Flights to India over Christmas
 

We are planning a trip to India over the Christmas holiday this year. Flights are hovering around $2,000 right now (yikes!), and if they go up anymore we won't be going. Are we better off buying tickets now or waiting a few months? I'm sure flying anywhere in the world during the last two weeks of December is going to be expensive. I know it's a total gamble and there is no science to it, but I welcome any thoughts/opinions.

I think it's too early for December. Hold off a few months. I bought for my Christmas trip last May or so and wound up paying too much :)

I think you should wait for sometime, a month or two, then book the tickets, it is too early to book tickets now.

Cheers.

I agree that is probably way too early to book a Christmastime ticket to India.

If I were you, I might talk to a travel agent who specializes in travel to India. There are some companies in New York because they may have a general sense of when prices generally go up or down. They also may by blocks of cheaper tickets because they know they can sell them.

You don't tell us your dates and/or cities. To get a sense, I just looked on expedia for a ticket from Boston to Mumbai on Dec 15, returning Dec 31. Fare was $1111 and travel time was reasonable. If you can find a fare like that and the connections work for you, I might consider snagging it but even if you do, you are at the mercy of the airlines with regard to schedule changes. I would keep checking.

Sorry, I should have provided more info. For the simplest trip, we'd be flying from Atlanta to Delhi. Lowest fare I can find right now for that route is around $2,100 on AA.

Ideally, though, we want to do a multi-city ticket where we go ATL -> DELHI on 12/18, BANGALORE -> PARIS around 12/28 and PARIS -> ATL around 1/1. Believe it or not, this route was "only" $1,900 on Friday (on Air France) and jumped to $2,400 by Monday morning so I was kinda kicking myself for not jumping on it right away.

I will try to be patient and I like the idea of checking with a travel agent. Thanks for the input!

I would keep an eye on Air France, especially to Bangalore since they offer a one-stop option to B'lore and, IME, are often among the cheapest to B'lore without having to stop in Bombay or Delhi.

Travelling on either NYE or New Year's day may lower your price options as well.

When my brother and I were still in school, my father used to rely on Suma Travels in NYC to get good deals for peak travel times (i.e. Xmas vacation, summer). http://sumatravel.com/
They had the cheapest fares out of NYC (dunno about Atlanta, etc). - even better than calling the airline direct. Now that my parents no longer have to go during school vacation, they always fly after January 15, when the airfares drop, so they haven't used Suma in a while (now, they use me).

Have you looked at Air India? They do not serve Atlanta; however, they do serve, New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC. They do serve Paris.....

So...I am topping this because we are pushing our trip up to August instead of December now. The cheapest (and best) route is $1,480 from Atlanta -> Delhi roundtrip (through Chicago on AA). Should we buy now or wait? My dad says wait, and I say BUY!

Have you checked for travel agencies specializing in Indian ex-pats in your area? I live in NC and we have a sizable south Asian community - surely Atlanta does also.