GreenQueen,

If Orbitz is offering 1.2K including Tax from US to India return trip for 8th Dec to 23rd Dec then it's GOOD price (buy it like stock ), If it's for, before 8th Dec and after 23rd Dec then it's OK price. For IAD to BOM, there is couple of airlines in competition.

To get best price, try to avoid travel during 8th Dec. to 23rd Dec. All airlines has highest price during this time and if you want to predict on how low it will go (approx) then compare 16th Jun to 4th July period price range. Crossing 7th Dec to 8th Dec or 23rd Dec to 24th Dec, makes $350 to $400 price difference.

Reply on other questions depends on which airports you are asking. For example, some airlines go to some airports only and some not so lowest price airline for one destination, may not work in universal theory. But if I speak overall, then Air-India's business tactics is to run behind other airlines by publishing sale price. First they publish regular price and when they see other airlines lower price, they publish sale price to override regular price. Delhi Sale fare was in competition with Continental, they extended 11th May promotion up to 25th May to stay in competition with Air France and Lufthansa. So, we can not predict for any specific airlines for the future, we can talk about present. In past thread most of people have asked for future months price, to provide them better answer in the future I have started to build a database to archive prices so I hope after one year I will have better data to track down airlines price movement analysis. Sensia has posted time frame in his first post but I want to go in depth because (1) this database is byproduct for our other work and (2) I feel bad when we issue tickets and then price get lower.

GreenQueen, if you are correcting your question to include airport, then please do not post new message, update your post, I will update mine.

samineni3 said:Hi PatelfromIndia

I am planning to go to india in June 1st week and return during june last week (One ticket).

Chicago- Hyderabad or
Detroit -Hyderabad.


Please let me know if you have any deals.
Thanks

Sridhar
Noobs and others, please stop this type of posts. If you really need a serious quote, CALL patelfrmindia; his contact number is right in the first page under "mudra travels". Otherwise leave it limited to private messages. However, as I said before, you can always add quality to this thread by adding your actual paid price for the trip and trip dates.

PatelFromIndia said:singforthemoment,

Do I need to get a travel agent even for such a straightforward route?
Buying tickets from travel agent gives 2 benefit, (1) After you book your seat, you can have 3 days to think on it and to confirm your leave from work and then you pay. (2) Most of time, travel agent can get you ticket cheaper then what you get from online (Sometime this does not work out, if airline has not released (updated) their price change to agent's booking system).

I'm a poor undergrad !!
Can you find me atleast one rich customer ? I understand what you are saying but, we all are in same boat. My theory is, spend time, earn knowledge, become rich with knowledge, invest (or use) your knowledge and save money (or earn money). Saving a penny is same as earning a penny, But at one point, you need to look back and control on how much time you are spending to save how much?

Wise advise. Spending half hour research to save $2 ... just shows the hieght of stupidity in some cases. Well my statement is out of context and nothing to do with transation discussion

VA1234,
Remember those days when you came to USA and you purchased ticket in India. When you had purchased ticket in India, you must have provided copy of your visa (or passport) to your agent in India. Rules are different in India to issue a ticket. If you spoke with NWA representative who is from USA, may not have idea about this process in India. Did you inform rep. that your parents are Indian citizens and coming here based on immigration? Even you buy tickets in USA for your parents, once they receive tickets in India; they will have to visit airlines office in India to get stamp by showing their visa or passport.

I do not know how they handle this with e-tickets now, but when we issue Air-India ticket from USA for journey starting from India (very rare case) we use PTA (Prepaid Ticket Advice) service with airline ($10-$20) and based on this service, we provide reference no. and PNR number to the person who purchased ticket here, purchaser will forward this both numbers to their relative in India, their relative will visit nearest Airlines office in India, will present these two numbers with their passport/visa and they will collect their tickets directly from India. This is time saving process plus also saves money. Because even if you get tickets in your hand here, you will have to send it to your parents in India and after they receive they will have to go to nearest Airlines office to get stamp. (I do not know what this stamp is but let's say stamp.)

Since some time, I wanted to write about PTA feature but I was not getting time. I hope this will help. I do not know how NWA handles this process but please make sure everything with latest. Let me know if I am wrong (or if anything has changed)

Base line: Please buy tickets from India and stay away from any confusion, trouble, conflict, and of course it will save your money more then benefit from credit card. I hope you may have good experience about getting Income Tax clearance certificate (in India) to show it at airport to prove that you are not leaving behind any pending Income tax in India.

VA1234,
First of all, in my post I pointed that your parents are Indian citizen who is traveling abroad on U.S. Immigration. You can not compare your US>India>US travel case with your parents and of course in India, you are NRI, you will be treated differently then your parents.

I am not sure who made that rules originally but motto behind this rule is to prevent leaving India illegally. When a person reach to USA Airport with bogus Visa or illegally, Immigration office (on Airport) sent him back and notify to Indian Authority on other end. Indian Police starts investigation and also includes travel agent in the investigation who issued tickets to them based on "On which bases travel agent had issued tickets”? I hope, now you will understand the whole concept.

Please note that my intense is not to confuse you, but I am mentioning all these points to make sure that when you buy tickets from USA for your Indian citizen parents, your process fulfills all requirements to stay away from last minute issues.

Income Tax matter does not have any concern with your tickets but I mentioned here to point you that getting Income Tax Clearance Certificate is also one task to deal when person immigrate to USA. A person in India does not know about this requirement in detail till they contact travel agent in India, when you buy tickets from agent in India, most of time, he helps or take care of other need, which help as bonus service. If your father paid Income Tax in India then they MAY BE asked for Income Tax clearance certificate at the airport during their departure. Cost of this Certificate may be 50Rs but when they ask at the airport and if they don't have it then it may cost him 1200Rs.

Only those needed certificate who paid Income Tax. Students, Farmers, Fresh graduate, Unemployed person (like housewife) also do not required as they do not pay Income Tax. It does not fit in my mind that how officers at airport finds your past connection with Income tax office as they are not connected live with Income tax office, I see it only as a last chance to make money before you leave India. Staying in touch with local travel agent helps to collect latest information, atleast he can point you where to go locally for what.

I booked a ticket from my local travel agent and she got me a decent fare. But she insists that British Airways doesn't take credit cards. I remember paying with my credit card the last time i bought my ticket at another agent for BA flight about 2 yrs back without paying any surcharge.

I can't believe that BA wouldn't take CC. Is my travel agent trying to save on the CC transaction charge for herself?

Btw, can anyone please recommend a good travel agent/consolidator in NJ/NY other than the ones on Oak Tree Road?

I don't know, but my friend also took the advantage while he was flying from EWR to HYD. Only drawback is, you are stuck in malayasia for a day. If time is money, you wud rather avoid that. I heard their service is pretty good.
Getafix, did you bother to look at teh OP? The answer is there and you can always try our FW travel buddy patelfromindia.

I donot care about wasting a day or so. In fact I won't mind a 2 day halt at Malaysia.

sensia said:I don't know, but my friend also took the advantage while he was flying from EWR to HYD. Only drawback is, you are stuck in malayasia for a day. If time is money, you wud rather avoid that. I heard their service is pretty good.
Getafix, did you bother to look at teh OP? The answer is there and you can always try our FW travel buddy patelfromindia.

PatelFromIndia said:Only those needed certificate who paid Income Tax. Students, Farmers, Fresh graduate, Unemployed person (like housewife) also do not required as they do not pay Income Tax. It does not fit in my mind that how officers at airport finds your past connection with Income tax office as they are not connected live with Income tax office, I see it only as a last chance to make money before you leave India. Staying in touch with local travel agent helps to collect latest information, atleast he can point you where to go locally for what.

Patel,
This is what i got when i bounced what you said to one of my friend. May be things have changed. FYI.


"From what your friend tells you, I'd think its been many years since he last went to India!
E-tickets are very commonly issued and used in India these days, even for International flights. Infact, there are a lot of airlines that only issue E-tickets!
As far as I know, its perfectly okay for your parents to travel on e-tix bought on the Internet in the US; but I'd still recommend you call the NWA's 800 number to clarify this point.

Again, no need for the Income tax clearance at the airport! There used to be this big hoopla about tax clearance documents but that was mainly for people going away to the US for good (I think) and its no longer in effect. Your parents don't need it.

Hope your parents have a safe flight and an enjoyable stay here!"