India - JFK during winter
 

Hi everyone,

My first post here, though I've been a lurker for quite some time ;)

I've looked through earlier threads for the question that I have now, but most answers were pretty dated.

Question is: I want to fly from Bangalore to JFK/EWR mid-dec and return mid-Jan. I would prefer a non-stop flight, but the only decent one is AI that takes off from Delhi. I hear a lot of flights get cancelled/delayed during this time frame (both NY and DEL), so am I better off taking a flight from Bangalore via Middle East? Or is the AI flight prioritized to avoid long delays? In terms of budget, AI works out to be the best. Emirates/Qatar Airways are about 5-6k higher.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I havent flown AI yet but fog will delay it especially around christmas..

welcome to ft zapparani....the fog doesn't begin to set in till the end of december so you should be ok flying out of del in mid december....there may be some delays but their shouldn't be any cancellations....mid jan however is peak fog time in delhi so the chances of delayed/cancelled flights will go up....

have you considered the direct bom-ewr flight????

+1

Or the CO EWR-BOM and EWR-DEL as well.

I'd reccommend AI over CO in Y, J, or F however, because:

1)CO seats in Y are hard enough on a transcon, the flight to india is like asking for back pain.
2)AI is almost always cheaper, and there is no particular advantage of another airline over AI

thanks for the tips Keyser and PVDtoDEL. I looked up the AI191 BOM-EWR flight reviews - seems to be a lot of delays/cancellations and is not as good as the DEL-JFK flight.

PVDtoDEL - I've heard about the CO seats so I'm not keen on that airline.

AI is definitely cheaper, but for about 4k rupees more there is an Etihad flight. Is the extra 4k worth it, in terms of lower chances of delays, etc? Departure from Bangalore will be between Dec 20th - 23rd.

BOM issues are primarily during the Monsoons, in the summer. Things get flooded, weather is crummy, ontime performance sucks, etc.

EWR issues affect afternoon flights year round(and I'm sure you know about the terrible crosswinds).

I'd fly EWR-BOM on AI to be honest. I wouldn't be able to justify spending more to not fly through BOM in the winter - your chances of delays should be low.

AI operates EWR-BOM with their newish 777s, so MX problems are rare...

Note with BOM - make sure you book with AI all the way through to BLR on the middle of the night Air India flight - transfering to another airline at BOM means you have to trek it out to the domestic terminal, which is a bit of a headache.

I haven't flown on the AI DEL - JFK flight, but my family and friends have traveled AI and seem to be satisfied with it. One main advantage is the timings - you leave and arrive at sane hours.

I have flown Etihad and I like it a lot. The service may be on/off sometimes, but I haven't found major problems with it. But, please do note that if you're flying EY, you'll be landing around 2pm at JFK as opposed to AI's 7am arrival.