As has been discussed in a few places - the market for premium seats into and out of India has heated up during this winter season (mid-Dec to Feb). I was looking at availability for 3 tickets in Executive or First classes on Air India either from North America or Europe and have been very confused by the availability info.

The major travel web sites report availability but when you attempt to ticket an itinerary that they show - they complain of a technical problem and abort. Air India's website shows availability going to India after Dec 20th or so (in Executive or First) but shows no availability until second or third week of Jan. Some GDS availability tools show availability but again have the same problem when it come to ticketing or even pricing.

Is the Air India website the authoritative source? Cannot seem to trust Sabre or travel web sites. What about opodo? (they seem to be willing to ticket but I have heard too many horror stories of being denied boarding by AI even in First or Business when a ticket is not issued or directly confirmed by AI or its GSAs).

I was hoping to avoid going through a complicated communication loop with my and AI travel folks in India. Are there any reliable ways of web based access?

Incidentally I find reliable web based access to availability info a problem with a lot of Asian airlines (MH, SQ, CX, etc.) They seem to "block" a lot of seats and release them through consolidators even in J and F.