Air Austral additional flight to St Denis and connectivity to Mauritius

I had written about Reunion Island and St Denis earlier- it is a small island off the coast of Africa, near Seychelles and Mauritius. AirAustral had once a week direct flight from Chennai-you can get a round trip ticket for about 27000 INR, which  is reasonably cheap. Reunion island is a French territory and Indian nationals are elible for visa waiver for tourist purposes provided a travel agency/hotel in Reunion island applies on behalf of the visitor to get pre-clearance.

Now I’ve noticed two new developments-

There seem to be a second flight. While earlier there was only one flight per  week- leaving Chennai Saturday morning and returning from St Denis on Friday evening, now a second flight leaving St Denis on Tuesday evening and Chennai on Wednesday morning has been added. This is good news because

• If you can’t afford a full one week leave, you can plan a shorter trip- leave Saturday morning, return Tuesday evening- you will get about 3.5 days at St Denis, which is decent if you can’t afford long leaves
• You can split the journey- like 3 days in St Denis, 3 days in Mauritius

Also Air Austral is now offering connectivity to Mauritius from Chennai via St Denis. The round trip to Mauritius costs around  33000 at its best, similar to what Air Mauritius charges during low season. Air Mauritius offers a direct flight from Chennai to Mauritius while the return flight is one stop via Bengaluru.

However, Multi city option on the air-austral website wasn't working- would have loved to book Chennai-Mauritius + Maurititus-St Denis + St Denis-Chennai.

Air Austral non-stop flights are operated with B737-800 and 777-300 ER. Cheapest fare includes food and baggage but is non refundable. (Date change is allowed with a penalty)

I will probably plan a trip to St Denis sometime in 2019. Let us see.

JetAirways website bug that excited me for a moment

Today while browsing through Jet Airways website, I was shocked for a moment. But unfortunately it was short lived. Read on...

Jet Airways website shows prices for adjacent days while booking a ticket. While I was checking for ticket price to Abu Dhabi, suddenly I saw that ticket price is just INR 2428 on some of the days.  That was impossible- if true, we are in for a jackpot.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the bug was short lived. The website was retaining fares from previous search- I had searched Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Mumbai etc before searching for Chennai-Abu Dhabi. Website was showing Madurai fares for other adjacent dates.

However when I clicked on those dates system did recover and showed me correct increased price. So I wasn't able to book on those dream fares to Abu Dhahi. The joy was short-lived. Still this is a bug Jet Airways team should consider and fix.

Have you ever managed to book on impossibly low fares- known as mistake fares?

Europe trip just got cheaper- Air Italy-Mumbai-Delhi-Milan for 28k return

Your Europe trip just got a bit more cheaper. Air Italy has announced flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Milan in Italy and you can now book round trip ticket for under 30k per person. All the details here.

Mini Europe, Brussels

At present a round trip ticket to Europe typically costs about 30-40k at the minimum. Mumbai-Paris, Delhi Paris or Chennai Paris can be had for around 33-35k at their best on Jet Airways or Air India.

FlyDubai has announced flight to Helsinki and you might get a ticket for around 35k return [details]

Iceland based WOW air had a killer 27k return fare from Delhi to Iceland, but now has gone up a bit to 30-40k.

Most full service airlines charge around 50k for a proper round trip to various destinations in Europe.

Now some good news. Air Italy will begin India operations later this year and is selling tickets to Milan in Italy from Mumbai and Delhi- you can book a round trip ticket for as low as about 28k INR.

But please note the following:

• This 28k is without check in bag- not sure about food. You get 8 kg cabin bag allowance alone. Don't get confused with 27.520 in above picture- it is INR 27520 for round trip per person. These lowest fares were available in the afternoon but not visible now for same dates. Try your luck for various dates. Available for early 2019
• No refund, no change possible
• Flight to Milan will be about 7-8 hours from India- you should be able to hold without food that long if you're trying to save every penny
• Service commences from October 30, 2018
• Air Italy will be using an A332 for India flights, with 2+4+2 economy configuration.
• AirItaly flights are not appearing on OTAs like MMT etc- you've to check directly on AirItaly.com- it isn't the most interactive/friendly site I have seen but works at times. I hope Air Italy tech team fixes this asap. I can already think of half a dozen possible improvements

Got this error too many times

We are not sure how long the promo fares will last- if you're serious about a low cost Europe trip and live close to Mumbai or Delhi, you may wish to book your tickets now. (Wow Air has already increased India Promo fares)

Milan is popular for fashion. Beginning with Milan you can explore lots of southern Europe using schengen visa. MXP (Malpensa) airport into which Air Italy flies is 50 kms from city centre. Switzerland, France etc can be reached by road or bus from Italy.

Also be advised Schengen visa will cost you about 8k and it may not be good idea to travel to Europe in winter- most attractions will be closed and you may not be able to explore much in snow.

Air Italy also offers transatlantic flights via Milan. You can book a ticket from India to New York for about 45k (without food and bag), which is not super cheap but 10-15k cheaper than full service airlines

Air Italy also flies to Miami, Cuba, Egypt , Moscow and few such international destinations, besides flying around to several airports within Italy.

Air Italy fare types- note that there's no mention of food anywhere.

Below is how much various extras will cost on Air Italy?
Meals: Information not available as of now. Trying to get from their twitter handle
23 kg check in bag: INR 4000 (but strangely 2 bags will cost 13k, not 8k)
Seat selection: INR 1600/2600 per seat (standard, 5200-preferred (first row, emergency row etc), per flight.

Delhi n Mumbai airports are bit expensive to operate. If Air Italy can operate from slightly cheaper airports- Pune, Kochi, Chennai etc and can offer return tickets for under 20-25k, they can get great business in my opinion.

Air Italy was formerly known as  Meridiana t and was recently rebranded. It should not be confused with Alitalia, #1 airline in Italy. More history on Wikipedia

Most asked air travel questions on Quora

From what I have observed on Quora since past several months, below are some of the most asked questions related to air travel. Many of these are answered again and again or already available in airline websites, but users find it easier to ask a question on quora than do some checks themselves. Anyway here's a quick compilation of frequently asked questions and a brief answer to them.

1. Do I need transit visa?
I think most first time passengers and many who are flying through a new country face this question. I see dozens of new questions every week asking if they would need a transit visa for a specific flight. As explained in this dedicated post, transit visa is a function of how strong is your passport, if your ticket is on a single PNR and the transit airport concerned. Do read the post for complete details.

2.What kind of food is served on my flight?
Many are curious about this. They need to know if their favorite food is available inflight or not. Unfortunately this question is hard to answer for sure- different airlines have different practices- food varies based on origin-destination, short haul/long haul/ free or paid, aircraft type and so on. While airline website gives some idea, better to check with airline customer care or ask a person who has flown on the same route on same airline.

Note that not all items are carried on board in large quantities- your choice of food may or may not be available at times. Pre-book where possible

2B: Do they serve alcohol on this flight?
This is an important decision making factor for many Indians. Many airlines are in cost cutting mode and have either stopped or reduced quantity of alcohol served. Srilankan has wines for purchase on board. Most full service international airlines do serve, but cabin crew may deny additional serving if they feel you've drunk enough.

3. What are the excess baggage charges?
Again this is a function of airline, fare type, cabin class etc. Airline customer care and websites are the best source for latest and official information on how much you can carry for free and how much you have to pay for excess.

4. How can I cancel/modify for free?
Almost every airline charges for modifying the ticket (changing travel date etc). Some kind of changes are not even permitted- like partial cancellation or sector change, name change. Some airlines/some promo fares will come with strict rules- no change, no refund. Thus again there's no one answer that fits all. While booking a ticket well in advance or at super low fares we should assess the risk- what are the chances I can travel as per plan, what are this airline's rule w.r.t modification, are my information correct etc. If not you will pay heavily. You may read this post to understand various ways you can deal with high cancellation charges.

5. My passport doesn't have second name- what to do?
You repeat first name again in last name field while booking ticket.

6. Which website sells cheapest air tickets?
There is no single website that sells cheap tickets always. Usually it is best to book on airline website except if OTA has some special and genuine offers. Ticket prices are decided by airlines. Travel portals can only manipulate them to a very small extent- usually you might save a few hundred if a travel website has some offers going on- that's about it. Do check multiple sites, do compare on final payment page- as some websites may trick you by showing lower price upfront and increase it before reaching payment page.

7. When should I book to get lowest rates?
Again, booking early doesn't always get you lowest price. The trick is to track the normal, high and lowest possible fares and book when it is at its cheapest. Do read the detailed guide here for booking ultimate cheap tickets. So I repeat again- booking 1 year in advance doesn't guarantee low prices- you need to track the prices and book during a sale or when it is closer to lowest price you've seen.

8. Can I carry this item or that item in my check-in bag, cabin bag?
Travelers wish to know if they can carry food, gold and a host of other stuff in their bags. What can be carried and what can't be carried usually varies depending on country you're heading to. Ask yourself the following questions about the cargo you're planning to carry:

• Does it fit into baggage dimensions specified by airline?
• Is it dangerous? (batteries, ammunition, chemicals etc)
• Does it cause a bio hazard (food and animal products which may contaminate environment)
• Is it explicitly banned from being transported?
• Do I have enough documentation to support this cargo if questioned on its purpose, source and usage?
• Do I carry a risk of customs confiscation by not declaring it (if you're trying to smuggle goods, or try to avoid paying duty etc)

When in doubt, check with airline or airport authorities.

9. Which terminal should I go to?
This a problem with most big cities with multiple airports and terminals. Terminal information is usually not printed very clearly on the ticket or boarding pass, hence creates confusion. However this information can be obtained from airline website/its social media channels or by asking an airport staff. When not sure, factor extra time at airport.

10. Is it safe to fly to Bali this October/November
Because of frequent volcanic eruptions many who have booked their trip to Bali have this question.
Unfortunately no one can predict an airport close in advance. Do read this post to understand implications of volcanic activity. I feel you should go ahead with your trip. Airport closure, if any will be known only in the last minute and airlines will make alternate arrangements, though you might have to face some uncertainty and waiting for a few days. That probability of airport closure happening exactly during your travel dates is very low. Hope for the best.

Complete Flight Attendant training video-Frontier Airlines

Sorry, video has been removed from youtube, so this post is not relevant anymore...

-------------------------------------------------

I stumbled across this video series, of about 18 episodes, detailing a complete 6 week cabin crew training program conducted at US based Frontier Airlines. It is a must watch for air travel enthusiasts- cabin crew are trained for much more than just serving drinks and food- they are trained rigorously for various emergencies. Many get eliminated during the training process for various reasons. I've embedded first episode below- do watch it, youtube will bring along subsequent editions as you watch this.

WOW Air's Interesting Aircraft names

Each aircraft has an identification code, often known as tail number. It is usually a combination of few letters, written somewhere on the aircraft-usually on the back side. Flying passengers don't have to care about the tail number but it is an important identification for the aircraft.

Most airlines don't pay much attention to tail numbers and they are usually a combination of random letters. However, looks like Iceland based WOW Air is paying close attention to their aircraft names. They are selecting the last 3 letters very carefully so that it forms a meaning full name.

WOW Air CEO infront of aircraft TF-MOM, source: wow air website press section

Look at the tail names of WOW Air aircrafts- complete list on their website here

1. TF-WOW, 
2. TF-MOM, 
3. TF-DAD
4. TF-CAT
5. TF-DOG
6. TF-GAY
7. TF-GPA (short for Grand Pa)
8. TF-GMA (Grand Ma)
9. TF-BRO
10. TF-SIS
11. TF-SON
12. TF-SKY
13. TF-KID
14. TF-WIN
15. TF-PRO
16. TF-LUV
17. TF-NOW
18. TF-JOY
19. TF-NEO

And so on...  I felt this is very creative and hence sharing with you.

WOW Air has a fleet of 20 odd Airbus A330s and A320 family aircrafts. WOW Air is awaiting delivery of Airbus A330-900 which they will be deploying to India. Curious to see what name that aircraft will get- May be TF-IND?

Surprisingly they've not used some cool 3 letter names such as ICE, FLY, PET, GOD, PEN, GAS, AIR etc. May be they will use these once they buy more aircrafts.

Looking forward to my flight with WOW air next year, though the online reviews aren't that great. The lowest fare they had advertised on India launch are now gone, but some decent fares are still available for early 2019 travel. Do check on their site.

Above: Tail name of Lufthansa plane for reference- notice that last 2 letters are printed again on top of the rudder, probably for easy spotting from the control tower.

Few other airlines that have interesting aircraft naming practicses

• KLM Mentions names of prominent national parks on its aircrafts to create awareness (Kaziranga is featured on one of their planes)
• Norwegian has photos of prominent artists, scholars and such eminent persons painted on the tail of its aircrafts
• India's Spicejet names each of their aircraft on a spice- like cardamon etc

If you're aware of more such naming practices/interesting names, do comment below.

How to decide if an airline sale is worth? 5 point checklist!

Airlines keep launching sales at regular intervals- we can't afford to keep booking on every sale. We need to identify which sale is worth (i.e cheapest) and which one is superficial. How do we know if a sale is worth or not? How to decide if one should book a ticket on this sale or wait for next one? In this post I share some guidelines which you can apply on any sale and decide for yourself if the sale is worth.

1. Check against lowest benchmark price

For a few popular origin destination pair that you frequently fly or interested in, do keep a track of lowest fare you've ever seen. For example, lowest fare between Chennai and Bengaluru is usually around INR 700, between Chennai and Kochi is around INR 1000, between Chennai and Australia is around 10000 (all one way fares, excluding convenience fee) and so on. I have a list in this post, but you can create and maintain one for destinations of your choice. It takes some time, effort and trial and error to identify absolute bottom price possible for any origin-destination.

I picked up this habit from Bata sale. Every other day, they advertise a sale offering as much as 70-80% discount. But there'll be no discount on Rs 50 Hawai chappals. Discounts are only on fancy shoes and chappals whose correct price is hard to predict and are often inflated to give discount. 80% off sale means nothing to me if I can't buy a Rs 50 Hawaii chappal at discount, whereas even 10% discount on Hawai chappal means it is a genuine deal for me, because I know the original price of the product.

During the sale, check prices for these destinations for which you know the lowest price already. If the sale price is cheaper or at least closer to the lowest price you've seen in the past, then the sale is good and worth booking.

2. Check price for non-competitive routes.
Indigo doesn't have a competition on Chennai-Tuticorin sector. Spicejet has no competition on Hyderabad-Pondichery sector. Check the price for such sectors. If the sale price is lower than regular prices even for sectors where there's no competition, then usually the sale is good. Otherwise the sale could be only to catch up with competition prices.

3. Check travel duration-longer the better

When a sale is launched, usually there’re two date ranges- Book by- say from today till next 4 days and travel by- say from today till 3 months from now or 9 months from now. Pay close attention to this “travel by date”. If it is far away- for example, today is 6^th July and an airline sale is allowing booking till March next year, then ticket prices will be reasonably cheap towards the end of sale period- Feb/March next year. If travel duration is very short time- like next few months only, then fares are not very likely to super cheap

From my experience, sale with longer travel by dates are usually much better than sales that try to fill up seats near term.

4. Who launched the sale first?

Check if the particular airline was the first to launch a sale or they’re launching only because competition is also launching a sale. If Indigo launches a sale one day after Spicejet sale, the objective is primarily to match Spicejet rate and not lose out on customers, than selling deep discounted seats. Thus the sale may not really be exciting.

5. Check for terms and conditions
Always check additional terms and conditions that come with a sale- such as no refund, no change allowed, increased convenience fees, less than standard loyalty miles etc and ensure that you're comfortable with these. If you're not comfortable with these, may be you should wait and book normal fares even if it is a bit expensive.

I apply above 5 checks whenever a sale is announced and book only if I feel the sale is good enough. Now that you know the secret on how to eliminate not so good 'sales' best wishes.

Also read: 10 factors that influence airline tickets

Cathay Pacific bonus miles on 10 years of Chennai Operations

Hong Kong based Cathay Pacific is completing 10 years of operations from Chennai Airport. I was expecting some discounted rates but they are offering bonus miles instead. Also travel duration is kept very short- one has to fly before mid August which means one has to spend more, compared to a well planned cheaper ticket booked 6-9 months ago

1000 miles in economy is not a huge number. There's a risk that it will expire if you don't earn enough miles overall and redeem it in time. In a sense about to expire miles trap customers into booking more flights. Works out usually only for frequent flyers. If it was a discount sale instead of bonus miles, more people could have benefited.

Valid for bookings till 15th July and flights before 15th August. Not valid for Hong Kong, valid only for long haul destinations to US, Australia etc. Do check if it excites you.

Nonetheless, best wishes to them on completing 10 years of Chennai operations. Hopefully they will run more discounts and sales so that flying Cathay makes economical sense over Emirates or Etihad or Qatar.

Star Air Updates- aircraft has arrived, launch in few days?:

I had originally written about Sanjay Ghodawat group's star air in March 2018. Couple of months since then, some more details have emerged.

1. The aircraft has arrived

The official twitter handle has tweeted a short video of StarAir’s aircraft. It is a ERJ-145 or Embraer jet which can seat roughly 50 people in a 2+1 configuration. This is smaller than Embraer E 170 used by Air Costa

Our planes have arrived! It is just a matter of days now, before we begin our flight services. #StarAir #SanjayGhodawatGroup #Airlines #LaunchingSoon pic.twitter.com/i9YUwfcg4v

— Star Air (@OfficialStarAir) July 4, 2018

2 Airline Code SA is used by South African Airlines

Star Air website suggests they will have an airline code SA (Refer screen shot below)- but SA is already taken- by South African Airways. So we need to see what code Star Air gets

3 Branding- There’s already an airline named Star Air based in Denmark, owned by Maersk Group. Ghodawat group needs to ensure that they don’t violate international trademarks, particularly if they ever plan to fly international in long run. Selecting an existing name and fighting legal battle may not be worth it. Check this and this

4 Updated website:

The official website, starair.in is updated a bit- it shows origins and destinations, some sections for various operations related to your flight- like status check, manage booking etc. Of course website is not fully functional as the airline hasn’t begun operations.

Few more days to launch?

Star Air’s social media accounts claim airline is just a few days away from launch. We hope so and look forward to the new airline.

Flight Number Iran Air 655- not retired

30 years ago, on July 3, 1988, US Navy warship shot down a civilian aircraft belonging to Iran Air, that had flight number IR655 flying from Bandar Abbas to Dubai. US Navy mistook it for a F14 fighter jet and shot it down with two surface to air missiles. You can watch the entire episode on the youtube video below. More details on Wikipedia and this Washington post article.

However, I was surprised to see that Iran air has not retired the flight number. It is a normal practice for airlines to discontinue a flight number that has met with major accident. For example, there’s no longer MH370 or MH17 or AF447. These numbers are retired after the accident and some other numbers are used for flights on the same route. But IR655 is not retired. Iran air is using the number for flight between Dubai and Tehran- may be to keep the memory of the incident alive.

There were 10 Indian nationals onboard IR655 that was shot down.

Spicejet Mega Monsoon Sale

Spicejet is currently running a sale- but the prices are not exciting enough for me. Typically in a major sale short haul flights like Chennai-Bengaluru are priced around 700 INR. Inclusive of convenience fee if I can fly short distance like Chennai-Coimbatore etc for around INR 2000 then I consider the sale as very good. We can fly to a destination for the price of an AC bus ticket then it is great. But current spicejet sale, recently concluded Indigo sale all had these ticket prices at a much higher level, because of which the sale wasn’t exciting to me. Sometimes airlines launch a sale for the sake or a sale or because competition is doing a sale, without real significant price cuts. We should have  some benchmark pricing so that we can detect if a sale price is cheap enough or not.

Nonetheless, do check if you have some travel plans before 8^th October- you might be saving a few hundred rupees.

Europe’s new Low Cost Airline- Level

Europe based IAG group, that operates British Airways, Iberia and Vueling has launched a new airline in record time. The airline is called “Level” and its website flylevel.com is already operational. Level is scheduled to begin flights out of Austria (Vienna) from July 17^th, 2018, flying to 14 European destinations in the early phase. First set of flights will be to Palma (Spain) and London Gatwick. Level is said to have got four Airbus A320 from its parent group for its initial operations. Level will compete with EasyJet and RyanAir with super cheap fares. Level’s starting fares are expected to be less than 25 Euros one way.

Level is being launched in record time- from concept to execution. Being part of a large airline group has helped I guess.

Level’s official website- flylevel.com is already up and running. However, at present for any destination I try, the website was directing me to partner airline websites- of Iberia, Vueling etc, even for Vienna-London Gatwick flight late July.

Hopefully once fully operational flying to Europe from India might get a bit cheaper- if we can fly BA to London and fly to final destination on Level. But at present BA flies to London Heathrow from most Indian cities while Level flies out of Gatwick.

Related: Ryanair review * Comparison of 7 European airlines *