Deccan offering free Chennai-B'lore/Hyd flights

Air Deccan is offering free (you only pay taxes) flights between Chennai-B'lore and Chennai-Hyderabad. You can fly until June 30, but must book by April 13. Not my favorite airline, but can't argue with the price.

flyairdeccan.net/AirDeccan.htm

OMG. Handy routes for me and perfect timing too. Thanks!

Great, now you have 1 day to buy. You'd be mostly paying taxes, and those are refundable if you cancel later, so buy w/o care.

Just noticed you are in S'pore. If you (and others reading this) run into the brickwall of Deccan not accepting foreign credit cards, visit india.makemytrip.com, click on customer service, then either online chat with an agent or call their Indian number. They can sell Deccan tickets with foreign cards. (You'll have to download a card authorization form, fill and sign it, and fax it along with front and back of the card. I have emailed digital photos instead of fax.)

That's true. I checked it up tho, comes up to Rs 1024 for taxes. With that kind of price for flight that'll actually take 6h by train (and cost 1/5).. I think it's not so worth it cos flight+ time taken for cabs to and from airport+ checking in woes + Deccan woes... I think train is still better Oh well maybe I'm just cheap!

Trains vs Planes is a perennial argument that each person must decide. However, taxes on flights are very high, and nothing wrong with being cheap.

No you have a point.

I booked an AC Chair Car seat on Lalbagh Express to Bangalore from Chennai on the 13th of April.

Checked for some bargains on Air Deccan and found the tax-only offer (Rs. 1025). But the flight is at 4:55 AM. Which means I lose sleep and some more money on transport.

Train is at 1530 hrs. Takes 6 hrs. But I shall be comfortable and get some time to do some reading. Plus I can finish off all work for the weekend before I leave. Train is definitely better.

PS The other options on Air Deccan to Bangalore are rs 274 +taxes (Rs1299) for an afternoon flight and a Rs 2099 flight at night.

Taxes are not high. All airlines fool passengers by saying that taxes and surcharges are high. Of the taxes, only around Rs 250 Passenger Service Fee goes to the airport. The fuel surcharge of Rs 750 and congestion charge of Rs 150 goes to the airlines. So Rs 900 is assured for all airlines. Some airlines charge service fee of Rs 100 for booking over the web.

Fuel surcharge is supposed to be imposed for a short term when fuel prices go up, and are expected to be reduced once the fuel prices are back in normal range. If not, that amount should be included in base fare. However, airlines like to keep it separate so that they can attract people by "low price offers".

Maybe someone should file a public interest litigation in the court about these fuel surcharge? Someone already filed against the congestion charge.

Figures. Thanks for the clarification. For some reason I had assumed that most "taxes+fees" would go to various governments. I guess, that's what the airlines are counting on. We cannot expect them to stop playing such games and the best we can do for ourlselves is to always look at the total price. That's what I try to while researching US-India fares.

A new offer from Deccan: 500,000 "free" tickets:

expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=84787