I am seeing 1400s for Christmas time travel. Yeah that is not pricey by EK standards but it is for AI. Last two years I traveled ORD-CCU for 1100s during Christmas. Not much but for a student every penny counts :D

$1,100 is definitely a good deal for that time....

at one point, I remember the JFK-CCU tix were $775... of course, I waited too long to buy and ended up paying $1400 for whY

Does anybody know if Air India is going to run promotions to promote these new flights? The old flights have not yet been totally removed from the system.

A quick search from ORD-CCU RT on any day in Dec-Jan shows no connections in the CCU-ORD leg the old connections via FRA for the ORD-CCU leg.

ai promotions are very erratic but my personal opinion is that they will definitely do something to promote a new route....

Had got 2 tickets for friend 3 weeks back.. CCU - JFK return tickets for abt USD 1150 with return leg open ended.. the return ticket was later issued without any fee and in the same class,so basically it became a flexible ticket for the return leg ^
And I learn from this Forum that very few airlines now issue open tickets so this for me seems beneficial if return leg date is not final (specially for personal trips)..

West Coast
 

Timing:

The timing of this flight is perfect for connections in India. I do think , it could leave an hour or 1.5 hours sooner, that will still allow enough time for west coast connectors and reach India sooner for more connections.

The timing from India is 1:00 AM, but I am sure the flight will arrive before time, if it leaves India on time. The AA scheduled time is 12:55 AM departure and arrival at 4:50 AM. Just wondering as to how is AA catching up 1 hour.

Fares & Market:

The fares are a steal in executive class. One way fare for PNQ-DEL-ORD is $1945 and rountrip at $3650. With integration of IC and AI, AI should be able to tap better traffic within India with its connections to Indian cities from Delhi as compared to AA. AA has an advantage to tap more traffic within US with connections to west coast and south.

Once AI joins Star alliance, it could codeshare with United to attract more connections within US , AA does the same with Jet Airways or Kingfisher in India.

AA will have advantage of attracting its frequent fliers as it can upgrade them or they continue to earn miles, AI will attract UA customers although a bit in smaller number compared to AAs frequent fliers.

Planes:

With the product being so new and one of the best in the markets & preference of non stop route over one stop in europe, AI is destined for success if they don't screw up things like before. I am very excited about AI executive class flat bed over any other carrier, say , LH, AF or for that matter even AA. I see this as a death nail for EU carriers flying their old birds to India and still attracting enough Indian passengers in return.

Effects:
With AIs non stop service into JFK and EWR (commencing shortly from BOM), I could see that CO brought down its Business first fares from EWR to 4100 USD, connecting from Seattle. Used to be $6K or $7K before. There will be price pressure on AA for this.

No doubt the service will run to capacity, provided AI doesnt screw up service due to lax maintenance or our "ministers" dont misuse this for personal agenda. The planes are new with AVOD and good food.

I am excited about this service, I dont have many miles to pay AA for upgrade and instead of flying $1470 from seattle to del one way on AA, I am going to fly $2600 on AI in executive.

what's a good site/ TA for consolidator business class fares from/ to BOM??

tried yatra.com and makemytrip.com

are you looking for a site to book the tickets online or to talk with a ta????if you are looking for the later then let me know & i can send you the contact details of a good ta....

Both. Please PM me

Thanks!

AI has jacked up the prices on the non-stop to match AA fares. Now budget travelers have little choice.

sent....

Check this site for fares/schedule

http://matrix1.itasoftware.com/cvg/d...481A43581D31C6

Thank god they're moving out of Frankfurt (IMO a discriminatory, r**ist hellhole of an airport).:td:

With the range of the 772s that AI is taking delivery on (and I've heard it said AI is lining up for the 787 Dreamliners as well), the utility of a "European hub" seems to be dropping fast.

Now, if I could only figure out why 9W insists on using Brussels as a hub (aside from the fact that it is not a high-traffic hub)...

Nothing at all wrong with FRA. I've transited it several times and so have various others on this forum. What is your point?

And has it occured to you that BRU is as good a transit point as any for traffic that's primarily india to US .. and is far cheaper than FRA or CDG?