Finding a good fare to India -- 2005

redleader

I have yet to book my flight but I'm finding that multi-destination flights are quite expensvie. I need to go from SFO to DEL and then two weeks later leave out of Kathmandu back to SFO.

??? thanks for suggestions!

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have a happy day!

-m2-

Hi redleader, getting to Kathmandu not as convenient as it used to be as several good asian airlines (Singapore and Cathay Pacific for two) no longer fly there. Thai still does, but they don't fly from SFO and so it is an awkward connection.

Royal Air Nepal flies to Kathmandu from Hong Kong, so it might be possible to work out a ticket with Cathay Pacific to Delhi and returning from Kathmandu on RAC to HK then on to SFO with Cathay. I'm pretty sure a good consolidator could work this out for you. Perhaps someone in the Bay area can help out with a name.

In post #20 in this thread, DoDi mentioned that she had good luck with these people:

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'An Indian co-worker told me to call Madhavi at Travel Merchants (608) 245-1879 or (650) 348-7000. Web address: http://www.travelmerchants.com

Travel Merchants is a consolidator in Northern California... and they saved me $500 on my round trip tickets from SFO to Trivandrum in March this year. I had checked online discount ticket services and regular travel agencies... the best they could do was about $1400 when fees and taxes were all added in. Madhavi (not sure if that's the correct spelling of her name) booked me a wonderful trip all the way through on Singapore Air with a quite enjoyable one day stopover in Singapore.. and it cost me $900 total, taxes and fees included.

Yes that's right, $900.00 usd round trip, San Francisco to Trivandrum.

Madhavi and Travel Merchants get ***** rating from me.'
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Perhaps that would be a good place to start. If anyone else can help out with the name of a good consolidator, please speak up.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out!

redleader

Thanks m2. I'm actually not "flying into" Kathmandu. I'm actually flying into DEL and then going with a tour from DEL to Kathmandu (land transport), and then flying out of Kathmandu back to SFO. From the mainstream sites like Orbitz, travelocity, etc., this is a VERY expensive combination!

-m2-

Actually that is what I meant: SFO-DEL via HK on Cathay, returning KTM-HK with RAN and thence to SFO with Cathay. This is basically an 'open-jaw' ticket except that part of one leg (KTM-HK) would have to be with a partner airline. There may be better options via Singapore or Europe, but it will be easier to work this out with a brick and mortar discount agent -- I've never found that Orbitz or Travelocity particularly good for prices myself. Every major city with a sizeable Indo-American population has travel agents who specialize in discount flights to India as that is their bread and butter -- you just have to find one.


edit: I'll just mention that another posibility is just find a good round trip to Delhi (a good price would be around $1000 US), then buy a one-way from Kathmandu to Delhi ($150 with Indian Airlines) to connect with your flight home.

sticky

Doesnt look like youre coming back to IM mitcham, but i'll post a reply incase it helps out another aussie.

this webiste is has great deals, and has a search engine which links directly to the airline system so you can find fares to just about anywhere. I found a flight here, and then took it to flight centre and got them to beat it

Flying to india via thailand seems to be one of the cheapest options.

had a quick look on the site, they have return 3month fares starting at AU$1060 with malasian

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Flashpackers: Backpackers doing it in style.

whatsilliness

Airsvit airlines (stopover in Kiev) 6 month ticket for july 24- november 20
new york to delhi:
$860 adult
+ tax = $1,049

long flight: 18 hours, not a spiffy ass airline
BUT A SWEEETT ass deal



edit by m2: sounds good, could you please edit to add where you bought it, thanks

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redleader

Thanks for the details. Yes, I totally didn't even consider the fact that there are no direct flights from KTM to SFO. Can anyone confirm? I've received some quotes from online travel agents and they have indeed given me a price for the combo you just mentioned...a round trip SFO-DEL-SFO ticke and a one way KTM-DEL ticket.

I'm also curious what other asian cities KTM flies to and then from that other asian city, fly back to SFO. Or is it a general rule that a round trip SFO/DEL tix + one way KTM-DEL ticket will ALWAYS be cheaper than flying out of KTM to another Asian city and then back SFO?

ruins_explorer

It feels so wrong to talk about money in a public forum, but I guess that's the purpose of this sticky thread, so that other people can make educated decisions.

I just wanted to post that I paid 1100USD (not including taxes) for round-trip tickets from Boston to Delhi during the holiday season, connecting through Milan. I checked out the websites of the major airlines as well as checking a site someone had posted here. The site posted here (that I can't remember) wouldn't allow me to make any flight reservations, saying they were all already booked. However, I was able to go direct and get the same prices (except for Lufthansa, which truly was sold out of the 900$ tickets). Most places were charging 1300-1500 without tax. This is for coach fair, usually with 1 or more stopovers.

I bought my tickets early because I had heard that they can sell out fast for that time of year. Truth be told, I have never paid this much for a ticket even flying all the way to Thailand. That's high-season for you I guess.

Alitalia was good because you fly into Milan and only have a 3 hour layover whereas British Air had a 12 hour layover for most flights. Some of the other airlines required two stopovers - one in Europe, one in Dubai, and then finally Delhi.

My only complaint is that through a mistake, I chose Dec 26th instead of Dec 25th as my departure date. When I realized my mistake (2 days later), I called Alitalia and they wanted to charge me $200 per ticket to change the date. They claimed the tickets had already been issued, but since I haven't received paper tickets, I don't see why it would cost so much to make the change.

-m2-

redleader: Here is a link showing all the international flights to Nepal -- it may not be up to date.

http://www.visit-nepal.com/internationalflights.htm

ruins explorer: a heavy penalty for cancellation or change of date is common on heavily discounted tickets. The fee is $250 on the Singapore Air ticket that I bought last week, but since the ticket had to be bought and paid for by July 15 to get the special price, I had to lock myself in. There is no problem changing the return date of a flight without fee on most airlines.

crvlvr

ruins,

thats a pretty good deal. But the fares usually drop after the 25the anyways. High season is from Dec 10th to Dec24th.

I just paid $1,546 for Los Angeles to Bangalore on Dec 9th via British Airways -- one stop in Heathrow for 2 hours.This is a pretty good deal considering most other airlines (Air India exlcuded) were $1,800. $1,600 is the most I have ever paid for a ticket. But pricues are gone up steeply this year. Thats to the high fuel prices and for the americans, the depreciating US$.

Fares also dpend on how direct the flight is. More stopovers or longer stopovers usually mean lower fares.

docgirl2005

Hey everyone,

I have a subscription to Conde Nast Traveller Magazine and they recommended using the itasoftware.com website. I tried it and found pretty good deals to India. My mom got great tickets on Lufthansa thru Newark with only a 2 hour wait in Frankfurt. It was around 1150 RT.

Its very easy to open up an account on that itasoftware.com...just make up a screen name and password and you are in! You cannot buy tickets on that software but you can get all the deals available on the net on one full page! Thanks and happy travel shopping!

Kanbe

Hihi,

Jetstar Asia Airways has started a route to Kolkata from Singapore. You can book one way or return via the website here: http://www.jetstarasia.com/

crvlvr

docgirl, itasoftware.com gave me a fare that was $20 lower than mobissimo.com (which I used) for the same flight. I'll have to use it next time.

jens

I flew via Bangkok via Thai Air (ways?) a couple of years back (when it was a calmer place). I bought the tickets at the Thai Air office in Kathmandu and they were cheaper then on the website. You could RT to Thailand which is generally cheap then Buy one ticket to India and one KTM > BKK

docgirl2005

Hey thats great crvlvr, I heard about mobissimo too. I should check that out as well. Did you get the money off tickets to India or some other travel tickets?

Conde Nast recommeded mobissimo too. Anyways good to hear itasoftware works! Ciao