Budget Travel - Grandma dying need to go to India

Hi guys

My grandma is in hospital and I might have to go to India after October 10th and get back no later than Nov 24th. Lowest price I found was $1079.

Can any of you experienced travelers take a look for me and see if you can find a cheaper deal please?

I will be traveling from TPA to DEL :(

I am hoping that our experienced FT'rs who peruse the Budget Travel Forum can help you. Please follow this thread in the Budget Travel Forum.
Good luck...
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Try calling some TAs, they sometimes have access to good fares, especially last minute. Have them look at Jet Airways in particular.

Good luck.

try piecing it together. tpa to somewhere in europe, africa etc then look for a lcc from one of those places to india.

Lowest price I found was $1079.

That's a pretty good price, especially with booking at the last minute. Be careful about two week advance purchase, as that fare may well be GONE in a hurry.

The only suggestion other than jumping on this fare is to contact local (or perhaps no so local) travel agents that specialize in travel to India - most likely people from that part of the world now living here and selling tickets to people who want to visit home.

EmailKid

Some airlines offer tickets at reduced rates in circumstances such as these, indeed that was the experience of a friend of mine here in Germany who had to get back to the USA rather quickly. Although to get this she had to ask a colleague in her company who specialises in travel to look into it in order to uncover the offer. You could even try calling the airlines directly. If you are from India (which I am assuming you are, but sorry if I have got this wrong) it may be worth giving your embassy a call to see if they can offer any advice as I am sure they will sadly have dealt with similar situations before.

On a separate note I had travel insurance once which covered similar things, therefore if you are on some international long stay scheme with insurance you may find emergency air travel under such circumstances is covered. I once had to do this and Amex booked the flight and paid for it within few hours. The only downside was that it was a one way ticket back, which caused a number of raised eyebrows at Chicago Airport - lets put it this way I was clearly put on some security risk list!

Anyway my thoughts go to you at this time as I know what a rush trip back under similar circumstances can feel like.

uh, if you have AA miles or have a friend that has a ton, see if you can get an award ticket one way at least and then worry about the return ticket later.

i was in a similar situation this summer, my grandpa passed away suddenly and i had to get my mom over to china within 96 hours and I ended up booking a one way award ticket with AA in business and got her to china just hours before the funeral. i happened to be in china at that time so I was already there. calling AA wasn't a big deal, I had internet and skype. Since we didn't know when she would return to the US, and we didn't want to deal with the stress of it at the time, the one way award ticket was really really helpful. Later, after I returned back to the US, I found her another one way award ticket home.

an interesting fact about skype i learned during the whole process, since I had a US skype account, even if I was using it from china, I could call a US number at US domestic rates since skype doesn't care where I'm calling from, only where my account is registered.

If you haven't done so already book the flight and go.

I missed my grandmother's funeral and am regretting it still.

Good news guys

She is well but she came close. Now I have booked a AA ticket from TPA to DEL 1 stop for $1037 round trip. From Dec 3, 2009 to March 23, 2010.

Did I get a good price?

I think you did alright. Not quite the short-lived $555 deal (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-discussion/1001708-fare-gone-ba-us-bom-555-i-y-fare.html), but you'll get to see your Grandmother which is priceless.