The issues are two:
one is that the source and Geoff/Trisha were ticketing AT AN AIR India counter, so can they ticket Silk Air there?
And our source also said that Geoff/Trisha were leaving about three hours after their arrival, which was at 3:05PM, so 6-ish PM.
I have seen and shown a variation that leaves and arrives about 2 hours earlier, but that is immaterial for your question.
This may be quite material, actually, as a flight that leaves 7 hours after they arrived is not a flight that leaves 3 hours after they arrive, which is what we need. So earlier could indeed be better.
SO the "best" flight may not be the flight that our team took, which is what we are trying to find here. We need a flight that can both be ticketed at an Air India counter and departs about 6-ish PM.
In Singapore, our racers booked the next Air India flight from Singapore to Cochin, which was scheduled to depart in approx 3 hours from either Terminal 2 or 3.
--from our source
Peach: I believe I am a pretty good judge on air flights. I am telling you that any effort to take Air India through multiple cities (not just New Delhi) to Cochin from about 3am on arrives much later than the SilkAir nonstop flight. I did look at the specifics months ago but there is no point in me doing so again. If you believe that Air India is the airline of choice to Cochin, prove it because I can't. There are only 3 reasons for taking Air India: the Silkair flight was sold out or either SilkAir or WRP edicted that ARA3 teams could not use it, or a really poor travel agent or airline agent. The only Air India flight combination shown for Singapore to Cochin is this twice per week one that leaves at 0235 Sunday morning from Singapore:
Flight Schedules from Singapore to Kochi
Flight No Sector Departure Arrival Aircraft No of stops Days
AI7406 Singapore New Delhi 0235 0555 772 0 Fri Sun
IC465 New Delhi Kochi 1730 2030 32S 0
An alternative that I pieces together is:
AI307 Sinapore Delhi 1520 1825 772
AI307 New Delhi Mumbai 1920 2135 772
AI690 Mumbai Kochi 0145+1 0330+1 738
The once a day between Mumbai and Kochi flight AI690 above eliminates Mumbai for consideration of any additional alternate times.
I guess that it's possible that ARA3 teams took that 1520 flight from Singapore. However, no sane team would arrive at 330am the next morning when they could get there the prior evening with SilkAir.