enjoystravel
Aug 5, 02, 2:27 am
I must apologize for never completing the work I started a while ago in compiling links and info on travel to India. Changed computers and laptops along the way and lost most of my past work.
Here are some quick notes from recent experiences categorized randomly. Will add to them over time.
Getting There:
-------------
The main international gateways are Mumbai/Bombay (BOM), Delhi (DEL) Chennai/Madras (MAA), Calcutta/Kolkata (CCU), Bangalore (BLR), Hyderabad.
Some of the major airlines that fly directly or under code share include: SQ, BA, CX, LH, NW/KLM, Swiss, JAL, Thai, UA (currently codeshares), QF (currently cancelled?), AF/DL, Air India, MH, Asiana, Emerites, Sri Lankan, GulfAir, etc.
A good part of the traffic via BOM/DEL/MAA is often to BLR. LH is the only major that flies direct to BLR from FRA (and UA codeshares it). SQ now has rights to fly to BLR from SIN and hopes to start service in the winter 2002 schedule. Their subsidiary Silk Air has flts to Hyderabad.
For Oneworld Travel:
------------------
BA, CX operate flts to India. AA operates a codeshare on Swiss via ZRH. QF used to fly until recently and may be introducing flts again. As is true of most intnl tix, you get best economy rates via ethnic travel agents that specialize in this region. Make sure you ask for fares that earn FF miles otherwise most of the low fares offered are deep discount consolidator fares (unpublished and therefore do not earn miles). For last minute travel, do not use online travel giants but use specialist mom and pops. Reputed TAs operate wherever there are large Indian immigrant groups (New York, Chicago, LA, Bay Area, Boston, Houston, etc.). They usually advertise in the Sunday travel sections and ethnic magazines (India Currents, India Abroad, etc.). For Biz or F fares, your best bet is an RTW fare (originating in Canada and ticketed in Canada). You can alternatively go one-way to India and find better fares from there (assuming you travel to India regularly).
It is usually a waste to search on Travelocity or Expedia directly for Point to Point fares in the last minute. If you are looking for West Coast fares, try multi-city search on OW carriers via LHR or HKG or SIN. BA will show much better rates if you look for SFO-LHR, LHR-BOM/DEL rather than SFO-BOM/DEL.
AA now has a codeshare flt (Swiss) into DEL via ZRH. Fares are high on their codeshare but fares directly from Swiss (via specialist travel agents) are much better. You can get mileage earning economy fares on CX or BA for about $1200 from the US West Coast and $900 from East Coast.
You can easily become an AA Gold and even AA Platinum using the Gold and Platinum challenges while travelling to India (check www.fewmiles.net (http://www.fewmiles.net) for details on the challenge). In premium class you get the needed q-points in one trip. Make sure you fly AA to LHR, and then BA to India or CX on appropriate fare that earns q-pts.
If you originate travel in India you can get a lot of BA tier points by purchasing a $4K 3 continent DONEW3 or a slightly more expensive 4 and 5 continent ticketes. Look for ideas in the OneWorld bulleting board. A sample route is BOM-HKG-CMB -HKG-LHR-DXB -LHR-MAD-LHR-SFO, -NYC-DFW-yyy- zzz-xxx-NYC-HKG-BOM. Note that HKG-BOM/CMB is not daily so you have to tweak the schedules. OneWorld does not restrict multiple stop overs in the same city and allows backtracking within a continent - neat features that can help you in many routings.
BA has the most flts out of India of all OW partners - They fly out of BOM (daily), DEL (daily), MAA (select days a week), Calcutta (select days a week). Service is on a 747 on all routes except a 777 service to Calcutta. I believe there is now Economy Plus service on all BA routes to India (I have only flown biz or F in the last one year) so you have 4 class service. Economy on BA (which I did fly a little while ago) is often crowded (booked full to MAA) and they are very strict about the weight of carryons. There are far too many seniors and wheel chairs so do not expect any special attention. BA is good about helping parents travelling with kids.
Star Alliance
--------------
Star RTW rates in Biz/F from India are competitive with OneWorld. They are mileage based as opposed to the choice of mileage based/continent model of OW. Also, Star limits multiple stopovers. If you are loyal to Star network they do have good service to India through SQ, LH, UA (currently on LH codeshares and in the past on their own metal), Thai, etc. SQ has been developing the Indian market aggressively over the years. With their 49% stake in Virgin and codeshares with Air India (AI?) and linkages with Indian Airlines (IC) they service the Indian market very well.
SkyTeam
--------
They are very focused on growing the Indian market. Some of the senior corporate leaders of Delta and AF have been visiting India to develop this market. They have service through CDG (DL has its code shares on all AF flts).
Award Travel
------------
Peak travel season is summer (June-Aug) and Dec/Jan travel. Need to book well in advance.
BA has good award travel to India. They have better availability to their own EC members than to OW partners. For example, as an AA EXP I did not have any availability in Aug 2002 for any class of service to India via BA (with 1 week notice) whereas with BA Gold, I pretty much had availability on all classes on all days (had to choose DEL over BOM or MAA).
NW/KLM has decent award travel to India. They fly to BOM/DEL.
Other Airlines
---------------
Virgin flies a few times a week from LHR-India (using Air India's rights) and has been fighting with the Indian govt to increase its frequency at better code share terms (currently they give about 50 or so free seats on each flt to Air India to sell under Air India's flt numbers).
Emerites has been increasing their foot print in India through direct flts beyond BOM and DEL. Their partner Srilanka Airlines allows them to collect some BLR-LHR traffice as well. They do not have service to North America from India yet but expect to start this early 2003.
Air India is planning to increase its flts to North America and Europe (via Paris and Frankfurt and LHR if things work out). They are looking to lease additional equipment to service these markets again after abandoning them during a recent restructuring. They have 2 for 1 special in premier class or fullfare economy but that promotion expires soon.
Here are some quick notes from recent experiences categorized randomly. Will add to them over time.
Getting There:
-------------
The main international gateways are Mumbai/Bombay (BOM), Delhi (DEL) Chennai/Madras (MAA), Calcutta/Kolkata (CCU), Bangalore (BLR), Hyderabad.
Some of the major airlines that fly directly or under code share include: SQ, BA, CX, LH, NW/KLM, Swiss, JAL, Thai, UA (currently codeshares), QF (currently cancelled?), AF/DL, Air India, MH, Asiana, Emerites, Sri Lankan, GulfAir, etc.
A good part of the traffic via BOM/DEL/MAA is often to BLR. LH is the only major that flies direct to BLR from FRA (and UA codeshares it). SQ now has rights to fly to BLR from SIN and hopes to start service in the winter 2002 schedule. Their subsidiary Silk Air has flts to Hyderabad.
For Oneworld Travel:
------------------
BA, CX operate flts to India. AA operates a codeshare on Swiss via ZRH. QF used to fly until recently and may be introducing flts again. As is true of most intnl tix, you get best economy rates via ethnic travel agents that specialize in this region. Make sure you ask for fares that earn FF miles otherwise most of the low fares offered are deep discount consolidator fares (unpublished and therefore do not earn miles). For last minute travel, do not use online travel giants but use specialist mom and pops. Reputed TAs operate wherever there are large Indian immigrant groups (New York, Chicago, LA, Bay Area, Boston, Houston, etc.). They usually advertise in the Sunday travel sections and ethnic magazines (India Currents, India Abroad, etc.). For Biz or F fares, your best bet is an RTW fare (originating in Canada and ticketed in Canada). You can alternatively go one-way to India and find better fares from there (assuming you travel to India regularly).
It is usually a waste to search on Travelocity or Expedia directly for Point to Point fares in the last minute. If you are looking for West Coast fares, try multi-city search on OW carriers via LHR or HKG or SIN. BA will show much better rates if you look for SFO-LHR, LHR-BOM/DEL rather than SFO-BOM/DEL.
AA now has a codeshare flt (Swiss) into DEL via ZRH. Fares are high on their codeshare but fares directly from Swiss (via specialist travel agents) are much better. You can get mileage earning economy fares on CX or BA for about $1200 from the US West Coast and $900 from East Coast.
You can easily become an AA Gold and even AA Platinum using the Gold and Platinum challenges while travelling to India (check www.fewmiles.net (http://www.fewmiles.net) for details on the challenge). In premium class you get the needed q-points in one trip. Make sure you fly AA to LHR, and then BA to India or CX on appropriate fare that earns q-pts.
If you originate travel in India you can get a lot of BA tier points by purchasing a $4K 3 continent DONEW3 or a slightly more expensive 4 and 5 continent ticketes. Look for ideas in the OneWorld bulleting board. A sample route is BOM-HKG-CMB -HKG-LHR-DXB -LHR-MAD-LHR-SFO, -NYC-DFW-yyy- zzz-xxx-NYC-HKG-BOM. Note that HKG-BOM/CMB is not daily so you have to tweak the schedules. OneWorld does not restrict multiple stop overs in the same city and allows backtracking within a continent - neat features that can help you in many routings.
BA has the most flts out of India of all OW partners - They fly out of BOM (daily), DEL (daily), MAA (select days a week), Calcutta (select days a week). Service is on a 747 on all routes except a 777 service to Calcutta. I believe there is now Economy Plus service on all BA routes to India (I have only flown biz or F in the last one year) so you have 4 class service. Economy on BA (which I did fly a little while ago) is often crowded (booked full to MAA) and they are very strict about the weight of carryons. There are far too many seniors and wheel chairs so do not expect any special attention. BA is good about helping parents travelling with kids.
Star Alliance
--------------
Star RTW rates in Biz/F from India are competitive with OneWorld. They are mileage based as opposed to the choice of mileage based/continent model of OW. Also, Star limits multiple stopovers. If you are loyal to Star network they do have good service to India through SQ, LH, UA (currently on LH codeshares and in the past on their own metal), Thai, etc. SQ has been developing the Indian market aggressively over the years. With their 49% stake in Virgin and codeshares with Air India (AI?) and linkages with Indian Airlines (IC) they service the Indian market very well.
SkyTeam
--------
They are very focused on growing the Indian market. Some of the senior corporate leaders of Delta and AF have been visiting India to develop this market. They have service through CDG (DL has its code shares on all AF flts).
Award Travel
------------
Peak travel season is summer (June-Aug) and Dec/Jan travel. Need to book well in advance.
BA has good award travel to India. They have better availability to their own EC members than to OW partners. For example, as an AA EXP I did not have any availability in Aug 2002 for any class of service to India via BA (with 1 week notice) whereas with BA Gold, I pretty much had availability on all classes on all days (had to choose DEL over BOM or MAA).
NW/KLM has decent award travel to India. They fly to BOM/DEL.
Other Airlines
---------------
Virgin flies a few times a week from LHR-India (using Air India's rights) and has been fighting with the Indian govt to increase its frequency at better code share terms (currently they give about 50 or so free seats on each flt to Air India to sell under Air India's flt numbers).
Emerites has been increasing their foot print in India through direct flts beyond BOM and DEL. Their partner Srilanka Airlines allows them to collect some BLR-LHR traffice as well. They do not have service to North America from India yet but expect to start this early 2003.
Air India is planning to increase its flts to North America and Europe (via Paris and Frankfurt and LHR if things work out). They are looking to lease additional equipment to service these markets again after abandoning them during a recent restructuring. They have 2 for 1 special in premier class or fullfare economy but that promotion expires soon.