India is not a country to go into with your eyes shut. It’s vital to plan ahead. A lot of travellers’ initial problems, especially with regard to health and security, are due to little or no prior preparation. To get the best out of your trip, make sure all your arrangements are airtight.
By Air (International)
It’s usually a good idea to book your flight to India six months or so before departure. This gives you a set date to work towards, and a firm reservation with the airline of your choice. Budget travellers might prefer to leave their booking till much later to take advantage of any last-minute bargains offered by cheap flight specialists.
From the UK
While the standard one-way fare from London to Bombay/Delhi is around £515 (2nd class, economy) and £1641 (1st class), £770 and £2983, respectively, return, shoppingaround can get you reductions of 50% or more. Many cheap bargains are advertised in magazines like Time Out, LAM, TNT and Australasia?? Express, and there are many cut-price travel agencies around Earl’s Court, London. Bear in mind, though, that the cheaper you go the more likely it is that you’ll end up on an Arab or Russian (Aeroflot) service which often makes interminable stopovers to refuel or to dump passengers in the middle of nowhere. It can often be far better to pay a bit extra for a direct flight with Air India or British Airways. Other airlines providing good, regular and reliable services to India include Air France, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Gulf Air, KLM, JAL, Lufthansa, Thai International, Alitalia, Swissair, and Singapore Airlines. Students under 26 should enquire about the generous student discounts offered by some of these airlines, notably Thai International and Singapore Airlines.
Discount Air Travel
Cheaper fares are also available between London and both New Delhi and Bombay on many of these airlines. Restrictions, such as minimum and maximum length of stay often apply. The following offer good deals on flights: Discount Travel, 8 Hogarth Rd, London SW5 (tel 071-835 1484) Flamingo Travel, 24 Wardour St, London WC1 (tel 071-287 0402) Flightbookers, 118 Tottenham Court Rd, London WC1 (tel 071-387 1550) GSA Hindustan Travel, 30 Poland St, London WC1 (tel 071-439 9801) STA Travel, 117 Euston Rd, London NW1 (tel 071-937 9971) Trailfinders, 42-50 Earls Court Rd, London W8 (tel 071-938 3366) Fares offered by these agents vary, according to season and availability, but they range from £380 (low season by Gulf Air), £399 (high season by Alitalia—with stopover in Rome), to £440 (low season by Singapore Airlines) and £525 (high season by British Airways and Air India). High season to India usually denotes the months of July and August, and December and January, but this varies from agent to agent.
From the US
The cheapest round-trip scheduled flights are operated by Air India, at around US$1400 (2nd class), US$2500 (1st class) from New York (the best US base, with daily flights to Bombay, Delhi and Madras, and at least one flight to Calcutta per week).From other places like Chicago and Boston the fare is about US$1900. STA Travel in San Francisco (tel 416 391 8407) offers a return fare to Bombay of about US$1200. To save money, and to get best flight availability, many American travellers fly into New York on cheap internal flights from various other parts of the country. For those on the West Coast, it’s worth checking the travel section in the Sunday edition of the LA Times, where many cheap flights to India are advertised.
While certain travel agents offer discounts if you’re prepared to shop around, it is generally far more difficult to get decent fare concessions in either the US or Australia than it is in the UK. Many American visitors travel to India via London, where cheap flight deals are readily available, or via Bangkok where certain airlines—Singapore, United, Korean and North-west Orient—offer ‘easy fares’ or discounted package rates, especially if flying from New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, the three ‘cheapie’ departure points in the USA (e.g. San Francisco-Bangkok US$535 one-way, US$780 return). Several of them ring Trailfinders 42-50 Earl’s Court Rd, London W8 6EJ (tel 071-938 3366) to pre-book the connecting flight from the UK to India; others use one of the American equivalents of Trailfinders—Adventure Center, 1311 63rd St, Suite 200, Emeryville, CA94608, (tel 510 654 1879; fax 510 654 4200), who specialise in round-the-world itineraries. Also worth looking into are good-value Apex fares, or the popular SIA ‘Inter-Asia’ flights which run in conjunction with several Asianairlines and which offer a wide range of cheap fares in Asia.
From Australia
It is often cheaper to fly to Bombay or Delhi from Darwin or Perth rather than from Sydney. Many Australian travellers get cheap or Apex tickets to Singapore or Bangkok, and fly on to India from there. Jetset, 99 Walker St, North Sydney, N.S.W. (tel 02 956 9333; fax 02 956 9500) offer attractive flight discounts. Possibly the cheapest Australia-India option of all is a flight hop from Perth to Bali, followed by an overland trek up through Southeast Asia.
Several cheap-flight agencies have now sprung up in Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta— offering heavily discounted fares from India to foreign destinations. Very handy, if you’re flying out on a one-way ticket, and wish to carry on to Thailand, Nepal, Hong Kong or Australia.
One warning: if you stay in India over 180 days, you must now obtain income tax clearance. That means that you should regularly change money at banks rather than on the black market in order to have a few encashment certificates to present to the income tax office. Most airlines mark their discounted tickets ‘subject to income tax clearance.
