NOK Air India operation may give competition to AirAsia

Thailand’s budget airline NOK Air, known for its colourful aircraft nose paintings is said to consider flying to India. Besides numerous destinations within Thailand, NOK air already has limited international presence as it flies to few cities in Vietnam, Japan, Myanmar and China.

Contextual Image- NOK Air Tail fin at DMK

It is not yet clear which Indian airport NOK Air will start operation with. Would they begin from cheapest airports like Chennai, or most popular ones like Mumbai, Del or multiple airports? We’ll have to wait and see. If they choose to fly from Bengaluru or COK and if I can get a return ticket for 15k or less, I will plan a trip to Thailand for late 2020. I have seen most of Thailand but can always make another trip to some lesser known destinations. Flights to Thailand are now costing around 20-30k return. The pre-pandemic rates are still a dream. Arrival of NOK air and resumption of Air Asia Malaysia might help in lowering the prices.

Will keep you posted as I get any update.

Srilanka crisis-is it safe to book Srilankan airline?

Sri Lanka as a nation is in deep crisis. However does it mean we should not fly Srilankan? Srilanka’s national airline is operating almost normally and its scheduled flights are flying. 

I did check flightstats to check if Srilankan flights are operating normally or not. Most flights seem to be operating normally

Is Srilankan a  cheaper option to fly? Yes

• Chennai-Melbourne : Srilankan: 66k , Next best option: 76k INR
• Mumbai-Seychelles: Srilankan: 34k INR Next best option: 58k INR
• For many other places Srilankan flies to, their rates could be competitive

Thus we can see that Srilankan is selling tickets for cheap. Many countries have issued travel advisory suggesting their citizens should not visit Srilanka. However there are no red flags on transit via Srilankan as of now. It might be a good idea to save some money and book Srilankan- while now is not the best time for visiting Srilanka, just a transit via Colombo airport should be fine.

Risks:

There is still some risk that your trip may be spoiled if unexpected things happen- like 

• some unrest in Colombo airport or 
• airport running out of fuel stock to refuel planes- happening already- Srilankan is filling their planes in India
• some major Govt decision affecting travel via Govt etc
• flights having to be canceled because the crew couldn’t reach the airport or some spare part couldn’t be procured etc. 

However hopefully nothing like these happens and your travel goes through. If you can take some minimum risk like above against the reward of saving a few thousand rupees on your flight ticket. Go ahead and book Srilankan. Even if you book the next best airline in the world there is no guarantee that there won’t be a single issue during your trip. Travel always involves some risk, so I would take some calculated risk if savings are good.

There are talks of privatizing Srilankan airline to raise money. But I guess that process will take a long time. Hopefully Airline won’t face issues like having to cannibalize planes for spare parts, start canceling trips etc which are not good for the airline valuation, PR and passenger experience.

When I tweeted this, majority preferred not to book srilankan

Given the Srilanka crisis, is it safe to fly @flysrilankan if their tickets are cheap? My thoughts here https://t.co/Vi7T6oFzXR .. what are yours? #airlineblog

— Shrinidhi Hande (@enidhi) May 27, 2022

What are your thoughts? Are you comfortable flying with Srilankan if the tickets are cheaper?

Similar: Srilankan reward experience * Srilankan long haul experience * My experience with Srilankan * My Srilanka related blog posts *

Easemytrip full refund-things to know

 Easemytrip is advertising that customers can get full refund of their flight tickets in case of medical emergencies. While this looks exciting, it is important to know the finer details. This post shares you key information you should know about Easemytrip full refund coverage

1. Full refund is limited to a maximum of 5000 INR. This would have worked few years back when most domestic flights were selling for less than 5000. But at present,most destinations cost more than 5000. So except for some short sectors where ticket price was less, don’t expect full refund if your ticket is costing 6000-12000 INR

2. Only for domestic flights

3. There is no extra fee for this. I was thinking there could be an extra charge while booking to be eligible for free refunds. But as of now there is no extra charge.

4. Claim is eligible only in case of specific scenarios called out in this doc. (deaths in family, passport loss, contingencies etc) https://www.easemytrip.com/pdf/Domestic-Flight-Cancellation-Insurance.pdf You have to wait for airline to refund whatever they refund and then for the balance you’ve to claim with insurance company with all the paperwork.

5. Convenience fee will still be deducted. So it is not 100%, maybe 90% at best.

6. The claim process is not explained in the doc. My guess is you’ve to submit a pile of paperwork, wait for the airline to refund whatever they refund and then wait for Easemytrip team to process your request. No timeline has been committed for claim processing

7. Not sure what happens if airline takes their own sweet time to process refund. Many airlines have still not refunded for 2020 pandemic flight cancellations.

If your ticket had cost 9000 INR and airline refunds 4000, you can claim another 1000 minus convenience fee (may be around 300-400 INR) from Easemytrip full refund. If ticket cost is 4500, airline refunds nothing, you will get 4500 minus convenience fee, some 4000 INR from this scheme.

Is this a good idea then? 

As there is no extra charge for this, you can try it out. Book through easemytrip and select a full medical refund policy. If you happen to encounter such a situation then hope that you get a little more money back than what you would have otherwise got.

Would Akasa & Jet Airways lower air travel prices

 Domestic and international travel from India is currently 2-3x more expensive than average prices pre-covid. Bengaluru Mumbai round trip now costs 10k as against 5-6k pre-covid. Mangaluru-Delhi return is 15k, more than what I am paying for Mumbai-Vietnam.

Would domestic travel air ticket prices come down in the second half of 2022? I see some hope due to following reasons

• Akasa and Jet Airways launch: With two new airlines commencing operations, there will be more capacity, more options to passengers and this hopefully brings prices down. Both Jet and Akasa would be starting small with just a few planes so the impact is not going to be huge, but it is psychological. If passengers get an impression that Jet/AKasa are cheaper options then their dislike towards competition will build up.
• Holiday season over. With summer over, schools starting and monsoon beginning, the peak season is over. Holiday travel demand will be cold till at least October/November. With demand dropping, airlines might be forced to drop prices a bit
• More international options open up: As more and more international destinations open up and affordable prices resume, demand for domestic holidays will drop a bit. If going to Delhi and going to Maldives/Vietnam both cost 15k, many would prefer international trips. Again, drop in demand will force airlines to cut prices.

What do you think?

Fly to Vietnam from Mumbai 15k return on VietjetAir

VietJet, Vietnam's popular airline also dubbed as Bikini Airline, has announced resumption of flights to India. At present airline is offering India-Vietnam return tickets for under 15k INR.

Cheapest fares are available for Phu Quoc (Airport code PQC), a small island in Vietnam. You can try for Hanoi or Saigon (HCMC) for a few dollars more.

Flights scheduled to start from September 2022. Hopefully no new wave/restrictions by then. You've to take a risk that everything goes well and you can fly. 

This is the cheapest fare category with no checked in baggage or meals. All those would cost extra.

Non refundable as well. So proceed with caution. Try on vietjetair.com

Vietjet extras:

• Luxury seats, emergency exit row seats 11 USD
• Other front row seats: 6.77 USD, standard seats: 3.7 USD
• Baggage: 15 KG = 19 USD
• Meals 6.07 USD

Update: I've booked a ticket for myself. Details here

Besides return fare which could be as low as 179 USD, there is a 10 USD utility fee and your bank may charge a bit for international transactions. My return ticket cost me INR 15219.37 in total. Might vary a bit for you depending on bank, forex charges and other aspects.

Vietnam detailed travel guide here