Top 3 Travel Websites That Get You Cheap Flight Tickets

While it was the railways and roadways that were mostly preferred by most Indian travelers in the past, increasing number of people now prefer air travels. It is quick, the service quality is amazing, and last but not the least- the traveling expense is almost similar to other modes of transport. Flying is no longer a privilege in India reserved for only the ultra-rich. With the falling airfares, flying is now an affordable experience.

Moreover, there are now a number of popular online portals where you can find the cheapest of flight tickets from every air carrier in India. No matter if you like to fly with IndiGo, Spicejet, GoAir, Jet Airways, Vistara, or Air India, rest assured that you can find the cheapest of airfares at these websites. To make things easier, we’ve created a list of 3 of the top travel websites that you can consider for buying cheap flight tickets.

1. Expedia

If you are a regular traveler, you do not need an introduction to Expedia. The name behind a number of internationally renowned travel portals like Hotels.com, Venere.com, HomeAway, Orbitz, and Travelocity, Expedia is also quickly gaining grounds in India by offering the best deals on hotel, flights, and holiday bookings. With hundreds and thousands of travel partners all over the world, you are sure to find the best deals on this portal.

No matter if you searching for Mumbai to Delhi flights or Delhi to Los Angeles, you’ll find the best ticket fares on Expedia. Apart from flight bookings, the portal also offers car hire, flight+hotel deals, and several holiday activities to make sure that you enjoy your holiday at its best. Moreover, with the help of Expedia Coupons, travelers can get additional discounts and offers on their bookings.

2. Tajawal

If you want to travel to the Middle East, there is no better travel website than Tajawal. Based out of Dubai, the travel portal primarily focuses on flights and hotel bookings in the Middle East but has recently started spreading itself throughout the world. Their focus on the needs of the customers and ensuring complete convenience to them has made them one of the most popular travel websites.

The online portal is very popular for offering the best deals on flight bookings. With multiple secure payment channels, easy 4-step booking, and mobile app, you are sure to experience nothing but convenience with Tajawal. There are also Tajawal Coupons which you can use to get best deals and offers on your bookings. The travel website has recently added the ‘Holidays’ section on the website where you can find amazing holiday packages to a number of popular tourist destinations.

3. Musafir

Musafir is quickly becoming one of the most popular travel websites in India and a major reason for its widespread popularity is the amazing fares that the travelers can find on the website. With flights to more than 3,000 destinations and hotel bookings in more than 85,000 properties throughout the world, you’ll surely be able to get your travel needs fulfilled on Musafir.

Apart from flights, hotels, hotel and flight combos, and holiday packages, Musafir also offers visa assistance online. With services like free pick and drop of the documents and quick processing, it is now a go-to option for all the visa needs of thousands of travelers in India. At the time of booking, you can also use Musafir Coupons with which you can get amazing discounts, cashbacks and much more on your bookings.

If a smooth, hassle-free, and pocket-friendly flight booking experience is what you are looking for, these are three of the best travel portals that you can consider. With the best of deals from all the popular air carriers and additional discounts with coupons and vouchers, you are sure to save a significant amount every time you book your flight tickets at these portals.  

Half of Indian travelers book their trip last minute

As per a recent study conducted by Ixigo,half the Indians book their trips very close to travel dates. While booking hotels and flight tickets well in advance is economical, most Indians tend to plan their travels closer to the intended travel dates, with almost half planning their travel at the last minute. This is evident from the data analysed by ixigo from over 2 lakh users on its platform. The sample size involved an equal representation of men and women between the ages of 18 and 65, from across India.-Ixigo said in a circulated press release.

According to the data from ixigo, over 48% of domestic and 43% of international travelers book hotels within 30 days of intended travel. In contrast, only 1 in 6 domestic and less than 1 in 4 international travelers booked hotels 4 or more months in advance. Similarly, travelers tend to book flight tickets closer to the date of travel, with as many as a third of domestic travelers booking them in the same month in which they intend to fly out. This figure is as high as 50% for international travel. The most popular cities domestic travelers flew to are New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune. International travelers flew to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Muscat, London and Paris.

Ever increasing cancellation charges could be another factor discouraging people from booking too early. Still more than half the travelers believe in booking early.

Commenting on this trend, ixigo CEO & Co-Founder, Aloke Bajpai said - “There is an increasing trend of last minute bookings and holiday planning amongst travelers especially for flights and hotels. This is due to the flexibility to book anytime anywhere that travelers enjoy due to advanced technology, uninterrupted connectivity and easy access updates that keeps them informed about fare prediction, offers and online reviews. Higher purchasing power in travelers, complimentary services and enticing offers across the travel industry are enabling travelers to make smarter and price conscious decisions which only signals a robust growth in the tourism industry across the coming quarters.”

Prices do not always go up closer to travel date- if demand is poor, rates do drop. So booking several months in advance-particularly for hotel is usually not needed. For flights you can decide based on the savings and certainty of travel- if there's a sale with ultra low fares, may be gamble is worth, else might as well weight closer to travel date.

So what is your booking style? Months in advance or last minute?

Fly Chennai-Colombo on Indigo for INR 3700 one way

Indigo is starting Chennai Colombo flights from 20th Jan 2018.

One way fares are available for about Rs 3700 (INR 3500+ 200 convenience fee)

Return ticket is bit expensive at INR 5500 approx. So for return you can try your luck on other carriers like Srilankan or spicejet for possible low fares or book on Indigo itself.

Beware of high cancellation fees of late. Not worth booking unless you're fairly sure of traveling.

You can also club Srilanka and Maldives in one trip if time and budget permits. Srilanka tourist visa costs about 25 USD per person. It is possible to manage a 3-4 day trip in a budget of about 20-25000 INR everything inclusive.

Some Srilanka related posts on my mail blog

Srilanka trip planning -budget estimate

Srilanka 3 day itinerary for Galle -Matara 

Colombo-Kandy travelogue

Malkey car rental- feedback

Colombo beach area pics

Colombo port area pics

Former Parliament building

Read more Srilanka posts here

Best of 2017 from Airlineblog

As 2017 draws itself to a conclusion, here's  quick list of most popular posts on Airlineblog. If you've not been regular here, you might wish to take a look at these posts.

Most Read Posts

Who charges least convenience fee? Most OTAs and airlines charge a convenience fee of around Rs 200 to 250 per person per ticket. Some airlines don't. Understand who charges the least because it makes the difference in total amount you'll be paying.

Spicejet new flight to Jaisalmer : Those looking to visit Jaisalmer can now save half a day of road travel and fly in, thanks to Spicejet and ADAN scheme..

Dirtcheap tickets for immediate travel : Not relevant now, but post listed some super cheap tickets for early November travel.

Malindo air Bengaluru operations to begin on December 21st : Malindo Air is now flying to Bengaluru and offering connectivity to close to 50 destinations.

Air Asia vs Malindo- which one is better : A detailed comparison between low cost Air Asia vs value for money Malindo. Read to find out who wins in which aspects.

AirAsia sale lowest fares benchmark : Some of the lowest fares I have seen for various destinations on Air Asia- this can be your reference while booking cheap tickets durig next sale

Most commented (excluding those already listed above)
Air Deccan Relaunch on December 23rd : Air Deccan has begun its second life and we wish them luck.

Bali top view from Malindo Air window seat: A series of photos taken from air while departing from Bali. You don't want to miss this.

Beware of MakeMyTrip's latest trick : If you see low fares in first screen that doesn't mean you will pay the same amount. MMT and many sites increase the fare in next step, claiming airline has increased fares. Be careful.

Few personal favorites/recommended reading
1. The love letter from Norwegian Airlines : Most airlines send boring reminder about your expiring mils. The way Norwegian says the same moves your heart. Do read.

2 Airlineblog gets featured within top 100 list  : Some reasons to celebrate

3. What happens when an inflight purchase goes bad? :Know this if you're used to buying stuff inflight.

4. Quoted in Deccan Herald twice-
Check here for one and second one below

5. Air Asia's new Loyalty Program- Good, Bad and Ugly!
A newly launched loyalty scheme from Air Asia offers less benefit than earlier!

6. Flight booking tips no airline will tell you
Some things travel agents and airlines won't tell you because it doesn't suite their interests.

Thanks a lot for all my readers in supporting this new blog. New Year wishes and looking forward to 2018.

Scoot starts Honolulu flights to rival AirAsia

Singapore based budget airline Scoot has started flights to Honolulu, USA. Scoot is second Asian low cost carrier to fly to Honolulu after Air Asia. Just like Air Asia, Scoot also has opted to operate a one stop flight via Osaka, Japan. Both airlines take about 24 hours of flight duration with best possible connection, more if transit time is longer.

In terms of pricing, Scoot is a bit expensive than Air Asia. The best return fare to Honolulu from Trichy that I have seen is about USD 1100+ or INR 72000. (without any add on like bags, meals etc) Under normal conditions, without any sale, if booked several months in advance and if you're flexible with dates, Air Asia can take you to Honolulu and back for about 45-50K INR. Baggage and meals another 10-15k extra. Total around 60k. This is not super cheap but decent enough if your main destination in Honolulu itself. (Next best option- reaching US mainland and then flying to Honolulu will cost you about INR 1 lakh at best rates, but if you're going all the way to Honolulu in all probability you'd like to visit US mainland also.

I am wondering why Scoot opted to copy exact model of Air Asia- they could have tried flying direct (without stopping at Kansai, Dreamliner has slightly better range than A330) or chose a different transit point (say Haneda or Busan etc)

Note that above fares are lowest. If you're particular about the date or if you're unlucky, ticket will cost twice as much for some of the dates.

Scoot is also aiming flight to Berlin in late 2018. (2^nd European destination after Athens)

Below is a comparison between Scoot vs Air Asia for India-Honolulu flights

#	Factor	AirAsia	Scoot	Remarks
1	# of stops	2 (KUL and Osaka)	2 (Singapore and Osaka, )
2	Min Fare, for a date 4 month from now (Trichy-Honolulu)	INR 45500	1100 USD INR 72000 onwards
3	Lowest return fare I have seen during a sale	30k INR approx.	NA (Scoot Honolulu flight is recently launched. Need to see what is on offer on their next sale)
4	Extra fare for 20kg bag+ meals	9000 for 1 piece 20kg bag INR 200 per meal, around 1200 for 6 meals during the trip =10200 approx	150 USD extra for 20kg bag alone 260 USD for bag + meals (INR 17000)
5	Transit Airport	KLIA 2	Changi (one of the finest)

But does it make sense for Indians to go to Honolulu US for vacation or plan their US mainland visit via Honolulu? If beaches are your target, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives or Bali can be visited for one third the price. I've a detailed analysis in this earlier post. Quick answer is NO. But then, I don't think either Scoot or AirAsia is counting on Indian passengers to fill their flight to Honolulu. I feel Honolulu flight is targeted at customers in ASEAN countries who hitherto had to rely on Cathay Pacific or Singapore Airline to fly long distance to USA. So let us not complain much, just wait n watch.

11 Interesting facts about Air Deccan version 2.0!

January 2019 Update: Unfortunately Air Deccan 2.0 is now history, as it has suspended operations and its license revoked.
-------------------------------------- Original Post -----------------------
If you're a fan of Air Deccan, you should already by aware that Air Deccan is all set for its second innings from December 23rd... From what we know so far, I've compiled a set of interesting facts about Air Deccan's new innings. Read and share if you find them interesting.

1. Air Deccan is operating Beechcraft 9100 D, probably the smallest plane till date used for commercial aviation in India. It has only 19 seats. With one seat for cabin crew, only 18 is left for a passenger.

Interiors of a Beechcraft 1900D, image taken from Airliners.net


With tickets priced at around 1500, Air Deccan can make a max of 27000 per flight. After paying various fees and taxes, I am guessing around 20000 INR is left per flight for fuel, salary and all other expenses involved in operating a plane. A private Volvo Bus operator between Chennai and Bengaluru will probably be making more money per trip than Air Deccan flight. But then this is too early to pass judgment. The aircraft will be making around 6 trips a day as below- so total possible revenue of about 1-1.5 lakh per day, which is not much but not too bad to begin with
Trip 1: Nasik-Mumbai
Trip 2: Mumbai-Jalgaon
Trip 3: Jalgaon Mumbai
Trip 4: Mumbai-Nasik
Trip 5: Nasik-Pune
Trip 6: Pune - Nasik

Plus we can expect Air Deccan to be getting some government support under UDAAN Scheme, discounted/free airport charges as it is a very small plane etc. It is also possible ticket prices will be increased a bit after launch. I am sure Captain Gopinath has done his maths and will succeed.

2. The single row seating means you can have both Window Seat and Aisle seat for yourself (it is two in one!). No middle row. Just one row on each side of the plane

3. Air Deccan is not charging any convenience fee at the moment for ticket booking. No need to pay Rs 200-250 extra on top of what you see in first page. May be one of the reason AirDeccan is not yet listed on websites like MMT or cleartrip.

4. No seat selection fee as well. You're free to select your dream seat during booking. Not much info is available about meals/food on board. Given the size of aircraft and duration of flight, expect food/snacks to be bare minimum to almost nil.

5. Though Air Deccan got some media publicity by announcing Rs 1 tickets, they will be near impossible to find. Expect to pay around Rs 1500 per person per flight

6. Air Deccan is India's first low cost airline that enabled lots of people to fly for the first time. Many passengers back then, used to hide/remove Air Deccan baggage tag soon after landing, as they felt it will undermine their status if their peers saw them flying Air Deccan

7. Even though Vijay Mallya managed to buy Air Deccan and merge it with King Fisher, Air Deccan did survive all these years with its original identity offering helicopter and aircraft lease and other aviation services

8. Captain Gopinath says this will be his last stint and after this he plans to retire.

9. With only 18 seats to fill, Air Deccan will not need extensive marketing, lots of gate time etc. These many seats will easily fill up. Also they can board and deboard passengers much quicker and negotiate a discounted gate fee and other airport fee.

10. Beechcraft 1900 D can land in super small airstrips. Ideal to expand to various smaller airports yet to get commercial flights. Best wishes to Air Deccan.

11. Air Deccan will also be adding more flights around Kolkata and Delhi in coming months.

Air Deccan Schedule Booking update

Air Deccan website is now updated with their initial schedule and booking have opened.

Latest Air Deccan schedule is as below
https://airdeccan.co.in/en/flight-schedule

Bookings can now be made on Air Deccan website. Bookings are being accepted till end of March only and tickets cost about INR 1500 one way (Couldn't locate a single date with cheaper tickets- the famed Rs 1 tickets). There is no fee for seat selection and no convenience fee.

Air Deccan is still not showing as an option on MakeMytrip or other travel sites. Happy flying.

Aircraft Air Deccan is using is a 19 seater Beechcraft 1900D- a super small twin engine turbo prop. At 1500 a seat, factoring Rs 500 for taxes, revenue per flight is just about 19000 Rs at full occupancy. 

Beware of MakeMyTrip's latest trick!

Count on MakeMyTrip to find more n more innovative ways to trick unsuspecting customers into paying more money. I have already written earlier about their misleading ads. The latest trick they've rolled out is the fare update after you select a flight.

When you want to book a flight ticket, in all probability you will open 3-4 top websites like MMT, cleartrip and few others and see who is showing cheapest fares. Once you zero in on which website to book, you will proceed to complete the booking, without cross checking and comparing the fare at every stage of the booking process. MakeMyTrip seems to have devised an evil strategy to trick customers- show lower price in first screen, make customers chose MMT over other sites and increase it in next screen.

Example below:
Step 1: Select your flight:
Note the time- 9.38 AM. I select a direct flight between Bengaluru and Mumbai and return fare is 10887 Rs. I am mentally prepared for a convenience fee of Rs 200 per person per flight as well, but what happens in next screen is a real shocker!

 Next screen, make my trip temporarily shows "Rechecking fare". Note that already total amount has gone up by 254 Rs due to makemytrip service charge and donation.

Suddenly the fare has gone up by Rs 1450... Within few seconds. Most customers fail to notice it
We will compare it with cleartrip or other sites for first page- once we decide and start booking process we don't keep comparing again and again. Makemytrip is trying to exploit this process by increasing price after showing lower prices in first screen.

Now, yes, it is possible that at times fares change. Airline fares are very dynamic.We can't help. But the proof of MakeMyTrip's cheating comes from a fresh search. Note the time below- 9.41 AM. I did a fresh search. If the fares had really increased, now I should be seeing 12250 something as the fare for same flights. No. I am still seeing old price. This implies the intermediate price increase induced by makemytrip is deliberate, artificial and malicious.

Most customers will either miss to notice this fare hike or will assume it is genuine and continue with booking. But when it gets spotted by some over curious and hyper sensitive people like me, it ends up as a blogpost, alerting more people about this trick.

There is another 410 Rs convenience fee. So total you will pay will be around 13000 Rs. I checked same flight on cleartrip- final amount came to 12747 (after manually un-checking a Rs 300 insurance premium)

Update:
MakeMyTrip's twitter team has responded as below. They claim it is a genuine process. I repeated above process in incognito mode, got same behavior. And this behavior seems unique to MMT right now- few competitor website aren't behaving same way. If it happens only once in 10 tries may be you can ignore this phenomenon, but if it happens almost all the time, you need to be careful. Please use your discretion.

As observed at the time of preparing this post. Website behaviors may change over time. Please use your discretion.

Below is a tweet that shows a massive 2.5 lakh increase in price. Hard to believe such an increase is natural.

@makemytrip What quality Weed are you Guys.. 2.5 lakhs increase in flight ticket in just 5 sec..@goibibo @trivago @ixigo i love u guys.. :) pic.twitter.com/9pbVkp8OTm

— sanchit kapur (@sanchitkapur) December 20, 2017

Changi Airport baggage delay alert

Changi is regarded as one of the finest in the world for a reason. Besides offering best of the facilities and services, Changi also makes effort to comfort guests in the event of inconvenience and discomfort.

According to this news, Changi Airport in Singapore has issued an advisory about a possible delay in baggage delivery. Changi's internal target was to start rolling the bags on the belt within 35 minutes of aircraft parking. But due to rain and risk of static charges and lightening threat, Changi says its workers may have to stand down at certain times, causing delay in baggage delivery.

Changi offers free beverages to passengers who have to wait extra long for their bags to arrive.

When was the last time any of Indian airports did that? Chennai International airport has a legendary waiting period that can last from anywhere between 1 to 2 hours from touch down. Hope they improve.

Cudos to Changi for their proactive measures. 

World's happiest airports...None in Asia

Happy or not.com has released a list of World's happiest airports...

7 out of 8 airports are in Europe, 4 of them in UK (but LHR not one of them)

No airports from Asia makes it to the list, including Singapore's Changi.

Read the full report here

Fly to South Korea for INR23k with Air Asia

Ever been to Korea? Korea isn’t really on top of the list for Indian tourists, but why not explore a new country? I have Korea on my radar but most of my 2018 long weekends, leave availability are sold out, so I will be considering this destination in 2019. Meanwhile if you’re interested in visiting Korea, you can now do it for about 23000 INR round trip per person, thanks to Air Asia sale. This fare is for ex-Chennai. Use the website to check rates for your city and date. You can use monthly calendar to identify which date is cheapest.

Book now for travel till June 30, 2018 for some discounted fares to various destinations on Air Asia.

Some pointers:

Is this the best fare you’ve seen?

No. Cheapest I’ve seen is INR 19000 round trip-Chennai to Seoul and back. But you might have to wait for next big sale to get such low fares. 23k is decent in my opinion, if you’re looking to travel within next 6 months.

Should you fly in and out of ICN (Seoul)?

Not necessarily. My recommended itinerary will be to fly into to Seoul, spend a few days there, then fly to Pusan or any other Korean city you may like to explore, then fly to Jeju island, which is said to be very scenic and fly back from Jeju island to India. (Air Asia flies out of Jeju, you can book cheap Korean Air tickets for domestic travel)

How much time is needed to explore Korea?

South Korea is a big country, try to spend 2-3 weeks if possible. 7-10 days minimum in my opinion.

What else I should keen in mind?

Above fare doesn’t include food and baggage. South Korea is not a country frequented by Indians, do proper research to make the most of your trip and avoid mistakes.

Is there a risk of War?

Can’t comment how situation turns out over time. Everyone understands war is not in anyone’s interest, but you will never know. Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea but rest of South Korea are reasonably safe. One should be able to evacuate promptly if there’re signs of war breaking out.

Visa?

Yes, prior visa is needed. You can process via VFS, standard procedures.

Air Deccan to relaunch on December 23rd!

As per this news in Mint, Air Deccan is set to relaunch operations on December 22.

Air Deccan was India's first low cost carrier, headed by Captain Gopinath. It made flying possible for thousands of Indians. But in 2008 Vijay Mallya took over Air Deccan, with an intention of using Air Deccan's history to fly King Fisher planes abroad. (There was a rule that an Airline should be in operation for 5 years before it can fly abroad). Air Deccan was renamed Kingfisher Red. But Kingfisher fleet got grounded in 2012 due to its financial crisis.

Above: Art work inside Mumbai Airport

Captain Gopinath also tried his hands on cargo business, Deccan 360 but that didn't seem to make much success. Air Deccan continued to exist offering charter airplanes and other aviation related services.

In its second innings, Air Deccan will operate from 4 bases- Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Shillong and will be operating short haul flights connecting nearby cities, taking advantage of support offered under Govt's UDAN scheme. Of the 4 Shillong region holds lots of potential as North East is underserved at the moment. If a flight can save hundreds of kms of road journey I am sure there will be many takers.

On December 22nd, Air Deccan will make first flight from Mumbai to Nagpur. More flights are expected to launch in January 2018 from Delhi, Kolkata and other bases to nearby cities.

Rs 1 ticket:
Air Deccan is promising a promo fare starting from Rs 1. Good publicity stunt. I am guessing this price will be for just a few seats per flight. Expect to pay around INR 600-700 per ticket at the minimum after factoring various taxes, convenience fee etc. (so much for Re 1 ticket!). Expect average price to be around INR 1500.

Where to book Air Deccan Ticket?
However, it is not very clear where to book Air Deccan tickets. Its website  http://www.deccanair.com/ still doesn't show its schedules and booking option. A quick search on MakeMytrip for flight options between Mumbai and Nagpur for December 22nd didn't show Air Deccan. So I am guessing some approval formalities and preparations are still pending. Website updates and booking should commence soon while the news of relaunch is spreading. It will be a mistake to lose potential customers who will be searching to book but can't. With just about a week to spare, Air Deccan better hurry.

Update: booking is now possible on https://airdeccan.co.in

Best wishes to Air Deccan's 2nd innings in Indian passenger aviation market. Stay tuned to AirlineBlog as we monitor Air Deccan closely and bring you vital updates.

Update: Air Deccan schedule and fare information in this post. More interesting facts here.

Air India BLR-Hubballi-Mumbai flight begins

Air India has begun a Bengaluru-Hubballi-Mumbai service. Residents of Bengaluru looking to travel to North Karnataka and residents of Hubballi heading to BLR/Mumbai can avail this service.

Key details:
Airline: Air India
Aircraft type: A319
Route: BLR-HBX-BOM
Frequency: 3 days a week- Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday
Timing: 
BLR departure 1200, arrival at Hubli; 1250
Departure from Hubli: 1325, Arrival at Mumbai: 1430

Departure from Mumbai: 1525, arrival at Hubli: 1635
Departure from Hubli: 1810, Arrival at Bengaluru: 1930

Approx fare: Rs 1500 to Rs 3000 one way from BLR to Hubli, depending on various factors

Flying to Hubli will save 6 hours/400 kms road trip otherwise needed. (Actual savings is less- consider 90 min to reach BLR airport, 90 mins for airport formalities and 1 hour flying- that is 4 hours in total, so net savings is hardly 2 hours, but if you can get the tickets at reasonable price, flying might still make good sense.

From Hubli you can take road to various attractions in Northern and central Karnataka- Dandeli, Karwar, Sirsi etc on the west side, Badami, Ihole etc on the east

Unfortunately above flight timing is not suitable for those looking for a weekend trip. You can't leave Friday evening/Saturday early morning n return Sunday night/Monday morning.

Alternate options:
Spicejet flies to Belgaum
Trujet flies to Vidhyanagar, Hampi from Hyd

News tip off- OneIndia Kannada

Air New Zealand video featuring Pete the Kiwi bird

Air New Zealand seem to have some of the finest airline videos.  They were #1 in my earlier post on best in-flight safety videos. Recently Ardziv Simonian brought to my attention below video from Air New Zealand, featuring the national bird, Kiwi. Kiwi are the birds native to NZ but they can't fly.

The video features Kiwi the bird and through it various features of Air New Zealand. Watch it. Once you're done watching you might want to read some additional info about Kiwi bird here. The video is part of Air New Zealand's better way to fly program.

I might have a trip to NZ later in 2018. Hopefully will be able to see this bird in person and bring you more stories.

Jet Airways sidelining Etihad?

Jet Airways has recently inked a deal with Air France KLM. Though Jet hasn't officially announced much about Etihad, looks like Jet is trying to ignore or sideline Etihad.

Proof 1:
On Jet Airway's homepage, Etihad doesn't get a space any more. It lists AF, KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic, but not Etihad

Proof 2:
Search on Jet Airways website for a destination in US- say JFK, no route option with Etihad is shown. Most options are via LHR using Virgin Atlantic or other partners. What happened to connectivity via Abu Dhabi with Etihad? No idea.

But I could see some destinations offered with Etihad flights- like Dallas. So to conclude, partnership with Etihad is still in force but probably at a reduced focus.

What do you think?

Air India Bhubaneswar-Bangkok Direct flight to begin from 10 December!

Bhubaneswar residents cheer up. Air India is starting direct flight between Biju Patnaik Airport and Suvarnabhumi from December 10. Make the most of it, plan a trip to Bangkok now.

Key information about the new Air India BBI-BKK flight:

• Airline: Air India
• Airline type: Full Service
• Destination- BBI (Bhubaneshwar Biju Patnaik airport to BKK (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport)
• Service start date: 10^th December
• Frequency: 2 times a week (Sunday, Thursday)
• Minimum round trip fare: INR 14000+ approx
• Aircraft type: A320

If you are thinking of a year end trip to Bangkok/Thailand, you can make the most of this new flight- all other airlines will have much higher price to Bangkok during December due to peak travel season and high demand. Air India’s new flight has a launch price of around 14k for return ticket. 

This is not the cheapest way to fly to Bangkok from Bhuvaneshwar- AirAsia can take you there for a few thousand rupees lesser, particularly if you can manage to book during a sale. But Air India is a full service airline- their price would include check in bag (23 kg) and meals. Air Asia sale price + baggage and meals will be almost same as Air India’s launch fare.

Also Air India flies to Suvarnabhumi airport, a full service airport with better facilities than DMK, the budget airport.

Thailand is a popular destination among indian tourists, because of Visa on Arrival facility, lots of beaches, mountains and other attractions all over the country. You can just limit yourself to Bangkok, Pattaya, Kanchanaburi or fly around to other cities like Phuket, Chiang Mai etc. If you’re in Orissa and haven’t visited Thailand yet, now is the time to complete that bucketlist.

So people in Orissa, book your tickets and pack your bags.

Bali airport closure- Best way to handle if you’re affected

If you’re already there in Bali and affected by airport closure, or if your trip is affected by Bali airport closure this post tries to help you with various ways to minimize the impact or deal with the situation better

It is bad indeed, but you can still make the most of it or take some steps to minimize the impact.

Malindo Air taking off from Bali, Nov 2017

Step 1: Don’t panic or let frustration get to you.

Yes, it is bad, let us face it. It is an act of god no humans could predict it and control. Volcano ash is not a life n death situation- like say a hurricane or earthquake. Prepare yourself mentally to deal with it. If airport is closed for 2-3 days, it may take up to a week to return to normalcy, assuming no repeat closures occur. You've to now figure out how best to spend this 1 week in Bali while being ready to fly out at very short notice.

Step 2: Be kind to airline/airport staff/authorities who are trying to help. They are just as informed as you are and may not have any power beyond what they’ve been told to do. There’ll be already thousands of angry/anxious passengers in the airport venting their anger on these helpless employees. Be kind to them.

Step 3: Update your right contact information in your airline profile or ticket. If you had given your home country phone number which is not active on international roaming, airline may not be able to reach you. Get a local SIM Card, update number on your airline account or ticket, so that airline can call you if required or communicate with you via email/SMS for an update.

Step 4: Communicate to airline via all available channels that you are affected by this airport closure and flight cancellation, and looking to be put on first available flight out, so that there’s clear evidence that you took all the initiative. If airport is closed for 2 days and the airline had say 4 flights to Bali per day, that is a backlog of 1000 passengers per day. Once airport resumes operations they've to take care of regular passengers + backlog- depending on how many extra flights they can deploy and what is your number in the queue of 1000s of stranded passengers, you may have to wait for several days. Not sure if regular follow up or requesting will help you board sooner, but no harm trying.

Step 5: Use social media, form a group of passengers of same airline/flight:
Create a WhatsApp or FB group for passengers of your airline/flight. This will help exchange vital information and may be put some pressure on airline through collective bargaining. Of course finding details of other passengers is not easy- you can either physically meet n connect with them in airport or use the power of social media to get attention of such passengers.

Step 6: Communicate to your employer and friends about the delay. If you have work from home option you might want to avail it now. Keep your colleagues and loved ones informed so that they don't panic. Get yourself a hotel room for couple of nights and relax while situation returns to normal. No point sleeping in airport- won't help anyone.

Step 7: Keep an eye on news. Authorities may open up nearby airports if deemed safe. Buses are already being provided for airline passengers who wish to go to nearby towns/airports [News here and here]. There could be ferry options to elsewhere in Indonesia from where you might be able to take a flight. If you can't afford to wait till DPS airport reopens, you can explore these options.

Step 8: Consider it as an extended holiday. Explore more places in Bali you couldn’t visit earlier.

Step 9: Check for alternate options:
1. May be you can reach nearby airports such as Surabaya by road/ferry (500 kms). Most budget airlines will NOT entertain sector change and you may have to buy fresh tickets. If there's a flight out then this might work. Indonesia has many other airports fully operational, though it will take long journey by road from Bali to reach there. If you're desperate to get out, these could be considered
2. Fly to some other country to where you have visa. For example, there're several airlines flying between Australia and Indonesia than Indonesia and India. If you have Australia visa, might be good idea to see if you can get a ticket to Australia, fly there n then plan your trip to India from there. Of course this will cost a lot of money but is an alternative, if you manage to get a ticket.

Step 10- Keep stock of basic essentials: In case of disruptions like this, supply of essential goods may be disrupted or vendors will create artificial scarcity to hike prices. You might want to have some essential supplies for couple of days- water, medicines, snacks, masks etc.

My best wishes with you. Stay safe. Did I miss any point? Do you have some tips? Do comment.

If you’ve not left for Bali yet but have a flight coming up soon

Option 1: Hope that airport reopens in time

This is a bit of a gamble- can work in your favor or may backfire. Tourism is very important for Bali and they don’t want to close the airport unless absolutely necessary. The current closure is already affecting thousands of tourists and everyone are keen to resume normal routine asap. Re-opening/closure again depends on how the volcano responds and how winds behave. If the threat perception goes down, authorities will have confidence to re-open the airport.

If your trip is weeks away, I see a fair chance that airport will re-open by then and things will be back to normal. If it is late this week, or early next week, wait for another 24 hours to see how situation impoves/worsens.

Above: Ghatotkacha-Karna war statue near Ngrah Rai International Airport, Bali

Option 2: Work with your airline to reschedule your tickets

If you’ve decided not to continue with your planned visit, work with your airline to reschedule your trip or seek refund. Most budget airlines will refuse giving refund n losing money, most offer free rescheduling or credit back to wallet that needs to be used sooner to book fresh tickets. Full service airlines are usually more responsive in these situations.

Read my experience from 2015 Bali airport closure with Air Asia * Understanding Bali's volcanoes and its impact on tourism * 

GoAir Killer deals on select new flights

Go Air is expending its network and is offering super low fares on select sectors. GoAir is introducing direct flights between Chennai- Port Blair, Chennai- Kochi, BLR-Goa, BLR- Lucknow and many more. I tried checking various dates- couldn't exactly get the rock bottom rates listed below, but got prices close enough- like Bengaluru - Goa for 999, Chennai- Kochi 1200 etc which is still very tempting.

Try your luck.
Travel date: 1st Dec till 28 October 2018
Booking date: Now till 29th November 2017
Destinations: Only for below

Below is the destinations and possible lowest fares. 200 Rs convenience fee per person per flight applies in addition to below fare (Rs 400 for round trip)

Some samples- BLR Goa

 Chennai Hyderabad

Best wishes!