How to buy cheap airline tickets

AN AIRLINE TICKET for Re 1 can make anyone’s head go tizzy. Forget the ear-to-ear grin and excitement when Air Deccan announced that tickets could be bought for Rs 500, and then SpiceJet offered 30,000 tickets for Rs 99 as a promotional offer. That time, flying for such rates was unheard of and flying for Re 1 unthinkable!

It’s almost as if one is flying for free. Who had thought that the majority of us Indians, long used to our trains and buses to travel from one tip to the other corner of the country, would even start considering flying as a option.

That was reserved for flying on company work, or when one could afford their exorbitant fares, or in a dire state of emergency. But the sudden flurry of new, private low-cost airlines offering abnormally cheap tickets made us sit-up and literally rub our eyes to check that we aren’t imagining the ticket prices.

“Hey! I can buy that ticket,” is what most of us said, while searching for ways and means to get hold of them. The thumb rule to get hold of the cheapest tickets is to be the early bird.

All such tickets are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Air Deccan has approximately four-five seats available on all its flights for Rs 500.

To get hold of them, fill up the flight details by either logging on to their website at www.airdeccan.com, dial their call centres, contact their authorised travel agents, or visit their airport counters.

Once your details are entered, wait for their systems to check if a seat or seats for the lowest price is available. If your stars are on your side, then you’ll be the lucky one to fly for Rs 500.

If planning to fly on their Bangalore-Mumbai or Bangalore- Delhi route, just pray that you enter your flight details at an auspicious moment as Air Deccan has allotted 1,000 seats every month for flights on these two routes for Re 1.

The anticipation while the computer system checks for the cheapest tickets available can make one break out in sweat.

But trying your luck in advance does help, as in the case of Air Deccan for which bookings for the Rs 500 tickets open three months in advance, while the Rs 1 tickets go a month in advance.

Sometimes, though, you could just get lucky in case there’s a cancellation of bookings (even at the last minute). So, another piece of advice — keep trying.

SpiceJet, the other low-cost, no-frills airline, has its promotional Rs 99 tickets fully booked till such booking re-open. Bit, it has a few tickets priced as low as Rs 149, Rs 549, Rs 699, Rs 899 and Rs 999 for all its flights.

Here, again, the sooner you call and give your details, the more likely you are to fly high on low fares. Log on to www.spicejet.com, or try the sales and reservation call centres, authorised travel agents or SpiceJet counters at the airport. Here you can select your seat at the time of booking and avail a Rs 50 discount per ticket if the booking is made through the website.

Want luxury as well as low cost? Then Kingfisher Airlines (it calls itself a value carrier) is a good bet.

With its Kingfisher class offering inflight entertainment with a personal television screen at the back of each seat and all the works, a ticket for Rs 2,999 for the Bangalore-Mumbai leg is being pampered at a good discount. Log on to www.flykingfisher.com, or dial their toll-free number 1600-1800-101.

If you’ve managed a low fare ticket, then add Rs 221 as mandatory airport tax. Payment procedures are all similar. Once the ticket is confirmed, you will be given a passenger name record (PNR) number.

Credit card payments are required if booking is through the website or call centre, else cash payments can be made to the authorised travel agent or at the airline specific counters at the airports. An e-ticket will be sent to your mail id, or you can pick it up later while boarding at the airport counter.

So, be the early bird and remember to be consistent in your attempts. Also, keep your eyes and ears open to airline websites and the media to get hold of the low fares that existing and new airlines like Go Air, Interglobe, Indus Airways, AirOne and EastWest Airlines will offer when they hit the runway some time soon.

Source: Nanditta Chibber - business-standard.com

Europe could withdraw travel warning against Kashmir

The European countries may withdraw the controversial travel advisory issued to their citizens warning them against visiting Jammu and Kashmir in view of the improved situation in the valley and the lead in this regard may come from Italy.

Indication of this change came from Antonio Armellini, the Italian ambassador to India, on the first day of his five-day visit to the valley on Thursday during his interaction with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, according to The Kashmir Times.

The chief minister told the visiting Ambassador that other European Union diplomats had also visited Kashmir and learnt that the valley situation had been improved. Recently, a group of about 12 tourist operators from England had visited Srinagar and acknowledged the improvement in the situation.

Mufti told the Italian ambassador that these operators had also promised to persuade the UK government to lift the adverse travel advisory in view of their first hand impression of the situation.

Armellini showed keen interest in tourism and inquired about the facilities and infrastructure available in the valley. He sought information about the arrival of foreign tourists, especially the Italians.

He told Mufti that Kashmir was “very well known in Italy” and Italians wanted to visit it. He said the improvement in ground situation would positively benefit tourism in Kashmir.

Source: Iftikhar Gilani - dailytimes.com.pk

Resort cities offer free fuel as latest tourist attraction

As prices rise, gasoline giveaways becoming common

PORTLAND, MAINE - Resort towns worried that high gas prices will keep visitors away are offering an incentive: a free tank of gas.

Towns are tapping into motorists' angst over high gas prices during the summer tourism season to offer encouragement to drive a little farther. For some, the promotions have been so successful that they're becoming a summer tradition.

California's Big Bear Lake recently extended its spring promotion — a $25 gas voucher — for the entire summer because it was so successful.

"It's a good incentive, especially considering gas prices in southern California," said Dan Dunning, who lives in Irvine, Calif., 90 miles away.

Such gas giveaways have become an increasingly popular marketing tool as gas prices continue to rise, said Justin McNaull of the American Automobile Association.

Gas prices surged an average of 8 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, with the average for all three grades hitting $2.24 a gallon Friday, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations.

"Gas prices are certainly something that people talk about. Even if high gas prices play a comparatively small part of your overall travel costs, some people perceive them as a much larger factor than they actually are," McNaull said.

Gas giveaways are an effective outreach tool because they show that the tourism industry empathizes with cost-conscious travelers, said Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Association of America in Washington.

In spite of the gas expense, AAA has forecast the July 4th weekend will be the most highly traveled holiday weekend ever, with 40.3 million people traveling more than 50 miles away from home, 84 percent of them by car.

The Travel Industry Association first identified the trend toward free gas cards in 2001, when gas prices were high and the economy was stagnant. Some resorts kept the promotions in place, while others bring them back whenever gas prices spike.

In Bethel, Maine, a "Tanks for the Memories" promotion gives travelers $20 cash for gas for staying with participating innkeepers. In Colorado, Aspen is giving visitors $50 in gas vouchers. In West Virginia, people who booked a visit to Snowshoe Mountain by June 22 were rewarded with $25 in their "Fill Up Your Summer With Fun" promotion.

Bethel, Snowshoe, Aspen and Big Bear Lake are all home to ski resorts, but they'd like to get people to visit in the summer, as well.

Robin Zinchuk of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce said there's more to the town than Maine's Sunday River ski resort. There's also golfing, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and plenty of hiking in the mountains of western Maine.

The gas promotion was designed to grab the attention of travelers headed to Maine's rocky coast and give them a nudge to drive inland, she said.

Resorts aren't the only ones getting into the act. Others include some auto rental chains, hotels.com and BedandBreakfast.com.

Source: DAVID SHARP - Associated Press

Saudia Announces New Regulations

Saudi Arabian Airlines will begin issuing boarding passes 15 days before the travel date at all its offices in the Kingdom. This applies to first and business class seats going to Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm El-Sheikh, Beirut and Europe, except Istanbul, starting from July 1 and continuing until August 20. This is to offer better services to the large numbers of passengers on waiting lists. The new regulation is the result of many travelers not showing up for their flight even after confirming their reservations. The problem becomes particularly acute during the summer. Based on the new regulation, all reservations that have not been confirmed at Saudia offices seven days before the travel date by 6 pm will be automatically canceled. Travelers are also instructed to confirm their return flights at Saudia offices 72 hours before their travel back to the Kingdom. They should also leave a contact number with Saudia offices.

Allow private airlines to operate in Kerala-Gulf sector

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: NORKA-Roots Chairman and former Minister M. M. Hassan has urged the Centre to allow private airlines to operate services in the Kerala-Gulf sector.

Hassan told reporters here on Monday that the entry of private airlines in the sector would force the Air-India to reduce the tariff and provide more facilities to passengers.

He said that despite a high tariff, there were widespread complaints about the facilities being provided by the Air-India. There were several instances of flight cancellation by the Air-India owing to technical reasons and of passengers getting off-loaded in the last minute.

He said that the Air-India should operate more flights during the peak season. A memorandum in this regard had been submitted to the authorities, he said. ‘‘Unless the Air-India initiated measures to resolve these issues, the growing resentment among the passengers towards the national career will explode,’’ he said.

Source: newindpress.com

UAE outbound travel survey

Dubai based Market Vision released the first comprehensive report on the UAE outbound travel market today: 64% of UAE travellers travel abroad at least once a year, the majority of them travelling for leisure and visiting friends and family. Over two-thirds travel with family, and one-half stay in four and five star hotels or furnished apartments. On an average they spend 24 nights abroad per trip with an average expenditure per trip of $1,700, higher than the European average of $1,200.

Source: AME Info FZ LLC

online travel shoppers 50% buy from travel agencies, 50% - from airline Web sites

Nielsen//NetRatings reported that while the majority, or 54%, of online travel shoppers begin travel research with an online travel agency, consumers are evenly split between travel agencies and airline Web sites when it comes to the actual purchase of online travel. As far as researching goes, 37% of online travel shoppers begin research at a travel supplier Web site, and 9% begin with a travel meta-search provider.

With nearly 50% of airline ticket sales and reservations conducted exclusively online in the first half of 2005, online airline suppliers have a stronger foothold in conversion. Agencies fared better in drawing visitors to the site for price comparison shopping, destination searches and multi-trip bookings.

Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Delta ranked as the three most visited airline Web sites during April 2005. Southwest led with 8.1 mln unique Web surfers, compared to 5.7 mln and 4.9 mln that visited American and Delta, respectively. Southwest converted the most lookers into bookers with a 14% visitor conversion rate, followed by Delta and American with 10 and 9%.

Source: ZDNet

New ferry cruises are launched on canal

A new boat will ferry scores of passengers along the Forth and Clyde canal this summer.
Voyager will carry up to 55 passengers along the canal - recently repened as part of the £84.5million Millennium Link project.
It took Glasgow-based Heritage Engineering about a year to build and is the largest new passenger canal boat to be launched on the canal for 100 years.
An official naming ceremony was performed by East Dunbartonshire MP and Evening Times columnist Jo Swinson.
The ceremony also formed part of the Forth & Clyde Canal

Society's 25th anniversary celebrations.
Guthrie Hutton, of the society, said: "We are thrilled to have revived the type of craft that had virtually disappeared in Scotland.
"It will be an enormous factor in helping to keep the tradition of canal passenger boats alive."

Source: Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited