MT: Airline Agents, tickets, prices, websites and deals

Desi · Post by **Desi** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:43 pm

This thread will be used to document a list of travel agents and corresponding experiences.
Further besides travel agents, and related websites, this thread will also discuss airline deals, ticket prices etc

Travel Agents.xls (20.0 KB, 8 views)

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue May 29, 2007 12:17 am

All:

I want to book 6 months open airline ticket from Mumbai to Boston for my parents.

I have following questions
1) Should I book from India or US or it does not matter?
2) Is it better to book an open ticket or a confirmed return ticket? Has anyone done it and if yes what's the difference in price.
3) Any good websites to book the Airline tickets?
4) Does airline offer senior citizen discount?

Thank you.
Harry.

Old-Spice2 · Post by **Old-Spice2** » Tue May 29, 2007 1:19 am

>>>1) Should I book from India or US or it does not matter?

Better to do it from India. Need to contact local travel agent in Mumbai for best offer. Try www.britishairways.com

>>2) Is it better to book an open ticket or a confirmed return ticket? Has anyone done it and if yes what's the difference in price.

Confirmed return will be cheaper. Most of the tickets allow you to change the return dates for no charge.

>>3) Any good websites to book the Airline tickets?

sidestep.com, expedia.com

>>4) Does airline offer senior citizen discount
never heard about it.

realentity · Post by **realentity** » Tue May 29, 2007 2:54 am

Maybr Air India offers senior citizen discount.

DosaiLvr · Post by **DosaiLvr** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:07 am

Harry;26402All:

I want to book 6 months open airline ticket from Mumbai to Boston for my parents.

I have following questions
1) Should I book from India or US or it does not matter?
2) Is it better to book an open ticket or a confirmed return ticket? Has anyone done it and if yes what's the difference in price.
[/quote]

Purchasing tickets in the country of destination (vs country of origin) called SOTO (sold outside and ticketed outside)?? is expensive because of PTA (pre-paid ticket advice) charges - my experience.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Tue May 29, 2007 7:59 am

Thanks for the reply.

Can anyone recommend travel agents in Mumbai?

yugpurush · Post by **yugpurush** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:04 am

For 2)
Not sure, but if your parents are coming on visitors visa, open ticket could go against them in immigration officer giving them I-94 (validity of stay in US) of lesser validity or questing open ticket. You can buy a ticket which would have some return date but make sure airline do not charge anything later to change it.

So far I have bought tickets for my parents 4 times only once from US all other times from India as deal was alwats better.

Harry;26402All:

I want to book 6 months open airline ticket from Mumbai to Boston for my parents.

I have following questions
2) Is it better to book an open ticket or a confirmed return ticket? Has anyone done it and if yes what's the difference in price.

Thank you.
Harry.[/quote]

Desi · Post by **Desi** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:19 am

I received the following quotes:

Mumbai to Chicago, Air India - ONE WAY, SENIOR CITIZEN.

$867.80 in economy class and $2915.30 in business class ( US purchase)

34000 rupees (economy)
112000 rupees (Business Class).

Another agent quoted 35000 rupees and 114000 rupees.

The above are inclusive of all taxes.

Will be booking during next week.

The dollar ruppee conversion rate is about 40 rupees. So it seems that the rates are comparable.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:05 am

Has anyone tried booking the tickets online with the Airline company directly? I was just checking them out and the prices are ridiculous. There's a difference of approx 15,000 to 20,000 INR compared to the rates given by the local travel agent. One would assume that going directly with the Airline company would fetch a better rate -- It seems other way round.

Desi_by_Nature · Post by **Desi_by_Nature** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:52 pm

Harry;27334Has anyone tried booking the tickets online with the Airline company directly? I was just checking them out and the prices are ridiculous. There's a difference of approx 15,000 to 20,000 INR compared to the rates given by the local travel agent. One would assume that going directly with the Airline company would fetch a better rate -- It seems other way round.[/quote]

That is not entirely true. I've flown the direct American Airlines ORD-DEL-ORD route twice and both times I bought directly from AA.com - which was cheaper that what agents quoted me. Lufthansa's fares on it's website are also as good or better than what any agent will quote.
The only advantage with agents is that they can reach out to really obscure airlines (like Kuwait, Aeroflot, Jordanian etc.) and they usually know in advance what airlines might be coming up with specials.

For those shopping for India round trip air tickets I also recommend that you check out Expedia and Orbitz. You'll be plesantly surprised. They have expanded their database and added international flights too at very competitive rates. The last time i bought from Expedia.