My experience with Jet Airways has always been positive, and I have travelled with them on many occasions including the Mumbai-Goa segment whe travelling from the USA to Goa. And yes, it is possible to purchase a thru ticket from the USA to Goa, either using a travel agent or one of the travel portals such as Expedia.com or Orbitz.com or Travelocity.com, or AmericanExpress travel. When you purchase a thru ticket instead of two separate tickets, the Airline has to comply with the rules of the major carrier unless clearly stated on the ticket on onset. I have used Jet Airways in this fashion from Mumbai to Goa and Goa to Mumbai continuing on an international carrier, and they have always allowed the two 50 lbs pieces of check in luggage. Ditto with Air India. Conversely, in the USA, when travelling from India, if one has to travel from a major hub such as New York to one;s final destination, some airlines such as United Airlines will only allow one free check-in bag, and you have to pay $ 70 for the second bag. This is clearly stated at the onset on the ticket, so there are no surprises.
One thing one needs to be careful about. If one decides to buy alcoholic beverages such as Scotch, Gin etc, at one of the stopover airports in Europe, you will be allowed to carry it in the cabin till you get to Mumbai. At Mumbai you have to transfer the bottles to your check-in luggage as they will not allow you to take it with you as cabin luggage... due to security regulations I guess. I learnt this the hard way once, and had to check-in my carry-on bag with the liquor bottles at a significant cost. I have flown on Qatar Airways at least a dozen times and again my experience with them has always been very positive. On one occasion due to a monsoon rainstorm the Qatar Airways departure from Goa was delayed by several hours. Consequently we missed our onward flight from Doha to the USA. Qatar Airways to their credit, put us up at a 5-star Hotel in Doha, gave us vouchers for meals and refreshments as well as telephone vouchers for 6 minutes to enable us to inform our loved ones about the change in travel plans. The next day we were taken to the airport for our onward flight. All in all it was a very positive experience. And the cabin crew on Qatar Airways have always been very helpful to this senior senior citizen. No complaints here ! I am sorry to hear that others have not had the same [positive experiences that I have had, In addition to domestic travel within India I travel Internatioally at least once and sometimes twice a year.
