Air France Sale: Delhi-Helsinki (Finland, Europe) return for 30k INR

Air France is running a sale, on for next 10 days.

You may be able to find tempting fares to Europe- I spotted a Delhi-Helsinki (Finland) return fare for 30624.

Above dates are 7 weeks apart, ideal for long trip to Europe. Try for more date combinations that suits your needs.

Similarly you will be able to find return ticket to Europe at around 35k from Delhi and Mumbai. A bit difficult but if you are flexible with date and destination, you can spot onward fare under 15-20k and return fares around 20k.

Please be advised Air France's cheapest ticket doesn't include check-in bag. Meals are included. Also lowest fare tickets are non refundable, but dates can be changed for a fee and fare difference.

Once you enter any destination in Europe's schengen area you can fly around using cheap tickets on Easyjet, Ryanair or other airlines.

Give it a try if you have Europe plans this year. Visit https://wwws.airfrance.co.in/

Read: Air France Premium Economy experience *

My Helsinki posts: Old dockyard * Helsinki Cathedral * Kamppi Chapel * Uspenski Cathedral * Helsinki Cathedral and senator square * Friendly squirrels * Rock church * 

Railofy Guaranteed Travel-Flight tickets for train WL/RAC

Railofy is a new startup in town promising guaranteed travel even if your train ticket is not confirmed. For a nominal fee, you can get a flight ticket to your destination.


What does Railofy's Guaranteed Travel scheme cost you?

• Your regular train fare, which will be refunded if PNR remains in WL till chart preparation (not if it moves to RAC)
• Travel Guarantee Fee for Railofy - this is a non refundable amount- like an insurance premium- if your train ticket is confirmed, this money is lost. Starts at INR 50, was INR 828 for Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
• Discounted Flight Charge- This is the additional amount you've to pay, if your train ticket is not confirmed and you'd prefer to fly. Supposed to be lot cheaper than booking a flight ticket directly with airlines last minute. The exact amount is not specified and will probably vary depending on multiple factors. But Railofy website says for infants a fixed fee of INR 1500 will be charged, so my guess is adults will have to pay more.

How does Railofy Guaranteed Travel work?
When you book a train ticket, if it is WL or RAC and you don't think it will get confirmed, you can login to Raiofy, enter your PNR and purchase your travel guarantee. This amount could be as high as INR 800-900

Indian Railways prepares chart 4 hours prior to scheduled departure. Once chart is made you will know if your PNR is confirmed or RAC or still in WL.

• Possibility 1: Ticket is confirmed: You have to travel on trail, amount paid to Railofy for Guaranteed travel is lost.
• Possibility 2: Your ticket is RAC. If you have purchased RAC Guaranteed travel, you can pay for flight amount and get a flight or forget it and travel in train RAC
• Possibility 3: Your ticket is still in Wait List. Railways will refund your ticket fare automatically. Now you've to decide in 30 minutes if you'd like to take the flight. If you prefer to take a flight you have to immediately pay the predefined amount. Railofy promises to put you on a flight within 24 hours of train departure time. Don't think you will have choice of airline or timing, but you can reach your destination for lot less than what a last minute flight ticket would have cost you.

Points to note: 

• Service is available for AC tickets only. Not for sleeper, second sitting or general category tickets. If 1000s of sleeper class passengers apply, there is not enough airline seats to offer. With a small number of AC passengers it is easier to find them a flight.
• Only tickets purchased minimum 2 calendar days prior to date of departure qualify.
• Railofy's Guaranteed Travel is available in select sectors only- particularly the popular sectors having multiple direct flights and high probability of some seats remaining empty.
• You can't head direct to airport- RailoFy's promise is they will offer a flight within a reasonable time frame (max 24 hours from train departure time). 
• You have to pay the flight charges amount in a short span of time- just about 30 mins of railway chart preparation. If you take more time, no cheap flight for you and travel guarantee becomes null and void.

What do I think of Railofy's service?

In theory it is a good service- airlines get their empty seats filled, train passengers can travel for sure and Railofy gets to make money on every PNR irrespective of flight ticket had to be given or not.

But there are some limitations:

1. Airlines sell initial few seats on each flight for a discounted price, hopping there is some load and loss is compensated by last minute travelers who pay a premium.  If railofy's model really really succeeds, everyone will head to book train tickets instead of flight tickets, hoping to get cheaper than normal flight tickets last moment. This will be bad for airline industry. 

2. Service is restricted to AC sleeper passengers only, which is probably 20-25% of train passengers. For example, if you see below details of Kaveri Express that runs between Chennai and Mysuru, it has only 5 AC coaches, 14 sleeper class coaches and few general class coaches. That is, less than 300 people travel in AC coaches while about 1000 people travel in sleeper class and may be another 200-300 people are stuffed in General class. This means Railofy's service caters to about 300/1300 = less than 25% of train travelers. Of course there are some all AC trains like Shatabdi or Double Decker, but Railofy's website doesn't say AC Chair car passengers qualify.

3. The amounts are kept secret- Unless you spend and book a train ticket, you can't see how much is Travel Guarantee Fee and how much is the flight charge. If the net savings are not significant, one might as well spend a few hundred more and book a flight ticket.  Will be good if they can make public an approximate pricing for major sectors.

May be today the travel guarantee fee and flight fare are low. But will they sustain it or like most startups offer discounted rates in the beginning and later start increasing the prices.

4. Short window: Once chart is prepared and your PNR doesn't get confirmed, you have about 30 minutes to decide if you want to take the flight with Railofy. Not enough time to research alternate options, particularly you are not free exactly when chart is prepared. If you don't pay for flight ticket within this short span, you lose your travel guarantee. I feel 90 to 120 minutes is the reasonable time passengers should be given to decide if they want to take the flight from Railofy or not.

5. 24 hour flight guarantee- Railofy promises your flight will take off within 24 hours of original train departure time. For short overnight journeys, this would still disrupt your plan by a day.

A price comparison for reference: 
For first class passengers, the difference is not very huge- they might get a flight ticket for the same price of a 1st AC ticket- particularly if one can plan a week in advance. For 3rd AC passengers if they can get flight for same price as 3rd AC, then there will be good savings.

#	Sector	1st AC fare	3rd AC fare INR	Flight fare 4 days prior	Last minute flight fare (previous day booking)	Railofy Travel Guarantee (no refund)	Railofy discounted flight fare	Railofy Total
1	Mumbai-Ahmadabad	2100	1200	3600	7000	828	1500	2238
2	Chennai-Hyderabad	2600	1100	3600	4000
3	Bengaluru-Mumbai	3500	1400	3500	3500-4500
4	Kolkata-Delhi	4900	2800	6000	6000
5	Mumbai-Chennai	3800	1600	5000	5000
6	Mumbai-Delhi	4800	2800	5000	5000-5500

Railofy Sample screenshot- Thanks to Rishab Shah for the input.

If your ticket gets confirmed you lose INR 828, else you can reach Ahmendabad for about INR 2400, which is a good deal. Still, it is a good option- there will be some people who may find Railofy's service valuable. They are offering a new solution, let us wait and see how traveling passengers respond. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts and feedback if you have used Railofy's service.

Travel guarantee was NOT available for Bengaluru-Chennai, Mumbai-Delhi (was strange), Pune-Bhuj, NED-SBC, Rameshwaram sectors my friends tried. Thanks to my friends Karthik Kannan, Alka Kaushik, Sharath Babu, Travel MG, Deepak Majipatil, Umashree Raghunath and Rishab Shah for assisting in research.

How does Railofy make money?
Travel guarantee fee is a guaranteed income to Railofy irrespective of customer's train gets confirmed or not.

My feedback on Railofy:

• Please make Travel Guarantee Fee and Railofy Discounted fares public for more transparency
• Increase payment window from 30 mins to 90 or 120 minutes
• Extend service to NON AC sleeper passengers, may be charge them a bit more for flight tickets
• Indian Railway is huge. Be very clear which sector you are supporting. People will try for their ticket, see that it is not supported and may not return. If available only for say ex-Mumbai, call it out. Saves time for everyone else.

Best wishes to the new venture. Visit https://www.railofy.com/

Similar posts: Long distance sleeper class experience in India * Mihuru.com review *

Trujet Bengaluru-Bidar flight for the price of bus ticket

Bidar is Karnataka's top most district and farthest from Bengaluru. Reaching Bidar by bus takes a massive 15 hours and AC bus tickets cost around 1000-1200 INR.

Now there is a new way to reach Bidar from Bengaluru

Trujet is launching Bengaluru to Bidar flight from 7th February 2020. The inaugural flight is marked as sold out. But for rest of the days, the ticket has been priced at just INR 999+ 300 convenience fee, totaling to INR 1299, almost same as KSRTC Volvo bus fare. I suspect this is the launch fare and may not last long. If you have any thoughts of exploring Bidar and nearby places, go grab a ticket on Trujet before the prices go up. As seats fill up, prices shoot up to INR 1500 to 3000.

I have some doubts on the airport code used by Trujet. BDR is already assigned to an existing airport in Connecticut, USA. Hopefully correct airport code will be assigned before the flight begins.

Bidar is just 150 kms from Hyderabad. Bidar has a fort and a Gurudwara.

After recent Star air flight to Kulburgi, Trujet flight to Bidar will offer lots of convenience to people of North Karnataka. I wish all the best for this new route.

Related: My 2006 visit to Bidar from Hyderabad

Ethiopean launching Chennai flights from April

After starting flights to Bengaluru last year, Ethiopian is planning flights between Chennai and Addis Ababa from April 3rd, 2020

Unfortunately, like ADD-BLR flight, Ethiopian has priced a return ticket at 50k INR between Chennai and Addis Ababa. For 50k we can go to Paris, UK, Japan or even US so it is not very tempting to visit Ethiopia by spending so much. I would have appreciated a return ticket fare at around 25-30k. Let us see if they drop the fares like they did with BLR (Started at around 68k return and then dropped to a more reasonable 45k- read this and this). Even at 50k it is still one of the cheapest flights to Addis Ababa if you are particular about visiting it, but for other one stop destinations in Africa you might find a more cheaper option than Ethiopian.

Ethiopian is operating a Dreamliner to Chennai and frequency is 3 times a week. (Friday, Monday, Wednesday)

But then, one stop flights via ADD to other places in Africa are a bit cheaper than flying just to Addis Ababa.

You can fly Chennai-Seychelles return for 41k, Chennai-Nairobi return for 37k etc. Not very cheap compared to ex-Mumbai fares but since Chennai doesn't have too many connections to Africa these are Ok fares.

Best wishes to Ethiopian's Chennai launch. Are you excited about it?

Helicopter service from Dharamshala to Shimla

When at Kangra's Gaggal Airport, I saw this- helicopter service from Dharamshala to Chandigarh and Shimla. This Himachal heli taxi service will be useful to those who value time and don't mind spending a few thousand rupees extra.

Heli taxi service operates on a pre-defined schedule and max passengers are six per helicopter. Fares start at INR 4000 including taxes (for Shimla) and about 7000 INR for Chandigarh.

Passenger weight need to be specified during booking and it looks like max 10 kg baggage is allowed per person (baggage weight selector column isn't showing more than 10)

Visit https://booking.pawanhans.co.in/ for bookings. Helicopter taxi service is also available in few other parts of India.

How to select most reliable flight? 5 tips!

You have to fly to a destination and looking to book flight tickets. Besides ticket price, next biggest concern is reliability. You don't want to face a delay and miss your meetings or connecting flights. But there's no way to predict a delay weeks in advance. We usually book in good faith that our flight operates on time. However lots of things change dynamically and even most trusted airlines can face issues. In this post, I am sharing a set of factors that you can consider to minimize the probability of selecting a flight that may get delayed.

Check 1: Check on time performance of a flight.
Websites like Flightstats.com or Flightradar24 help you identify on-time performance record of any flight. For example, for a flight between Chennai and Delhi, based on historical data, Air India flight only has 72% on-time performance with 21% probability of major delay. Whereas Vistara has operated on time 92% of the time. Though past track record doesn't guarantee your particular flight will operate on time or will face a delay, it is a fair basis to make a decision. In this case, I will put my bet on Vistara

 

Check 2: Airport Conditions

During winter, fog can cause delays and diversions for early morning flights. Mid day flights may operate normally.

News on airport closures - due to runway maintenance, security reasons (like Republic day parade in Delhi) will give an idea on possible impact on your flights.

If you are flying into busy airport with known causes for concern (fogs, shutdowns) either keep enough buffer or where possible fly in previous day.

Check 3: Time of the day

This is usually true for domestic flights in India. Early morning flights are usually on time while evening flights have more probability of delay. This is due to accumulation of minor delays throughout the day as aircraft hops around the country.

Example: Indigo's 6E2652 4.30 AM flight to Delhi has 93% on time performance while the 8.45 PM flight to Delhi 6E 5005 only has 27% on time performance.

Interpretation:

If you are flying out to international destinations, best to start with early morning domestic flights connecting to an afternoon/evening international flight, than taking an evening flight out with a very tight connection time.

Do expect more delays on evening flights in general.

Check 4: Plan B in case of cancellation

Flights get cancelled at times due to variety of reasons- aircraft mechanical issues, crew shortage, weather and so on. This is hard to predict but you can check what would be your next option if the flight is to be cancelled.

For example, Indigo has about 12 flights a day between Chennai and Delhi. If one of them are to be cancelled, very likely you will be put on next flight within 2-3 hours without any major delay. But Vistara has only 2 flights to Delhi from Chennai- if you are to miss the morning one, next one is in the evening. Or you've to request one stop via Mumbai. 

Sometimes if destination has very few flights you can't worry so much. But when you have an option, select an airline that has a possible second flight/alternate option that isn't a major inconvenience for you in case your flight is cancelled.

Check 5: Aircraft type

Larger the aircraft type, larger the possibility of a delay. For example, Air India operates some aircrafts on international route, as well as domestic route. A long haul inbound flight has higher probability of delay which will affect next domestic flight. Comparatively a small ATR that keeps flying in a small region has higher on time performance. Again this is hard to predict. It will be foolishness to avoid booking on a Dreamliner and book on ATR- when you have an option. But just try to guess the previous flight of your aircraft and check its on time performance to assess possible impact on your flight.

Vistara Anniversary Sale-Few good deals

Vistara is running its anniversary sale, valid for 2 days only (9th and 10th January).

Some of the cheap tickets I could spot are as follows:

Chennai-Port Blair return for about 6k INR

Other low fares I could spot..

• Delhi-Singapore return for about 20k
• Mumbai-Delhi return for about 6k
• Delhi-Bangkok return for about 15k

I checked Mumbai-Colombo for few date combinations- couldn't find any flights. Mumbai- Dubai wasn't cheap enough for the dates I checked.

Check for destinations and dates you have in mind- you might get a good deal.

Other Air Vistara posts: Premium Economy Experience * Vistara using Oxo-biodegradable plastic 

Longest flights from India to world!

At present world's longest flight is between Singapore and EWR (New York) and Doha-Auckland both approx 18-19 hours depending on wind and other factors. Qantas is working on Project Sunrise, which aims to connect Australian cities non stop to all big cities around the world- like London, New York etc, which would mean 20-22 hours+ flights which are currently in trial phase.

What are the longest flights one can take from India? At present the longest flight you can take from India are between 15 and 16 hours- between Delhi/Mumbai and US cities such as New York (EWR), SFO or Washington. Air India is operating most of these ultra long haul flights with United, Air Canada and Delta offering a few alternatives.

#	From	To	Duration	Airline	Aircraft
1	DEL	SFO	16 hours	Air India	B777-200 LR
2	BOM	EWR (New York)	15.55 hours	Air India	B777-300
3	DEL	SFO	15.45	United	B787-9
4	DEL	Chicago ORD	15.35	Air India	B777-300
5	BOM	EWR/JFK New York	15.30	United, Delta	B777-300 B777-200 LR

• There is also direct flight to Vancouver BC from Delhi, which is a bit shorter at 14+ hours (takes the pacific route instead of trans Atlantic route)
• Air India also operates a 12 hour flight to Sydney, Australia from Delhi. 
• Japan has direct flights from various Indian cities- about 10-11 hours flight.
• We don't have any direct flights between India and South American countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia etc.
• Except one Dreamliner operated by United between DEL and SFO, all are Boeing 777s. As per this report Air India might be using 787-8 on Delhi-Washington route on some of the days