Paying for an Indian air ticket with non-Indian credit card?

bengla

i believe the subject mentions the carrier:

nayika

SpiceJet accepted my HK credit card, and I was paying the same amount as Indians (only 1 rate is quoted online).

kmalik

I do not know if OP is still interested, but one relevant factor I did not see mentioned is that a number of Indian airlines have deeply discounted "senior citizen" fares (albeit for Indian citizen's only, if I am not mistaken). The "elderly relative" is likely to qualify. As such, this friend might be well advised to have someone buy this ticket in India...

akt

Thank you for the thought. Although this thread was prompted by a friend's specific situation, he has since bought the ticket (he did IM chat with some travel agency rep and faxed them whatever documents they needed faxed). I am now interested in learing how any of us can organize our future trips.

Joseph '79

I am currently shopping (in the UK) for an internal flight; Goa to Chennai.

All the agents I have spoken to in England do not have any knowledge of this change in rules and insist people buying from outside of India still have to pay the USD fee.

Does anyone have any more information on this?

Also, does anyone know if it will cost me less to wait until I am in the country to purchase my ticket?

The flight I would like to buy is with Indian Airlines.

Joseph '79

As previously stated in this thread; info from the air Deccan Site stating a flat fare for everyone >

Go to the 'Fairs & pricing' section

and then click the 'Is there a different pricing for foreign nationals?' link.

http://www.airdeccan.net/airdeccan/f...gn%20nationals

The price they give for my flight works out at around £30 GBP which is much less than the £100 / £120 I have been quoted from other airlines through British agents.

Presuming they will accept my British Visa card then I should be ok.

I will post the outcome on here...

bengla

I'm a belgian national, and have traveled with deccan several times before, and will be again next month.. never posed a problem.

They do sort of have a bad reputation on delays and about canceling flights, but i haven't experienced any of that yet.

Cheers,

Ben

Joseph '79

Ok, will give it a go then.

Also, on the Air Deccan site, the price I have been quoted is a 'DYNA' fare which, it states, is 'subject to availablility on a first come-first served basis'

Do you know if this means your seat is guaranteed or do you have to turn up early to make sure?

bengla

pretty much guaranteed.. you'll get an e-ticket afterwards

Joseph '79

Just tried to buy on the Deccan site and been declined.

This is from the site:

NOTE: The PAYMENT gateway integrated on our website for accepting payment for online bookings has temporarily blocked international credit cards. However, cards issued in India can be used to make online bookings. This has been done to prevent misuse of cards due to the sudden rise in fraudulent transactions especially on international cards. We request you to kindly make your booking through an alternate card or on cash payment at any of our other points of sale incase you do not own a card issued in India.

My only other option is to fly Spicejet but this means an over night stopover in Mumbai. I am thinking I may be better off to wait until I am in the country and buy the Deccan flight through an agent there.

anubisgrau

Speaking of travel agencies who can do a service of booking a low fare flight for non-Indians, any other recommendation than Indiatravelite?

It seems they don't deal with IndiGo flights.

bengla

they probably have good reasons for not dealing them.. have you asked them why?

akt

A close friend just went through this routine. Apparently there is some kind of security scare right now concerning online use of foreign cards.

When are you going to India? In most cases, "dollar" fares are so high that you'd be better off waiting until you are there and then bought on a low-budget carrier.

Another way is to contact an Indian agency that would be willing to buy the ticket for you and accept you credit card. They usually require you to download and fill out a payment authorization form and fax it along with the front and back of the card itself. One such agency is india.makemytrip.com (get their Indian phone number from the site) but there may be others. BTW this often depends on the mood of the actual rep you run into. If he says no, call again some other time.

bengla

just got some info on the Jet Airways site.. we were trying to book a flight from outside india for an indian national, but the website kept giving us dollar prices and no option to change that. Anyway, we've contacted jet and this is their reply (thought it might be interesting to let the forum know):

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: info@jetairways.com <info@jetairways.com >
Date: Feb 8, 2007 3:05 AM
Subject: Re: Site Feedback - Reservation / fares


Thank you for your mail and contacting Jet Airways.

With reference to your below mail, please be advised that you can definitely book INR fares on our online booking engine.

We suggest you to please change your time zone which is on the right hand side of your task bar to the Indian time zone i.e. GMT +0530 .
You will then be able to price as well as book E-tickets in INR. However, please note that INR fares are applicable to all nationals for bookings made and ticketed in India only.

Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,

Web Manager.
Jet Airways India Ltd.

akt

When I try jetairways.com, I am automatically taken to the page
http://www.jetairways.com/Cultures/en-US/HomePage.htm,
on which I don't see any time zone?!?!

Also, when you book an e-ticket online, what does "bookings made and ticketed in India" mean?