nabil Bank in the airport and get a little paper coupon proving you've paid.
Then go to the ticket counter for your flight. In many airports these counters do not open until about 2 hours prior to flight. For some flights, the counter will close about 1 hour prior to flight. You'll give them your tickets, your passport or identification, and any bags you want to check with them (plus departure tax coupons). Usually these bags will go all the way to your final destination, but not always, depending. The airline staff should tell you where you will need to pick up your bags if not at the final destination. They give you boarding passes and baggage claim tag(s) which will show where the luggage is going to. Also, and this is very surprising to Americans, you MUST pick up one airline nametag (little paper tags with elastic bands) and put them on each carry-on bag (purse, bag, backpack, etc.) These will be used by security.
The next step is departure immigration if you are leaving the country. You'll fill out a card in India or Nepal with your information. Then stand in line and the officers will scan your passport and take your departure form. They will usually stamp your boarding pass.
Finally, you'll want to proceed through security to your gate. You'll walk through a metal detector, your carry-on bags will be xrayed and possibly searched (they are always searched in Nepal), and they will typically stamp your nametags with a security stamp. Lighters and other dangerous items are prohibited. In India, they prefer that all batteries be taken out of devices that you carry on or pack in your luggage.
Then you wait for your flight to be boarded, usually half an hour before the flight. In India they will have some sort of announcement. In Kathmandu, you often just have to watch and ask--some door from the gate will open and people will leave, but they sometimes forget to make an announcement that it is for a particular flight.
At the door leaving the airport building to get on your plane, they will take half of your boarding pass. It's best to make sure they don't accidentally also take your baggage tag!
On some airlines in Nepal the airline itself will do a second security screening right as you enter the plane. This might be a pat-down, or a thorough opening and rechecking of your carry-on baggage.
When you enter the US, you'll pass first through immigration (they'll check your visa and give you an I-94, arrival/departure record--save this--you'll be asked to give it back when you leave the US), then through customs and agricultural inspection. Usually customs just means filling out a form saying you are not importing anything valuable to the US.
In the US, entering the airport does not require showing your identification and ticket. So if you need to make changes to a ticket, you could just walk into the airport to do it. However, in the US changes to flights are highly discouraged and may cost a substantial amount of money, unlike in Asia. You should arrive at the airport 2-3 hours before the flight for international departures.
You will at many US airports see baggage clerks called 'skycaps' at the curb. There are usually different skycaps for each airline. You can show these clerks your ticket and they will check your bags (giving you a baggage claim), and in some cases they also check you in (giving you boarding passes), but a tip is expected--usually at least $5 or $1-2 per bag. A few airlines have mandatory fees for using the skycap, usually $2. OR, you can skip this step, and go directly into the airport to check in and give your bags at the ticket counter, where no tip is expected. Usually the skycap only saves you 10m or so of walking.
Inside the airport, you will see different counters for different airlines, and usually different counters for first/business class. In some airports there are different counters for people without luggage, or for people buying tickets.
There will also often be self-service electronic check-in kiosks, but these can only be used if you are travelling on an e-ticket, and in many cases for international travel they need to check your passport and visa manually as well. So find a counter with a person if you have paper tickets or are travelling internationally. Or, start with the kiosk, and if it doesn't work it will refer you to a human.
You will need to present your passport and tickets to get your boarding passes and baggage tags. Rarely, in airports where they haven't got room for the TSA (Transportation Security Agency, or government security) baggage screening behind the airline counters, they will ask you to take your bag to a TSA desk for screening after you have checked the bag (usually right in front of the ticket counters), and then the TSA xrays it and gives the bag back to the airline.
At this point, you go to security check. Usually, at the beginning of the security line, someone will check your identification and boarding pass to make sure the names match. Then, at the end of the line, they will xray your carry on bags. You will need to remove any outdoor jacket or overcoat, and also your shoes for xray. If you have a particularly large sweater that might hide something, they may ask you to remove this as well. Cellphones, keys, and other metal items should also be placed in the xray. The one thing you must carry through the metal detector with you is your boarding pass and identification--don't put that in the xray.
In addition, a new rule says that all liquids and gels carried on the plane must be in limited quantities and be scanned separately. All liquids such as toothpaste, shampoo, etc. must be in containers of less than 3 ounces (around 80ml), and should be placed together in a one-quart (one litre) clear plastic bag, then scanned. Even if you only have one liquid item they want it in a clear plastic 1 quart bag. If you put the liquids in the checked luggage you don't have to worry about this. Personally I avoid the problem by bringing hard soap in a bar and using baking soda or tooth powder when I travel. All US hotels will have shampoo, many will also provide toothpaste if you ask.
You won't be able to bring liquid beverages through security. You could purchase drinks after security, or if you bring a water bottle you can refill it from the sinks or water cooler once you are past the security point. But it will need to be empty when you pass through security.
Then you go through the metal detector at security. In some cases they will ask you to be searched, sometimes they will ask you to open your bags, and sometimes they will use a small cloth and a machine to test for explosives.
After the xray, it feels a little crazy, but just methodically gather your belongings, and find a convenient place to put your shoes back on. Don't hurry or you are likely to forget something important and leave it behind.
When you make a transfer (called a connection) inside the US, you will not need to go through security again in most cases. If you make transfers in large international airports (such as Bangkok or Frankfurt) you may need to consult a "transfer desk" to figure out where your next flight is, or how to deal with your luggage.
Then go to the gate and relax. Generally US airports only have one flight per gate, so it will be obvious (and well announced) when it is time for you to board the plane. This will typically be a half hour before the flight, and if security went quickly you will probably have enough time to eat or use the toilet before boarding. It's normal for the airline to first board first class and frequent fliers (called names like 'elite' or 'medallion'), then to board people in wheelchairs and those with small children, and finally the rest of the plane. They will usually announce certain row numbers to board at certain times, although some airlines use 'Zone' numbers, which can be found on your boarding pass. The process is generally very orderly.
Rarely, a US airline will ask to see your passport again at the gate or at the boarding door.
You will likely have four separate important airline documents when you travel.
The ticket is the part that entitles you to air transportation. There should be one ticket coupon (separate paper) for each leg of the flight, plus the receipt. The ticket gives you real legal rights. In the US these are rarely issued anymore. E-tickets are important, but there is no paper document, just a number in a computer. So if you lose your paperwork, the ticket still exists, stored in a database.
The receipt is just the document that says somebody paid for the ticket. It doesn't entitle you to fly anywhere. If you have an e-ticket, they will still usually provide you with a paper receipt, but it is not a ticket, just a receipt. The ticket has to be on special airline ticket paper (small and wide, with computer-readable numbers at the bottom), but the receipt may be on any type of paper (including ticket paper). If somebody else pays for the ticket through a business or university, they will probably need the receipt and possibly the used boarding passes for their records, so be sure to save them.
However, you also need in addition to the ticket a reservation, also called a PNR or booking. The reservation and the ticket are always created at the same time by the travel agent, unless you have an open ticket (good on any date). The ticket will have a long number on it 10-12 digits long, but the reservation will have a 5 or 6 character 'record locator', with letters and digits. When you change a flight they will change the reservation in the computer, and they may or may not give you a new reservation record locator. The reservation does not have any formal document, although you will frequently find the reservation number printed somewhere on the ticket and/or receipt. The travel agency or airline will usually give you a printout of your reservation. This paper has no formal legal importance. But the number is useful to check on your reservation.
Some airlines (especialy Royal Nepal Airlines) will cancel your reservation (but not your ticket) if you do not call or visit them to reconfirm your flight 3 days before your flight. With Royal Nepal, you can have a travel agent do the reconfirmation. You have proof of the reconfirmation if you or the agent reconfirms in person, because Royal Nepal will stamp the ticket. If you are returning to Nepal on RNA, then you should telephone them (or have the travel agency telephone them) approximately three days before the flight.
The third and fourth documents you will receive arrive only when you check in for your flight on the day you depart: the boarding pass, which lists your seat and lets you board the plane, and the baggage claim tag. Both are important to save. If you lose them, boarding passes can often be reprinted by the airline, but bag tags are less easy to get replaced. When you get your boarding pass, the airline will take your paper ticket(s), either at the boarding gate or when you check in. If it's a return ticket, they should only take the portions you will be using that day--you'll still have the paper tickets for the return portion. The baggage claim is usually a very small square of paper or label, and they will often staple it to the back of your receipt or boarding pass. The baggage claim tag is basically only used if the airline loses your luggage.
In addition you'll need your passport and whatever visa/immigration paperwork has been given to you.
There's another introduction to using airlines here.
Warning: this section is really boring, and probably not very useful!
I was once in the airport in New Delhi, and a couple from Britain was complaining up and down about how they had tickets issued by a travel agent but they didn't have any documentation of which airlines their flights were on. I asked them, don't your tickets show the flight numbers? and they answered, yes they do, but not the airlines. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the flight number always has the airline in it, just in code.
Some airline codes are easy to guess: AA 101 is American Airlines flight 101. British airways = BA, and so on. But with more obscure airlines, the codes can be quite cryptic. For instance, Royal Nepal Airlines (now in the process of changing their name to Nepal Airlines) is RA, Jet Airways in India uses code 9W, and Kingfisher Airlines uses code IT (probably because they want to emphasize that they serve the high-tech IT industry in Bangalore.) You can look these codes up at http://www.airlinecodes.co.uk/airlcodesearch.asp .
The one relatively recent difficulty is an invention called 'codesharing'. Under this arrangement one airline has a 'fake' flight number, which actually refers to a flight run by another airline. Thus, Delta flight 7011 from Atlanta to Detroit is actually a flight operated by Northwest Airlines, and has another flight number on Northwest. If you show up at Delta to check in for this flight, they will redirect you to Northwest. The problem is that one of the reasons airlines codeshare is that they have no service to an airport. Thus, if you show up at State College airport, in my hometown, looking for the Air France desk, you will quickly discover there isn't one. At this point you can either just start asking around, or you can look at the departure schedules to see which airline has a flight to the same destination at the exact same time as your flight, and start there. Your travel agent has hopefully also told you that your flight will be "operated by" another airline and which airline it is.
Another useful set of codes to know are the city codes for various airports. This will help you understand what is written on your ticket, but it also will help you double check to make sure your bags are being sent to the correct destination. Every commercial airport has a three letter code. Many are easy to understand either by city name (DEL for Delhi) or airport name (JFK for John F. Kennedy airport in New York), but some are just confusing (ORD for Chicago O'Hare?). You can look these up at http://www.airlinecodes.co.uk/aptcodesearch.asp.
Copyright © 2007 Christopher Hoadley. Last updated 3 September 2007.