So I was trying to buy tickets to India last week. I, like every other person, want to get there cheaply and as hassle-free as possible. Unfortunately, arranging that is not easy.
The world of international flight ticketing works in mysterious ways.
Some websites like Travelocity, have a flexible date search (which makes for cheap flights) for flights to Delhi, but not Kolkata. If one sets November as the departure date, one cannot get January return date, because the webpage only has November and December dates.
AA.com has a flexible date search, but maximum length of trip is fixed at 30 days.
globetravels.com has a search engine that lists fairly high fares. They also list some very low fares on top of those results. Those fares are available only for manual booking. So I fill out a form and send it over to them. They call me next day, saying we have found you this 5 connection flight that is about the same price that you saw with the more straight-forward itineraries on our website.
BA.com has a good search that lets you trade-off travel dates and prices. Unfortunately, they were the first ones to run out of good fares. One day I saw fares that were $1400 /per person to Delhi and next day they were up at $1700 / per person. Busted. Besides, I do not want to fly BA because of the jinx.
So off I go again hunting for low fares. I am resigned to my fate that I cannot get the dates I want any more. Seems every one else in the world wants to travel on the same dates. I call a friend for a reference to a travel agent. They took two days and cam back with a almost equally convoluted route as globetravels.com . I tried a few more websites. Farecompare.com and Vayama.com seemed to have the best searches, but even they were not good enough.
I also tried to get some tickets using my miles on United. They had routings via Denver-Toronto-Zurich-Vienna-Delhi . I am surprised, the routing didn't include Siberia.
AA has tie up with Jet Airways. So one can get tickets on AA to many places in India, but not all that Jet flies to. Finally I bought my tickets on aa.com for a reasonable $1610 / per person. The price, I have to go from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta to Delhi, spending one day in getting out of India and then a 12 hr layover in Chicago.
So if you are buying tickets to India my friend, it pays to be early. This is one case where procrastination does not work.
The world of international flight ticketing works in mysterious ways.
Some websites like Travelocity, have a flexible date search (which makes for cheap flights) for flights to Delhi, but not Kolkata. If one sets November as the departure date, one cannot get January return date, because the webpage only has November and December dates.
AA.com has a flexible date search, but maximum length of trip is fixed at 30 days.
globetravels.com has a search engine that lists fairly high fares. They also list some very low fares on top of those results. Those fares are available only for manual booking. So I fill out a form and send it over to them. They call me next day, saying we have found you this 5 connection flight that is about the same price that you saw with the more straight-forward itineraries on our website.
BA.com has a good search that lets you trade-off travel dates and prices. Unfortunately, they were the first ones to run out of good fares. One day I saw fares that were $1400 /per person to Delhi and next day they were up at $1700 / per person. Busted. Besides, I do not want to fly BA because of the jinx.
So off I go again hunting for low fares. I am resigned to my fate that I cannot get the dates I want any more. Seems every one else in the world wants to travel on the same dates. I call a friend for a reference to a travel agent. They took two days and cam back with a almost equally convoluted route as globetravels.com . I tried a few more websites. Farecompare.com and Vayama.com seemed to have the best searches, but even they were not good enough.
I also tried to get some tickets using my miles on United. They had routings via Denver-Toronto-Zurich-Vienna-Delhi . I am surprised, the routing didn't include Siberia.
AA has tie up with Jet Airways. So one can get tickets on AA to many places in India, but not all that Jet flies to. Finally I bought my tickets on aa.com for a reasonable $1610 / per person. The price, I have to go from Bhubaneswar to Calcutta to Delhi, spending one day in getting out of India and then a 12 hr layover in Chicago.
So if you are buying tickets to India my friend, it pays to be early. This is one case where procrastination does not work.
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